Newbie US taxpayer here, so grateful for yr advice. I have the United MP Visa card and the SPG Amex by the way, but only got the latter recently, so haven't worked out the ins and outs yet. Apols if any of following seems a bit dumb!

I expect to have to make a payment of about $4,000 to settle my 2005 personal account and then $8,000 for the first 2006 payment.

This seems to raise fees of $99 and $196 respectively.

1) So given that United and SPG are both offfering double miles, I take it I'd be paying $99 for 8,000 MP or SPG points for the first $4000 in tax. Have I got that right and does that seem a good deal/rate of return?

2) But SPG says there are only double Starpoints for the first $5,000 payment. In which case, if I make the second larger payment with SPG Amex card, does that I mean I get single points or none? And if I make it with the United card, wd I get 16,000 miles for the $8,000 tax payment for a $196 fee?!

3) But the SPG Amex info also confusingly says that the Bonus Starpoints will be limited to 5,000 per account. Are Bonus Starpoints different to Starpoints? If not, it implies that actually you can only get double points for the first $2,500...

I'll stop befor I confuse myself more!