ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

Citi did not like my first salary number of 10 bucks a fortnight after salary sacrifice to super when I first started my Citi journey. Lucky I had other income so I made the cut despite working two days a week.
Dont panic,be tenacious and apply when all your stars align if you are after Citi Select.
Better still send them a tax assessment with an income of $120k or more.
Then you can live the dream provided there is money left over once the taxes are paid.

 

[cove]

From August 1st American Express payments became more expensive at 1.45% up from 1.25% so that makes the Visa and MasterCards that pay a true point per dollar or more very attractive at 0.48% rate.

 

[kpc]

From August 1st American Express payments became more expensive at 1.45% up from 1.25% so that makes the Visa and MasterCards that pay a true point per dollar or more very attractive at 0.48% rate.

So the surcharge is going up, and the point earn on Amex (non Bank issued) for ATO payments is dropping to 0.5 pts per $!!:evil: I think AMEX is telling us something...!!:shock:. I'll stick to my Visa card to pay the ATO, thank you very much!

 

[wafliron]

From August 1st American Express payments became more expensive at 1.45% up from 1.25% so that makes the Visa and MasterCards that pay a true point per dollar or more very attractive at 0.48% rate.

Well that sucks. I wonder if they only hiked the surcharge for ATO payments, for all government payments, or across the board?

 

[Deleted User]

So the surcharge is going up, and the point earn on Amex (non Bank issued) for ATO payments is dropping to 0.5 pts per $!!:evil: I think AMEX is telling us something...!!:shock:. I'll stick to my Visa card to pay the ATO, thank you very much!

QEDRCC M/C seems the winner if you can get away with it...!

 

[kpc]

QEDRCC M/C seems the winner if you can get away with it...!

I'm using a fee free Citibank Signature Visa with 1 QF point per $ spent (uncapped) for my ATO payments. Unfortunately, I have had to Bpay some money into the credit account when my ATO payments have well and truly exceeded my card limit:shock:...but I can live with that!

 

[burmans]

From August 1st American Express payments became more expensive at 1.45% up from 1.25% so that makes the Visa and MasterCards that pay a true point per dollar or more very attractive at 0.48% rate.

That may spell the end for my westpac kris flyer Amex and upgrade for either the Citibusiness gold or plat I currently have!

 

[wafliron]

That may spell the end for my westpac kris flyer Amex and upgrade for either the Citibusiness gold or plat I currently have!

Select is rapidly becoming less exclusive

 

[Duffa]

How many times do I have to post "goodbye Amex plat charge"!!?

 

[cove]

Just got told as we checked in for Suites at Heathrow that we are the only two in the whole section on the A380 tonight.
It has been a lovely fluke to get the aircraft change and for 308k Kris points each we have SIN-LHR-SIN in Suites. Now I am feeling warm inside to JS who started this thread about taxes on credit cards.

 

[Stephen65]

From August 1st American Express payments became more expensive at 1.45% up from 1.25% so that makes the Visa and MasterCards that pay a true point per dollar or more very attractive at 0.48% rate.

Indeed. All the more reason to drop Amex. My Citibusiness Gold is looking good right now and I really will have to think about Citi Select again.

 

[rechoboam]

I'm using a fee free Citibank Signature Visa with 1 QF point per $ spent (uncapped) for my ATO payments. Unfortunately, I have had to Bpay some money into the credit account when my ATO payments have well and truly exceeded my card limit:shock:...but I can live with that!

Yes signature. I dumped my Amex for one.
Have you used it for anything? Priority pass? Immigration priority pass? Concierge.

 

[cove]

After the Amex fee rise on ATO payments I used 4 Visa cards today to wrap up this months taxes due on 21st.
This is the first month where Amex of all types got NIL.

 

[angusburns]

Sounds like that is just the way that they (Amex) want it...

 

[cove]

Yes I always thought that they were paying Qantas somewhere between 1.05 and 1.25 cents a point but I have no visibility on their actual rate. Now that the ATO fee is 1.45% and the maximum earn rate is 1.5 points a dollar Amex is getting much closer to a break even and may soon be profitable as they "enhance" their offerings.

 

[coyote25]

Yes I always thought that they were paying Qantas somewhere between 1.05 and 1.25 cents a point but I have no visibility on their actual rate. Now that the ATO fee is 1.45% and the maximum earn rate is 1.5 points a dollar Amex is getting much closer to a break even and may soon be profitable as they "enhance" their offerings.

The ATO is a good way to see current rates. They don't make any profit of the fees so you know exactly what merchant rate they got and I'd imagine they would have one of he best neg rates for a big business.

I remember pressure for the ATO to take credit card payments in the past but they couldn't until the banking reform allowed the cost to be past on. Lots of people hate the card fees from businesses at point of sale but I think a few people on this site are happy to earn the points with the tax payments


Sent from my iPad using AustFreqFly app

 

[wafliron]

The ATO is a good way to see current rates. They don't make any profit of the fees so you know exactly what merchant rate they got

Not really, unfortunately.

Firstly, government gets their own special rate from Visa/Master, so it only tells you something about current government rate. Last I saw (a few months back) this was 0.33%, and I assume it's unchanged since then given VIC SRO are still charging a 0.33% surcharge on CC transactions (and process them themselves - see below).

Secondly, the ATO don't make a profit on the surcharge but they do use a third-party - Optus (SmartPay) - to process CC payments, and Optus certainly do charge a mark-up / make a profit on it. Based on the gap between the ATO customer rate (and the fact they don't make a profit from it) and the current government rate it's a reasonable assumption that Optus are taking a 0.48% - 0.33% = 0.15% clip.

I really wish the ATO would ditch Optus and switch to processing the CC payments themselves - it's not that hard, and 0.15% on the massive amount of money that must flow through Optus to the ATO is costing taxpayers (and making Optus) a fortune :-/

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

Are they still giving full points or half a point per dollar with AMEX ??? If so makes it pretty costly per point ????

 

[wafliron]

Are they still giving full points or half a point per dollar with AMEX ???

IIRC, half a point per $1 on everything except Plat and Cent already, and both of those switch to half a point per $1 (from one point per $1) on the 1st of October.

If so makes it pretty costly per point ????

Correct - not worth it anymore on Amex. Visa/Master is a different story though.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

I have a qantas Platinum Amex card is it affected too ??