Great link, thanks! ^ Hopefully that will work without the need for a CS call.

Too bad SF does not accept visa for property tax payments, only MC.

I called up AMEX SPG just now. Asked if they had any bonuses for paying my taxes; she of course said no. I told her Chase currently has a bonus going on and that I wanted to charge it on my AMEX instead. Also told her to take into consideration my 12 years with AMEX. She put me on hold and came back to tell me she was going to give me 1,500 pts. I made the mistake of not telling her I was gonna pay 22K in taxes BEFORE she put me on hold. Maybe I would have gotten more. Anyhow, better than nothing. Thanks to the poster that recommended this.

I have posted some of this thought in another thread on miles, but here's something to ponder... maybe the tax/mile experts here have insight and would like to discuss and break it down:

I know from experience that if you overpay the IRS they often send you a check back at some point and all that may happen is that you basically may just lose a bit of interest on that money because it wasnt in your own bank for the time. I think it's policy that they send you the check as refund payment, in fact.

The question is, how much and how long is it out there and does that matter?

Why I ask this has to do with miles, of course:
Using a credit card to pay for taxes does incur a fee although for many, this is OK because the miles you earn are well worth it anyway, and it gives you time to scramble for the funds, etc. So I am all for it, and this thread even shows where bonuses or other ideas can lessen the blow of any fees being paid to pay taxes with a CC, but I belileve using a debit card to pay your taxes does NOT incur such fees.

Am I right about that one? I think so but am just double checking here.

(I know I am right with respect to paying most town property taxes with a debit vs a credit card, but I dunno about IRS and state taxes, really. That's why I need clarification on the matter.)

So, anyway, if I am right--and there is no fee, what if you paid your taxes with a mileage earning debit card and purposely overpaid to get more miles knowing that you'd essentially get CASH BACK when they give you that check?

(BTW, BofA still has one debit card that works for PIN-based transactions for mileage earnings on Alaska Airlines and US Air--and their partners are AA & NWA and UA respectively so it's viable for many here eventhough it earns .5 mile per $1 spent)

In the end, you could, say, overpay on purpose by $500 or $5,000 or $10,000 and end up looking like gold to the Feds but also come away with a hefty chunk O miles when they send you a check to give back your overpayment! You cash it and voila!

Thoughts?????
MM

I think you could overpay, but you might want to ask your accountant if it raises your audit risk, and consider for yourself whether the risk is worth it. I would think a small overpayment would be harmless and large one might be a red flag.

I got my refunds within a few weeks of filing, but I don't think you can count on that. You could ask a tax professional the likelihood of getting your refund within a month v. 2 months v. longer.

I think any competent accountant would tell a client that they are wasting potential earned interest overpaying taxes to earn miles. Mine was disappointed enough that I paid the fee to pay with a CC. If he didn't give this kind of advice, I'd think he's a bad accountant. Perhaps chasing the miles isn't the wisest thing from a financial perspective. But it's fun and we all have our hobbies.

I get my refund in about 10 days so lost interest isn't really an issue.

I think if I were to do this I would have had to have sent in some prepaid overpayment a little while ago. I expect a refund this year so the only reason I would pay would have been in case I were late on my taxes. I kinda was since I only just last week gave all my stuff to my tax accountant. He will have it ready to e file this week though so I am all set. (Lots went on in the MM household preventing me from doing things sooner--ie, new baby, etc ) So the pipedream of mile earnings by prepaying some huge amount is only just that. My financial advisor, however, is intrigued by my interest in miles. She always advises that people go for interest and avoid paying fees, but she says, hey, if you can find a way, all the power to ya! The tax guy likes hearing the ideas too but I think neither of them are going to tell me to DO such things while sitting in their offices. I just hope they do them on their own time at least because I hate it when I meet smart people who dont know about miles or how to take advantage of what's already out there. ie, if you see someone paying for something that could have been paid for with a mileage earning credit card.

To divert for a second, oh how many times have I seen some guy in line at Home Depot paying $600 in cash for stuff as I stand in line behind him wishing I could say, Hey dude, let me pay for that on my card here and you hand me the cash but you get the receipt...

Of course, if stuff like this happens to a great extent, maybe there'd be tax ramifications down the line (if it were say, $60,000)

Boraxo.

SF does accept Amex for property tax, but you have to call it in to their automated payment center. You can find the info on their Assessors website. I use my SPG Amex. Good luck.

I know the feeling. I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I returned something to my supermarket which I'd paid using a credit card and the cashier hands me back a $5 note

On a seperate note, more in tune with this thread, I called American Express and asked if I could get bonus miles for paying my taxes using the SPG card and they declined. No bonus miles for paying taxes this year.

I just called Chase and the CSR told me this was still targeted and that I was not eligible. Fyi, I have a Platinum card. The Chase CSR said that United was the one who determined who to target (I'm quite skeptical of this given everything I read).

I also just called and tried this with SPG AMEX but with no luck. I'll keep trying until April 15th but maybe I was too late!

I share your skepticism. Hard for me to see this as a UA decision rather than a Chase one.

I called Chase today to ask about double miles for using my lowly Gold Mileage Plus VISA to pay property taxes, due April 10th. The agent said no, but he would put a request in and it would take 1-2 weeks to hear back . I suppose I will call AMEX just for fun and ask about using my SPG card. Otherwise, I guess I will just write a check!

It may have been already posted (man this is a long thread), but here is the link Amex emailed me today about taxes:


http://tax.americanexpress.com/?offe...int-prop-email

That page doesn't appear to say anything about bonus points. Unless my eyes are failing me, it just notes that you'll get MR points at the standard one-point-per-dollar rate when you pay taxes.