Originally Posted by mxs506
The reason why I posted this is because...
1. You can technically pay more than you owe in taxes and get it all back from the IRS in a month or two after you file. So techinically you can get as much mile as you want if you want to pay the 2.5% fee.
2. The 2.5% fee may not sound so bad if you are trying to get 180,000 miles for a first class ticket to asia (which is usually around $12,000 on JAL). As oppose to about $4,500 that you are paying in fees.
The only problem is that I will have to pay $180,000 before I get my money back and its quite risky! And I doubt amex will let me charge that much though once!
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I never tried charging $180,000 on my Gold Card--but I have a feeling that AMEX might question a charge of that amount, even if it was to Uncle Sam.
My other thought is that AMEX generally sets up their promotions and programs so that they can't easily be turned into ATM's or airline ticket counters.
In theory, if you had all of your tax forms lined up and ready to do an efile, then pressed the button to efile and then immediatedly clicked over to Official Payments web site and paid them what you had claimed to prepay on your efiled tax forms--you could get your refund back before the end of an AMEX billing period--assuming you used direct deposit for the refund.