ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[sumthinfornuthin]

Terrible news received this am from my accountant....wanted to know which bank account to direct the tax refund to,,,,!:shock:

If it is such a big problem give him mine and I will give you the points...you are a 4th cousin are'nt you ?? so should not be a problem unless it is over $ 100 K

 

[Jack_OC]

That's annoying.

Everywhere you look, Citi has been enhancing their products - but the annual fee remains the same !

I am sure most (if not all) of us has some forms for insurance payments.

This will throw a spanner into the planning.

Wish there is another entrant offering VISA-linked KF / Asia miles. That will kill off Citibank products for sure.

Where is "market competition" ?

The worse Citi gets, the better Altitude Black starts to look.

ATO points: 1.5 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
Insurance providers that accept Amex: 1.5 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
Insurance providers that don't accept Amex: 0.625 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
General retail transactions where Amex is accepted:1.5 pts per $ with Black, 1.33 with Select

So all Select has going for it now is:
General retail transactions where Amex is not accepted: 0.625 pts per $ with Black, 1.33 with Select
Overseas transactions: 1.5 pts per $ with Black, 3.33 with Select

As before everyone needs to do their own calculations though, it will probably still make sense for some people.

 

[DaveB]

All depends on how far they go sticking to the Select terms and conditions. Card definitely not worth it for personal spend only.
Not putting the card more than $10K in credit is onerous but booking flights to Copenhagen over the weekend made the pain more than bearable.

 

[cove]

I get my share of the BAS figure around 6 days before it is due to be paid each month. As a result of this I start paying early before my share is known so the last couple of days is not a mad rush.
Copenhagen is always a lovely place and well worth using points to get there.
I think I have finished the quarterlies so it's the BAS and then September should be all done and dusted by October 21st.

 

[KLN]

similar to me Cove. have put the Altitude card to $0.00, then have pre-loaded the exact amount of the BAS/Sept PAYG, then i do the ATO transaction. will keep the 2 X personal PAYG's and the SMSF PAYG until the 27th. new CC cycle starts on the 26th. cranked up a shed load this quarter. down by 1 PAYG though, was devasted when elderly MIL went to aged care home and doesn't have to pay quarterly PAYG anymore. am loving the Altitude Black AMEX

 

[legroom]

Altitude Black	Citi Select
$395 p.a.	$700 p.a.
2x Priority Passes p.a.	Unlimited PP Card
20,000 KF miles sign-up bonus	40,000 KF miles sign up bonus

I would add something else into the mix:

At the price of 4c (US) / KF mile (SQ top up price), that's a $800 sign up bonus in favour of Citi Select.

I doubt if anyone frequenting AFF would need the PP card - except the odd occasions * which tip the scale towards Altitude Black.

sigh..... wish it could be simpler to decide.



*: e.g. arriving in London on SQ F using the Air Canada Arrivals Lounge for shower

The worse Citi gets, the better Altitude Black starts to look.

ATO points: 1.5 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
Insurance providers that accept Amex: 1.5 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
Insurance providers that don't accept Amex: 0.625 pts per $ with Black; zero with Select
General retail transactions where Amex is accepted:1.5 pts per $ with Black, 1.33 with Select

So all Select has going for it now is:
General retail transactions where Amex is not accepted: 0.625 pts per $ with Black, 1.33 with Select
Overseas transactions: 1.5 pts per $ with Black, 3.33 with Select

As before everyone needs to do their own calculations though, it will probably still make sense for some people.

 

[Korda]

Does anyone know if Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card gives points for ATO transactions? The cards are issued by Citibank so I am wary!

Does anyone know if HSBC Platinum Qantas Credit Card gives points for ATO transactions? They also issue the Woolworths card so I think they may.

 

[Deleted User]

Does anyone know if Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card gives points for ATO transactions? The cards are issued by Citibank so I am wary!

Does anyone know if HSBC Platinum Qantas Credit Card gives points for ATO transactions? They also issue the Woolworths card so I think they may.

WOW edr credit card certainly does... just be careful if putting ~15k a month on it otherwise theyll cancel it on you... would be also interested to know if the standard hsbc plat card awarded points on these transactions

 

[cove]

Korda Citibank don't want to pay points on any of their cards for ATO.
The Qantas Citi Select got missed by Citi but that probably has stopped now (probably a mistake in their settings).

 

[wafliron]

Had a bit of a situation crop-up today while paying some PAYG, and I'm looking for some advice:

Due to a miscalculation, I'd loaded the CC I was using with enough funds to cover the actual tax being charged to it, but not the CC surcharge (as most of you know, these are charged as two separate transactions). e.g., $1000 tax being paid on an Amex, meaning $1000 tax payment + $14.50 CC surcharge, and the card had $1005 available funds.

When the transaction was submitted via the ATO payment portal it returned a "payment declined" message. However, checking the card via online banking showed that the "tax payment" charge had been processed - it was too soon for the actual detail to show up, but following the previous example, the available funds on the card had dropped to $5.

We spoke to the ATO, who said they don't do any pre-authorisation of CC charges (and hence implying the tax payment really was charged, and not just authorised), but couldn't shed any light on what happens in this situation. Their suggestion was to call the card issuing bank, which I'm obviously not keen to do (and probably wouldn't help anything anyway).

Has anyone run into this issue before, and if so, can you shed any light on what will happen from here?

 

[ozkid]

WOW edr credit card certainly does... just be careful if putting ~15k a month on it otherwise theyll cancel it on you... would be also interested to know if the standard hsbc plat card awarded points on these transactions

Yes HSBC coughed up the points nicely

 

[cove]

Wafliron that is a first. Maybe do nothing as it may take the ATO 6 months to figure you scored a free ride on them.
Points for no charge from them is a very good concept and I think you are the very first but other posters may prove that to be incorrect.
As for kpc that was shocking news from your accountant.
I was adjusting my quarterly taxes down as the fiscal fiend wanted me to pay down the national debt pretty much single handed and I thought I should keep a couple of dollars for my $2.50 train rides in Sydney this next week.

 

[KLN]

Terrible news received this am from my accountant....wanted to know which bank account to direct the tax refund to,,,,!:shock:

just don't tell them you're CC numbers, just give them another account, anything will do. they even send back a cheque if necessary, even if you have overpaid on the CC. had a punt on the gigi's today, couldn't help myself, had paid the BAS/PAYG 2 weeks early, approx 171,000 Alt Black points..............Taxmeifyoucan..............it came last...hehehe
will do all the personals in a fornight's time

 

[cj0325]

Korda Citibank don't want to pay points on any of their cards for ATO.
The Qantas Citi Select got missed by Citi but that probably has stopped now (probably a mistake in their settings).

The Qantas Citi select got missed? Am I the only one on here who "missed" that "miss"? I was of the understanding that all Citi cards were dead from 1 April. Cove, can you elaborate on "probably has stopped now"?

 

[cove]

Points were paid by Citi on the Qantas card for ATO after April 1st but not on my Card which is the one for Kris and other miles.

 

[Deleted User]

PAYG & GST time again... I think I'm going to use my "everyday" credit card for the lower surcharge this month... Still living the dream Cove, see you next month unless you are tempted by SQ suites again

 

[cove]

Went to Adelaide for 50 minutes then went back to Sydney for the afternoon in the smokey haze. It reminds me of China on a good day in Shanghai.
Was given a Qantas 50% increase in status credits so with a spare Sunday I went up and had a view of some of the fires in the hills.
I sure hope they apprehend all the fire lighters.
I have finished all the taxes so it was dinner at the IC with a fellow AFFer.
I unloaded a Westpac points warehouse into Velocity points to get the 15% bonus. That saving made the Westpac Amex points cost about 0.82 cents so if I can use them at a 5 times uplift to retail value you can imagine my smile.
It is all ok in my Frequent Flyer land in October and I will try not to run away from a dinner engagement Shintaro10x.

 

[wafliron]

Wafliron that is a first. Maybe do nothing as it may take the ATO 6 months to figure you scored a free ride on them.

That's assuming the payment gets through to them / is processed properly and shows up as a payment on the ATO account! I'm assuming it won't, CC charge will probably be reversed at some stage - just hoping that doesn't take too long.

 

[Gareth]

Cove, is with interest to note you paid using the Westpac Amex (1.45% fee as of 1 Aug12) rather than the MC/Visa (0.42% fee as of 1st Sept13) - even tho you get 3pts to 1.25pts wise the fees are more right?
So is it really worth it - sure you get 2.4 times more points, but your fees are more - (0.19% more). Do you think you can get lots of value from these points? Or have I got the Math wrong?

 

[cove]

If you get too many points you will learn to use them. There is no right answer but I still get a kick out of points that cost zero,0.29,0.33,0.42,0.70,0.82 and 0.97 cents each.
Just try to never run out of travel points so the world is your oyster.
If everything goes well in the next year I will be flying a bit more so there may be an increase in points used to stop them building up.
Right now I am a bit short on producing Qantas points but my wife has cards that are working nicely.