ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[serfty]

A bit of a timeline ...

Card Surcharges were introduced in 2003. The Reserve Bank of Australia allowed merchants to start adding surcharges to lower transaction fees.

Tax Payments by credit card came in in 2009.

In 2016 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) banned excessive surcharges that charged more than the actual cost of processing.

In 2024 it was noted that payment processors could and were supplying services to businesses at a surcharge (for example of 2.6%) which could legally be passed directly on to customers with the business receiving rewards (e.g. 1 point per $ charged).

By the end of this year, taxes will no longer be able to be paid by credit card.

So it has only been 17 years that tax payments have been able to be paid by credit cards.

It seems government policy is that collecting taxes by credit card is fine as long as the entity paying the tax directly covers the cost of such payment. Without the ability to surcharge this policy cannot be followed.

 

[Doctore1003]

I don’t understand all the drama. There are plenty of payment processors out there that businesses can use to pay the ATO with a CC!

 

[albyd]

I know I’m talking my own book but I think that the cost is small compared to ensuring we all pay our taxes and ensuring enforcement costs are kept to a minimum? There's a cost to be bourne in enforcement - even if you get judges to order costs against defendants, costs aren't what was incurred. Yes, it's punitive but they're not 100%. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Duffa]

Just wanting to confirm with people here. At present it's still possible to pay the ATO with credit card and it will incur no surcharge? Have a family member going after a nice fat amex sign on bonus and has enough tax to pay to knock out the minimum spend.

Would that work or does anybody see an issue?

There is a 2 month window for all ATO payments, surcharge free, before they stop accepting credit cards.
Just make sure the card earns points for ATO spend.
At my last look, Amex is 0.5 per dollar

 

[Duffa]

I don’t understand all the drama. There are plenty of payment processors out there that businesses can use to pay the ATO with a CC!

Yes, at 2% per point or worse. Which isn't far off revenue fares.

 

[burmans]

I don’t understand all the drama. There are plenty of payment processors out there that businesses can use to pay the ATO with a CC!

Totally agree, and I read somewhere that only around 3% of payments were made by CC anyway! Ignoring that we currently do have a window of opportunity I was surprised that it was even that high given the advantages of using a CC are (with some minor exceptions) long gone.

 

[kpc]

Wonder whether we can still use GCs to pay ATO (by phone) post Nov 30...I suspect not

 

[Doctore1003]

I don’t understand all the drama. There are plenty of payment processors out there that businesses can use to pay the ATO with a CC!

Yes, at 2% per point or worse. Which isn't far off revenue fares.

I’m referring to all the complaints about how businesses need to use CCs to manage cash flow.

If you need to pay the ATO with a CC for that purpose, then cop the 2% fee. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to absorb the cost!