ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[Smithy789]

Here's a different solution to the problem of squeezing points out of ATO payments.
I have a "Venture" credit card with US-based Capital One.
Capital One don't charge a fee for overseas transactions, (unlike most Australian-based credit cards which charge up to 3%).
Capical One also reward each (US$) dollar spent with 2 "miles", including expenditure with the ATO.
Those miles convert directly into a dollar value (100 miles = 100cents). That value can then be applied / offset against any *travel-related* expenditure that appears on my credit card (e.g. flights, taxis, car rental, AirBnB etc).
So I can pay my ATO income tax bill, receive 2 miles for each USD$ spent, and then apply the miles to any travel related expenditure.
Effectively it's a straight 2% return, less the (tax-deductible) charge imposed by the ATO on paying the income tax bill with visa.
Obviously, this system only works for people with a US-credit card, and to get one of those you usually need a US social security number.
Is anyone else doing this? Does anyone else have a better lurk than this?

 

[albyd]

I've been using the Citi ThankYou Premier card - was able to get it without a SSN as an Australian resident. You get one point for $US convertible at 1:1 into airline miles with a long list of airlines (including Qantas: shock).
Haven't been able to get my limit increased as I don't have a SSN and therefore no FICO score (equivalent to Veda here). Have to split my payments up but can't look a gift horse in the mouth after all they did approve me for it. Will try in person at a branch next time I'm in the US (hopefully the $A won't be too much lower - we'll find out on Monday if we're getting a downgrade from AAA for xmas).

 

[amaroo]

What a beauty of a thread!

Today was a start of another ATO booking with 4 x seats to London via HKG ... will need to wait a while to push the journey onto JFK, then Mexico, coming home via Santiago, Dallas, LA or San Fran - love the game!

 

[cove]

One of the big advantages of earning frequent flyer points and miles is the opportunity to get a big uplift between the cost and the "retail value". I think of this as providing a "wholesale cost" for all of your travel.

 

[Duffa]

A lot of cards don't pay for Bpay bill payments. Does postbillpay fall into that category?

Citi don't give points for BPay but DO on PostBillPay

 

[Katie]

Well, boy, this is taking some commitment to pay this bill and maximise points.
I did get some VPay cards at HN, but with no kick back, and at $298.39 paid off the bill per card, it's mighty time consuming.

Waiting for my shiny new BankWest card to arrive.
Have loaded some money on QF Cash card, made one payment, now any other payments are declined.

Cripes!

 

[drsmithy]

What about Vpay's?

You will earn points for purchasing these from Harvey Norman no matter which card you use to purchase them.

I used Vpay's to pay a recent tax bill.

You might struggle to get VPAYs at the moment - a $100 cashback for $300 spend at HN on AMEXes has seen lots of people taking advantages and most HNs refusing to sell VPAYs because of it.

 

[andye]

I've seen vpays at my local BP. Unfortunately they don't trigger VFF points but you might be able to make use of Platinum Edge bonus points +/- local champion

 

[cove]

Who to use to pay the ATO this month? I have quarterlies as well but they are due at the end of February.

 

[Walter_Plinge]

Who to use to pay the ATO this month? I have quarterlies as well but they are due at the end of February.

I used Qantas Cash but I haven't received a statement to check for points as yet. At the first attempt it was declined "debit cards not accepted". I tried again next day and it went through OK.

 

[cove]

We used 2 commas worth of points and miles recently so I think I will go Westpac KF Amex to rebuild the depleted Miles accounts. I went away for a few days and the ATO didn't lose our files so invoices all arrived.

 

[coles525]

Credit Cards that earn points with ATO tax payments - Point Hacks Guide

Looks like St George and Bankwest cards are the only remaining ones.

Westpac altitude platinum wouldn't still earn ATO points would they?

 

[cove]

I think WBC Altitude Amex runs at 0.75 points/Miles so they are costing just under 2 cents each. This is expensive so I don't use that Altitude Black card for ATO. The WBC Amex Kris Flyer runs at 1.25 per dollar but is no longer issued to new applicants.

 

[coles525]

Not fussed on points earnt/value.

Just need to spend some bills to get 50k signup bonus.

- rates
- tax

Should just get me over the spending

 

[cove]

That should work.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

I used Qantas Cash but I haven't received a statement to check for points as yet. At the first attempt it was declined "debit cards not accepted". I tried again next day and it went through OK.

'
Thats what I used and it works

 

[Kangol]

Westpac altitude platinum wouldn't still earn ATO points would they?

https://www.westpac.com.au/content/...credit-cards/Altitude_Rewards_Terms_and_1.pdf

Page 24. Yes, but only on Amex and 0.5 QFF points per dollar. Maybe not the best value for some...

 

[coles525]

Screenshot of the provided link

 

[cove]

Capped points earning cards are a curse. I don't have any now for ATO use as I moved from Bankwest Platinum to World a little while ago.

 

[Ny770]

Capped points earning cards are a curse. I don't have any now for ATO use as I moved from Bankwest Platinum to World a little while ago.

Do you think that the bankwest world will pull ATO spend soon? worth even applying for it now? what is the c/point rate on the Bankwest World?
cheers