ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

Korda you may want to look at payroll tax,land tax and company taxes as items that will make it less of a one shot deal. If you are in the Eastern states some or all of these may be applicable.
Qantas points are great for domestic J travel but less so for international as Qantas are now just a bit player in international compared with others.
Virgin has availability on both domestic and international flights in various classes so their system of cards to earn points would include payroll tax and land tax but not ATO through Citibank. Virgin has lower fees to get a ticket to go anywhere.
Citibank is not to be totally trusted with warehousing points as they can quickly change the redemption rate to hurt your plans.
I remain a fan of Westpac even though it is more expensive and only earns 0.625 points on the Black MasterCards you can get points from the ATO for 1.6 times 0.42 which is higher than your target but pretty much unlimited. So that gets you points at 0.672 and currently you can score a double 15% conversion saving on both transferring and redeeming into Velocity this month. That of course saves you and brings the point cost down during the current double promo to about 0.46 cents I think.

 

[amaroo]

Qantas points are great for domestic J travel but less so for international as Qantas are now just a bit player in international compared with others.
.

Correct in regards to QF. However, the OW alliance will see you catching flights all over the world.

If you are a heavy Dom flyer with an endless source of points (thanks ATO)
it can be rewarding.

 

[wafliron]

If using a personal credit card, please remember that when you applied for the said card you provided them with your current taxable income, hence if you proceed to spend significantly more than this throughout the year, or even worse "more than your declared taxable income" on a month by month basis, you are going to get found out pretty quickly and will be churning through cards which may have a detrimental effect on your credit rating / score

This is completely logical... but in my experience none of the major CC issuers operate using much logic I do the former for every single one of my cards every year, and the latter on most of my cards on a semi-regular basis, and not one of the CC issuers has ever blinked an eyelid (at me personally) :!::shock:

Pretty sure it will trigger the bank's AML flags...

AML:Anti Money Laundering for those playing at home...

Similar to my above comment - I've often wondered about this, and you'd expect it to, but yet I don't think I've ever heard of a report of AML-related enquiries or action being taken against us CC-churners. I guess technically the WOWEDR card shutdowns could be AML related (as AML/CTF-related activity by lenders is completely confidential, even from customers involved, IIRC), but I doubt it.

 

[Gareth]

Not sure if this is on topic - or can be pointed to a thread.
But once I get all my Westpac points (via MC and Amex) how best to spend them? Via flights from Westpac site, or transfer to Velocity first (points are halved, -/+ 15% current bonus).
I hear the best value is to upgrade a purchased (with cash) economy flight to business or Business to First - but logistically how do you do this on the Virgin site? (as you can gather I'm a Westpac/Velocity) person.... I gather that Cove sends them to Velocity right? then use them to buy flights or to upgrade flights? How?
Sorry for all the dumb questions.

 

[wafliron]

Not sure if this is on topic - or can be pointed to a thread.
But once I get all my Westpac points (via MC and Amex) how best to spend them? Via flights from Westpac site, or transfer to Velocity first (points are halved, -/+ 15% current bonus).

Definitely not by spending them on flights via the Westpac site - transfer them to Velocity, or one Westpac's other airline partners' frequent flyer programs.

Velocity is your only (easy) option for domestic, but not (overall) your best option for international - for the latter, check out Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer for a good mix of relative simplicity, good award seat availability and decent value (amount of points required for an award flight). Malaysian Airlines and Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles are good options for some routes / cabin classes / etc too. If you want more info on any of these programs, I'd suggest reading (and posting in, if still required) the forums on AFF dedicated to these programs.

I hear the best value is to upgrade a purchased (with cash) economy flight to business or Business to First

This will typically return the best absolute value (cents per point), but requires you to buy the economy fare first - and you often can't upgrade the cheapest economy fares, so it can get pretty (cash) expensive pretty quickly. For personal travel, I think you'll find it's more common to just use points to "buy" a business or first fare - business travel (where the business involved is already paying for the base economy / premium economy / business fare) is likely often a different story.

but logistically how do you do this on the Virgin site? (as you can gather I'm a Westpac/Velocity) person....

I'm not really au fait with the Velocity program, but I think you have to call.

I gather that Cove sends them to Velocity right? then use them to buy flights or to upgrade flights?

Hopefully master cove doesn't mind me briefly answering on his behalf here. He sends points to a variety of programs - he just happened to have mentioned Velocity recently in the thread - and uses them to "buy" (not upgrade - at least not typically) flights.

 

[cove]

I am almost a virgin with Virgin Australia so I am not the one to ask but I have quite a few points in Velocity as a just in case stash if Qantas has dust with domestic flights in Australia. I figure why pay cash to travel coast to coast in business class when points redemption flights are available.
We have had success with BA and Cathay as well as Emirates using Qantas points but SQ for us is a no brainer.
Last night I heard that transferring Westpac Altitude points to Malaysia Air and Velocity can produce some very good results for international flights. Malaysia for say Paris and Velocity for Los Angeles was discussed.
It is always fun to get together with other AFFers because it only takes one thought to produce some winning idea and this week we travelled on Qantas points to work in Sydney.
It is always nice to have finished paying the ATO for the quarter and I don't mind paying them a few days early if it suits me.

 

[diningdecadence]

re AML... next time you're at a branch, try to get them to show you your personal details held. anything over $10k will show as going through an AML check. i believe this is required by law.

 

[PLANT]

Cove when/were you in Sydney this week?
Could have have caught up for that meal deal as here now in CBD... Origin Agm today

 

[legroom]

Hear, hear, hear.....

I transfer Citi points on a monthly basis for that reasons.

They are certified Bas **** on my books with almost weekly enhancements (well, exaggeration there !).

My "free hotel" had now gone. Lucky I got two stays from them (one Paris, one Melbourne)

........Citibank is not to be totally trusted with warehousing points as they can quickly change the redemption rate to hurt your plans.....

 

[mavrick9]

Cross posting this from another thread - Aust Post eParcel CC Pmts

Thought may be of interest to business owners etc - you can now pay your Australia Post account by Amex or M/C at 1.5%.

Remember account terms are only 14days. So if you are buying prepaid envelopes/satchels - it's better to pay Amex over the counter with no %.

Now off to pay the ATO my BAS...

 

[cj0325]

I am almost a virgin with Virgin Australia so I am not the one to ask but I have quite a few points in Velocity as a just in case stash if Qantas has dust with domestic flights in Australia. I figure why pay cash to travel coast to coast in business class when points redemption flights are available.
We have had success with BA and Cathay as well as Emirates using Qantas points but SQ for us is a no brainer.
Last night I heard that transferring Westpac Altitude points to Malaysia Air and Velocity can produce some very good results for international flights. Malaysia for say Paris and Velocity for Los Angeles was discussed.
It is always fun to get together with other AFFers because it only takes one thought to produce some winning idea and this week we travelled on Qantas points to work in Sydney.
It is always nice to have finished paying the ATO for the quarter and I don't mind paying them a few days early if it suits me.

Cove, try Virgin's Business Class "Coast to Coast" service between Perth and either Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne on their A330's and you'll never bother flying Qantas on those routes again. Just make sure it is an A330, they still run a few 737's on those legs - not only do the 737's not have lie flat beds like the A330's but its also a completely different (and lower) level of service.

 

[docjames]

I'm sorry i've trawled this thread so apologies in advance if this is covered previously.

With the CBA Diamond am I better off the MC @ 0.42% or Amex @ 1.45%? Rolls to QFF.

IIRC MC offers 1pt/$ and Amex 3pt/$ but converts at 1:2 to QFF. Seems marginal the difference.

Am I missing something?

(I also have a plat amex edge but not linked to QFF).

 

[angusburns]

Amex $100 x 1.45% = $1.45 for 300 CBA pts = 150 QFF points or 0.96c per point

MCard $100 x 0.42% = $0.42 for 100 CBA pts = 50 QFF points or 0.84c per point


The general rule seems to be, if you need the points, pay with Amex, if you like the points, but don't want to spend a lot pay with Amex.

I am with WBC Altitude Black so I get 1.25 WBC points per $ on MC and 3 WBC points per $ on Amex, so MC is a much better deal.

WBC MC 0.673c/FF pt v Amex 0.966c/FF pt - Amex points cost 45% more than MC ones, but, of course, you get more points.

If I had, say, $100k tax to pay and I have lots of points, I would prefer to pay CC fees of $420 rather than $1,450 of cash now and would receive 125k WBC points, worth 62.5k KrisFlyer points I may use sometime in the future. Amex would get me 150k points for $1,450.

If you need the points to get enough to redeem a flight, and they cost you 0.966c / point with Amex and you can then redeem them for a business class seat for 3-4c per point then you are still ahead.

Hope this helps.

Angus

 

[cove]

Virgin was a fail in late September so I am not racing Mrscove onto another J flight trial in a hurry.
MEL-ADL-PER did not win her over.
My son was very happy with PER-MEL-PER on Virgin in J.

 

[amaroo]

I favour CBA DIA Amex for 1.5x

I'll take the points while I can. Who knows when this ATO perk is going to get the chop chop? ............blow them all on classic F and J (BA/CX) and smile.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

I favour CBA DIA Amex for 1.5x

I'll take the points while I can. Who knows when this ATO perk is going to get the chop chop? ............blow them all on classic F and J (BA/CX) and smile.

I would put money on it not getting the chop

transfer risk from unpaid ATO tax bills to C/Card companies

it is a no brainer for the ATO IMHO

 

[amaroo]

I would put money on it not getting the chop

transfer risk from unpaid ATO tax bills to C/Card companies

it is a no brainer for the ATO IMHO

AMEX didn't like it and cut my favourite Ult card from 1.5x to 0.5x .......thats as good as the chop in my books!

 

[Pukka]

I would put money on it not getting the chop

transfer risk from unpaid ATO tax bills to C/Card companies

it is a no brainer for the ATO IMHO

Agreed but I think it's the cc companies that will give it the chop

 

[Beta4Me]

Agreed but I think it's the cc companies that will give it the chop

It wasn't suggested that the ATO would "chop" it, rather the benefit (of great FF points returns for CC payments to the ATO) might.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

AMEX didn't like it and cut my favourite Ult card from 1.5x to 0.5x .......thats as good as the chop in my books!

Get the WW EDR card ( M/card 1QFF point:$ 1) or get a NAB Amex card 1.5QFF per dollar