You might be right with Paris - I never stayed in a chain hotel ... wait, I stayed twice in a **** Novotel and it was bad....but I believe the Starwoods in Paris are very good.

Other than this, I often use points in Europe (when I don't get a **** hotel with Priceline) and have had very, very nice hotels:
-Westin Bellevue Dresden
-Westin Grand Berlin
-Sheraton Vitznau (or so), Lake Lucern
to name a few.

This is actually the reason why I am going to pay my tax with Starwood. $125 (+/-) gives me 10,000 for a nice hotel, which would cost me at least $200 (+/-). And I 'park' the amount for about 6 weeks on a 4% + account (with a payment due on May 30)

St. Regis, Aspen over Xmas week currently starts at $1575, up to $1900.

I used mine for that week at Steamboat a couple of years back - $399/night, 40K points for 5 nights. That's 5 cents per point. And my Super Bowl deal, probably 8-9 cents.

Even regular stays, as long as you're sensical about it, should yield 2.5-2.7 cents per point.

Here, I can earn them at 1.25 cents. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I have another idea, which all the great minds didn't catch in 10 pages :D

Looks like nothing prevents one from combining two offers: reduced 1.99% fee from Citibank and double points/miles.

That's what I will try - start from any of citi landing pages: CitiDebit
or
CitiCredit
and then use Starwood Amex for the actual payment !

I went half-way only 'cause I didn't complete my taxes yet, but it seems to be working. It is possible that officialpayments.com will verify that card is really Citicard during checkout, but I doubt it. And, we've got nothing to lose, if trick doesn't work - we end up with standard 2.49% fee.

Remember that if you use the SPG card and your balance due is less than $5,000, the "standard" fee is 1.25% since SPG provides double miles on the first $5,000 in payments.

That not exactly right - without Citi offer you pay 2.49% fee in cash regardless.
Now, one can get double *Wood points or double UA or DL miles, that makes miles twice cheaper, but does not alter 2.49% fee.

In my wickedness I want to pay 1.99% fee and earn double SPG points !

I should have written that the 1.25% fee would be per mile ($125/10,000) - not per dollar owed ($125/5,000).

two dumb questions
 

Hi all...

I finally got my UAL Mileage Plus Visa (Signature!) card. Just to pay taxes with. woo woo!

1) Is there a limit on the number of miles I can receive for paying taxes? I'm 1P, btw.

2) The most basic question of all: When I do make my payment, what do I send in along with my estimated tax voucher and my 1040 returns? A printout of the payment or some confirmation e-mail or?

If you e-file, you send no credit card information. If you paper file and pay before mailing your return, you can write your confirmation number in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of your 1040. If you paper file and pay after mailing the return, you don't have to send anything. Do not send Form 1040V either.

Sometime after April 17 the IRS will match your Social Security number with the credit card payments to verify that your balance was paid on time. Keep your confirmation number in case the IRS ever says you didn't pay on time.

It is NOT working.

When it comes to "SELECT CARD TYPE" you can select only "MASTERCARD"!

No, there isn't a limit on the UA card for the 2x miles... well, except for what the bank will let you charge at a single time.

Can someone help with the quarterly estimated side of this?
I need to make a quarterly payment for 2006 with my return. Also the next quarterterly payment is coming up in June.

Thinking of just paying them now during the bonus period with the SPG Amex.

Do I need to be able to specify which quarterly payment I'm making?
Should I just do it in one transaction or should I do to separate transactions?

Thanks,

Scho

Anyone do the credit card thing in conjunction with an extension?

I'm going to owe more than $5000, and I won;t be ready to file by next weekend. So $5000 on the credit card for the SPG 2X, the rest by check, and I have a few more months to get my act together.

So I just made the payment thru pay1040.com using the spg link, and the final confirmation screen says "Your transaction is complete. There is no need to mail in Form 4868. An application for an automatic extension of time to file a return will be posted to your IRS account. "

But I still need to pay the excess by check. So I'm guessing I send in 4868 anyway (despite what it says), along with the check, is that right? Or is there a different form that I should use?

On the first page of your transaction, you specifiy what tax you want to pay. Simply click on "Form 1040ES Estimated Tax - Tax Year 2006."

Yes, that is the only way to get your payment by check posted as a "payment with an extension" (unless you are using software like TaxCut or TurboTax that allows a direct debit to be made with an electronic extension).

Had a flyer in my statement for 1000 NW bonus miles for paying taxes with my Worldperks Visa @:-) If you owe less than $1000 this seems like a better offer than double points. Will keep the flyer, since I haven't been able to find the offer online.