Starwood Preferred Guest - BEST way to pay taxes with CREDIT CARD?

I have to pay my Jan 15th quarterly and understand I can pay with a credit card. It will be a payment of $40,000.

Anyone know the best program to make such a payment?

I think in the past, from what I'm finding when I search, Starwood Am Express would only let you pay $4,000 for double points.

It only seems worthwhile to pay with a credit card if you get double points....

Anyone?

Does the Starwood Amex give double points on taxes? I didn't know that.

I have estimated tax payments coming up as well, and I was planning to put them on my UA Mileage Plus Visa. That has double miles for taxes, and I didn't see an obvious cap to the miles in the T&C.

If the Starwood Amex or regular Amex has double miles for taxes as well, I would consider using those instead. But I don't see any such promotions right now. Am I just overlooking them?

I haven't seen any promotions for this yet....but apparently that was the deal for Starwood for last year. It doesn't seem worthwhile if you only get regular 1:1 Starwood points........since it would cost me $800 for 40,000 points......$800 for 4 nights you could get with 40K points.

But for 80,000 points......it would be.

Still, I'm looking for promos. Anyone have info on that? I have to pay by the 17th....since the 15th is a Sat this year. Uugh.

Can I just digress to complain about taxes. .....I hate taxes. :mad:

I did a Google search on "Starwood double taxes." That didn't show any current Starwood promotions, but it did bring up pages describing promotions from 2005 and 2004. In both those years, there were promotions for Starwood Amex, Delta Amex, and United Mileage Plus.

The Starwood Amex and Delta Amex deals were described as being for a restricted period of time before April 15. See, for example, a description (http://www.tier.com/press/clip_2005_0215.cfm) of the programs for 2005. For 2005, that was double Starpoints for the first $5000 in federal income tax payments between March 15 and April 15. The Delta Amex program seemed to be better: double miles for federal and state income taxes paid between February 15 and April 15. I didn't see what the cap was for 2005, but another page described 2004 caps of 30,000, 60,000, and 100,000 miles for Classic, Gold, and Platinum SkyMiles American Express respectively.

The United deal seemed to be the best (though it may not be useful for you). That was double miles for all federal and state personal income taxes, property taxes, and estimated taxes up through December 31. That deal seems to have been renewed, now running from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006. I don't see any mention of caps in the T&C, though I should call to confirm.

Numerous old threads on this topic (search Miles Buzz and the specific forums). See., e.g., 2004 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420591) and 2003 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175702&highlight=taxes+double) for SPG. Generally runs for limited time, ending 4/15, with a 5,000-point cap on bonus. Fee is approx. 2.49%.

Mods, this may be better suited for another forum since it isn't SPG-specific.

For 2004 taxes, you could file with Turbotax using a Discover card and pay no fee. No miles, but cashback apparently applied.

Looks like there is a 2.25% fee this year.

But Turbotax has some kind of new program where if you are getting a refund, you can direct part of it toward gift cards from Expedia, Borders, Lowe's, AMC Theaters, etc. and get bonus dollars:

http://www.turbotax.com/refund_bonus/index.html?source=ttcommain

Full list of participating retailers:

http://www.turbotax.com/refund_bonus/rb_retailers.html?source=ttcommain

Numerous old threads on this topic (search Miles Buzz and the specific forums). See., e.g., 2004 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420591) and 2003 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175702&highlight=taxes+double) for SPG. Generally runs for limited time, ending 4/15, with a 5,000-point cap on bonus. Fee is approx. 2.49%.

Mods, this may be better suited for another forum since it isn't SPG-specific.



Forgive me, while I appreciate your helpfulness, I was looking for a way to get SPG points in order to ease the pain of paying Uncle Sam....so this is SPG specific. I welcome other potential opportunities to get SOMETHING for my tax payments, but it is SPG points for a vacation that I'd like, since I can't afford one any other freaking way. My taxes are double what my mortgage is. :rolleyes: Sorry, I'm bitter and cranky about the whole thing.

My taxes are double what my mortgage is. :rolleyes: Sorry, I'm bitter and cranky about the whole thing.

Just increase your mortgage by a factor of 4 and your taxes will be half your mortgage.

The Starwood Amex and Delta Amex deals were described as being for a restricted period of time before April 15. See, for example, a description (http://www.tier.com/press/clip_2005_0215.cfm) of the programs for 2005.
Actually, in the InsideFlyer story you link to, there's a link in there for the Starwood program:
http://www.PAY1040.com/Starwood
If you click on that link, it looks like the 2006 program info is up:
Simply pay your federal taxes online or by phone with your Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from 3/15/06 through 4/17/06, and you can receive double Starpoints on your first $5,000 in federal tax payments.

Isn't there some kick-a$$ fee for charging taxes on your credit card. (Luckily, I'm still so poor I get a refund each year. But I checked for my mother a few years ago, and it was not lucrative.)

The better deal is buying your car with the credit card. Granted, I don't pay off the balance on a monthly basis; I already have the financing arranged and the money aside, thus paying off the bill when it comes in. But I have bought my last 4 cars with my SPG AMEX. :D

This has digressed and is not relevant to spg anymore.

ldsant
*wood Moderator