ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

Interesting email today:
Hi xx_XX,

If you’re looking for a smart way to boost your Qantas Points1 balance, payments to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) are a great way to earn rewards. Plus, the ATO now accepts larger sums of payments in one transaction2, so make the most of your regular payments and be rewarded in return.

Enjoy Qantas Points when you use your American Express® Qantas Business Rewards Card to make your PAYG and BAS payments. You’ll also increase your cash flow3 at the same time – freeing up funds to use elsewhere in the business, and where you need it most.

Points earn rates with the card ares:

  • 2 Qantas Points per $1 spent on Qantas products in Australia (uncapped)
  • 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 spent on all other purchases, except those listed in 0.5 points category (uncapped)^
  • 0.5 Qantas Points per $1 spent on utilities, insurance providers (with the exception of American Express) and government bodies, which includes the ATO (uncapped)^
  • Triple Qantas Points for your business on eligible Qantas flights – this is on top of the 2 Qantas Points per $1 earn rate on Qantas products
So earn 0.5 QFF points per $ ATO spend uncapped, BUT have to pay for these at the AMEX ATO rate of 1.45%.
 
With the new POS software at Woolies, there is now no limit to the number of cards in one transaction at the counter. Self serve doesn't even allow a single card now... but at the counter, we put through 30 at a time with no issues. The new POS also spits out the approval notices a lot faster. It seems to get the approvals first one at a time and then spits all the approvals printed notices in one go - so a bit of time waiting for the approvals to happen before the printing happens.

500 cards took just under two hours to purchase.
I'm not sure where you found 500 cards unless you went to multiple stores to collect them or you have a stockpile.

Also this was one staff member? And you paid with $500 Wish cards? That'd be more than 100 Wish cards.

I don't think I'm game enough to do it.
 
I have done this. Some stores may not like it though and try to direct you to the service desk.

Remember every card, whether it's 1 or 10, requires approval. Stating "Self serve doesn't even allow a single card now" is NOT correct.

In my experience "The new POS also spits out the approval notices a lot faster" this is also not correct.

I'll give you the first statement that I was not technically correct. You can still purchase cards at the self serve, but you do need to get approval from the staff. I've had a number of staff in a number of different stores across Woolies not give the approval and suggest I go to the service desk to purchase them.

The other statement, I do believe is true based on my sample size of 2 purchases - one purchase of 500 cards (30 each transaction) and another of 12 cards. The approval slips were spat out at such speed the check out person could not keep up; whereas previously it would be get a slip, wait a few seconds, get another slip, wait some more time, and so on.

500 actual cards or $500?

Did you have to pre-order?

My three local Woolies only have a few $50 OnlyVisa cards, no $100 ones. Do you get your Woolies to order them in for you?

500 actual cards. I pre-order by sending an SMS to the store manager with how many I want and by when (usually give him 3-4 weeks notice) and he sends me a message back when he gets them along with dates and times that he is not expecting to be busy. Then, I simply go to the store at that time and he processes them all for me at a counter that is blocked off for the duration of my transaction. He has no issue doing this - a sale is a sale and as long as he is ok that it is not a scam and a legitimate business that is purchasing them, he is fine with it.

How I ended up with this deal is that I was once was going to a number of stores looking for cards and I would ask the staff if they had any more and if I could order any in. Most of the people said no and they can't order it in - but this one time, the person I asked turned out to be the manager and he said he would try to help me. The first time he said he managed to get them in from other stores in the area; but after that he has been ordering them in straight from the supplier.

I'm not sure where you found 500 cards unless you went to multiple stores to collect them or you have a stockpile.

Also this was one staff member? And you paid with $500 Wish cards? That'd be more than 100 Wish cards.

I don't think I'm game enough to do it.

It was 100 Wish cards of $500, 6 wish cards of $476 and 1 wish card of $119. These were purchased in blocks of 20 cards. The details of all cards were pretty put nicely in a spreadsheet and then just ticked off one by one as I used them up. Once before, I had purchased about 50 of them in one shot, and the order got blocked by Woolies and I had to call a few days later to find out what was going on. They unblocked it and the cards were emailled immediately. When purchasing in blocks of 20, the cards have arrived pretty quickly; so I'm assuming that either the block is when its a large order or my email id is now whitelisted - don't know which.
 
The details of all cards were pretty put nicely in a spreadsheet and then just ticked off one by one as I used them up.

Do you upload cards from the spreadsheet to your mobile? Or do you print the spreadsheet and the manager has some way of entering the details?

I find loading cards from the spreadsheet is not user-friendly but this may be more an issue with my phone than anything else.
 
Do you upload cards from the spreadsheet to your mobile? Or do you print the spreadsheet and the manager has some way of entering the details?

I find loading cards from the spreadsheet is not user-friendly but this may be more an issue with my phone than anything else.

At the moment I am manually clicking on each link in the spreadsheet and grabbing the details to put into another spreadsheet that I print out and take with me. I have to enter the card details myself on the Point of Sale system - not the store manager.

I used to use the Money app, but I've found it flaky and it takes longer to enter the details in. I am working on a way of automating the creating of the new spreadsheet with the 10 digit card number and PIN as an Excel Macro and that will make that process a lot quicker for me.
 
Just curious... how long did it take for the bonus points to drop in your dragon account? I have spent much more than the minimum spend this month and nothing showed up, only generic earn.
 
Just curious... how long did it take for the bonus points to drop in your dragon account? I have spent much more than the minimum spend this month and nothing showed up, only generic earn.

Same here. Got the card over Christmas. I’m not concerned. I Expect to see bonus points next statement.
 
Cool, thanks. I was just pondering in what detail they may calculate business spend...there was no govt spend though.
 
500 actual cards. I pre-order by sending an SMS to the store manager with how many I want and by when (usually give him 3-4 weeks notice) and he sends me a message back when he gets them along with dates and times that he is not expecting to be busy. Then, I simply go to the store at that time and he processes them all for me at a counter that is blocked off for the duration of my transaction. He has no issue doing this - a sale is a sale and as long as he is ok that it is not a scam and a legitimate business that is purchasing them, he is fine with it. "

I have a similar arrangement with my store. They order in 500 at a time from the supplier and I work through them in batches of 100 or so. In fact if store sales are slow I'll get a call asking if I could come in and buy some. Some days I can be 10% of the store sales which can make a difference during slow periods when staff sales bonuses are being worked out.

I've had my picture taken with staff for the store intranet, bought lunch by the manager and last week was introduced to the area manager during my transaction. Actually that reminds me I'd better get in tomorrow and see if there's a valentine waiting for me :-)
 
Is anyone aware of any current no annual fee (first year or otherwise) cards that are ATO friendly? I know there's not many to choose from...
 
Is anyone aware of any current no annual fee (first year or otherwise) cards that are ATO friendly? I know there's not many to choose from...
The AMEX qantas and virgin no fee cards, but they don't earn well. Best bet is still the Plat Edge. If you use the $200 credit, the annual fee is effectively $0.
 
Kangol I felt you may be looking at this the wrong way. If you have quite a bit of ATO to pay there is a BoM card that probably has a 90,000 Kris Miles sign on for about $279.
Forget Amex issued cards as 2.9 cents per point is a pain barrier even if you can almost halve it with a tax deduction (highest marginal tax rate).
 
Wah it's the ATO season again and I only have one card left. Does the BW Plat QF MC still pay the ATO? At 0.4% fee it doesn't seem to bad...?
 
Kangol I felt you may be looking at this the wrong way. If you have quite a bit of ATO to pay there is a BoM card that probably has a 90,000 Kris Miles sign on for about $279.
Forget Amex issued cards as 2.9 cents per point is a pain barrier even if you can almost halve it with a tax deduction (highest marginal tax rate).
I think the transfer rate will end up with 45k at KF.
 
Yes LTO I didn't get the Kris Miles correct at 45,000 for $279.The points have on transfer.
At that price I would love to get a million or two.
 
Kangol I felt you may be looking at this the wrong way. If you have quite a bit of ATO to pay there is a BoM card that probably has a 90,000 Kris Miles sign on for about $279.
Forget Amex issued cards as 2.9 cents per point is a pain barrier even if you can almost halve it with a tax deduction (highest marginal tax rate).
I already have that one, just looking to diversify. Thanks all.
 
It looks like the Visa 1 GC are no longer accepted by the ATO. They have worked in the past for me and I was getting an error message today. I was able to use Mastercard GC to pay the ATO today.

I was also able to use the same Visa 1 GC to pay some other items today so it appears the GC were all activated successfully.

With ATO deadlines coming up on the 28th, I thought I would setup an account and let you guys know especially those buying up a tonne of gift cards. I tried finding the number to call for Visa 1 GC as the ATO error message said to contact the issuer.
 
I meant halve rather than have with my iPad playing tricks. The 90,000 B of M sign on halves on transfer to Kris Miles which is almost enough for a flight to Singapore and back in business class.
 

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