One of the questions often considered by anyone who has to pay tax bills to the ATO is ‘how do I earn the most points on this transaction?’.
There isn’t a set answer — cards keep changing. We’ve attempted to compile a list of cards that allow points to be earned when paying your tax bill.
Many banks explicitly prohibit earning points on these types of transactions, and this is a trend that’s becoming increasingly common.
There are a few cards on the market that do still offer the ability to earn points for ATO transactions — mainly American Express and select Mastercard and Visa card.
In this guide, we cover off the current list of cards, their notable terms and restrictions, and a small number of points-earning alternative payment options.
Caveats and disclaimers with this guide
- Do your own research by reading the credit card and rewards program PDS documents, asking the relevant bank and comparing your research with other online sources.
- We have tried to make this list as complete and as accurate as possible. If we do miss a card, have an error in our calculations or made a mistake in the research, please let us know in the comments.
- There are legitimate reasons for having to pay the ATO as either a personal entity or as a business entity. Many banks prohibit unreasonable amounts of business transactions on personal cards. We have tried to note the relevant terms and conditions of different bank rewards programs below.
- We recommend considering a specific business credit card that explicitly permits points earn at the ATO if you have a high volume of business-related transactions.
- Any advice in this guide is general advice only and does not consider any of your personal circumstances and existing banking relationships/products.
- Things can change — check the date at the top of this guide to see when it was last updated.
Which rewards cards earn points at the Australian Tax Office (ATO)?
Credit Card | Points earned per $ spent | Effective cost per frequent flyer point earned when paying surcharge | Points cap | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Most American Express-issued cards e.g. Explorer, Essential, Platinum Charge | 1 Membership Rewards points | 1.45c per MR point | Varies by card—some none; some capped | Check the individual guides for each card in our cards table |
CommBank Business Platinum Awards Notes ↓ | Guide → | 1 CommBank Awards point | 0.7c per CommBank Awards point | 300,000 CommBank Awards points per year | CommBank Awards terms explicitly permit points earned at the ATO and for Business Transactions up to the points cap—see notes below |
NAB Qantas Business Signature Visa Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.66 Qantas Points | 1.2c per Qantas Point | 33,000 Qantas points per month | NAB states that payments you make to the Australian Taxation Office will earn you Qantas Points at the same rate as regular everyday business purchases |
Bankwest Qantas World Mastercard Notes ↓ | Guide → | 1 Qantas Point up to $5,000/statement period, then 0.5 Qantas Points thereafter | 1.9c per Qantas Point up to $5,000/statement period, then 0.95 Qantas Points | Uncapped | These cards' terms exclude points earn on 'government charges' other than GST payable to the ATO and 'business related expenses'—see notes below |
Bankwest Qantas Platinum Mastercard Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.75 Qantas Points up to $2,500/statement period, then 0.3 Qantas Points thereafter | 1.4 Qantas Point up to $5,000/statement period, then 0.5 Qantas Points | 200,000 Qantas Points per year |
About this table
- There is no ranking or endorsement of a specific credit card implied in the above table
- Cards/banks that do not allow points earn for ATO transactions include but are not limited to:
- ANZ Rewards & Frequent Flyer, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, Citi (and Citi-managed cards, including Virgin Money, CUA and Diners), CommBank (personal cards), HSBC, Jetstar Mastercard, Macquarie Platinum/Hilton, NAB (personal cards), Qudos Bank, St.George and Woolworths Money — and most others.
How to pay the ATO with a credit card
The primary way to make a payment by credit card is to head to the ATO EasyPay Portal and input the reference number given to you by your accountant or the ATO for your payment.
ATO credit card payment fees
When paying the ATO directly using a credit card, you’ll incur a surcharge on the transaction. There is no way to avoid this without sacrificing the ability to earn rewards points.
Payment method | Surcharge |
---|---|
BPAY/bank transfer | None |
Mastercard/Visa Debit | 0.15% |
Mastercard Credit | 0.70% |
Visa Credit | 0.78% |
American Express | 1.45% |
Visa/Mastercard international payments | 2.70% |
There’s also the option of using RewardPay and B2BPay with your American Express card to make a payment to the ATO using their payment service, which also has a surcharge (more on this later).
The surcharge amount is often a tax-deductible expense for a business, but double-check with your accountant or tax advisor for your own circumstances.
Your personal choices might dictate that payment via bank transfer or BPAY makes more sense than incurring a surcharge, so bear that in mind.
Is the ATO credit card surcharge is worth paying?
This is a key part of figuring out whether to use a points-earning credit card for ATO payments.
The first thing to consider is the value you place on your points. You can check out our list of rewards points values, which might help you.
Once you have a handle on how much you value a point, you can then place a value on the total number of points earned by paying the ATO with a credit card surcharge. Here is a simplified example.
Example 1: Where it makes sense to pay the surcharge
Say your card earns 1 point per dollar spent, and you value the points earned at 1.4c per point. If the tax bill you have to pay is $2,000, then you’ll earn 2,000 points, which have a value to you of $28.
With the ATO’s surcharge of 0.7% on Mastercard payments, you are paying $14 to earn the 2,000 points. That’s half the $28 you value the points earned, so in this case, you might consider paying using this credit card.
Example 2: Where it doesn’t make sense to pay the surcharge
As an alternative example, let’s consider an American Express card which earns also 1 point per dollar. You’d still get the same 2,000 points on the ATO bill, valued at $28 to you.
The surcharge of 1.45% means that you are paying $29 to earn the 2,000 points — a bit more than what you valued it at. In this case, you might not consider paying using this credit card.
Summary
So three things you need to consider before you decide whether a surcharge is worth paying:
- The value you place on points you earn with your credit card
- How many points the credit card you are planning to use will earn per dollar spent at the ATO
- The surcharge incurred for using your chosen payment method by the ATO
However, this analysis does not take into account:
- Any tax-deductibility of the ATO payment fee
- The cost of ownership of the credit card, such as its annual fee
- The cost of any interest incurred for balances you are carrying on the card — the assumption in this guide is that no interest will be paid for your ATO payment. If you are planning on carrying the ATO balance on a card and incurring interest on this balance, then the interest incurred will likely be far higher in cost than the value of the points earned.
A detailed look at the card terms and conditions
Let’s get stuck into some details of some of the cards in the table and their related terms and conditions from the PDS.
CommBank Business Platinum Awards Mastercard
The only CommBank card that expressly permits points to be earned at the ATO is the Business Platinum Awards credit card, whose PDS gives a points cap of 300,000 CommBank Awards Points on per year as well as:
The following transactions are excluded from earning points: …payments to the Australian Taxation Office unless made using a Business Awards card …
NAB Qantas Business Signature Visa
NAB explicitly states that:
Payments you make to the Australian Taxation Office will earn you Qantas Points at the same rate as regular everyday business purchases.
Bankwest Qantas World and Platinum Mastercards
The Bankwest Qantas Rewards PDS states:
Qantas Points are earned on all purchases made using the Card Account except: … Government charges (other than GST payable in connection with the purchase of goods or services on which you earn Qantas Points) … [and] … Business Related Expenses
There is no definition of ‘Government charges’ in the document, so it’s unclear if Bankwest does consider a personal transaction to the ATO as a government charge.
However, it’s evident the card should not be used for business-related expenses. The bank can also decide that any transaction they feel like can be excluded from points earning.
Using RewardPay and B2BPay to make ATO payments
Rather than making a credit card payment directly to the ATO, you can earn the full rate of credit card points by paying a surcharge to services like RewardPay and B2BPay and having them make the payment to the ATO on your behalf. You’ll also earn Qantas Points on these transactions.
In short, RewardPay and B2BPay are business-to-business payment services that allow its members to use American Express cards, with a surcharge.
(As of July 2020, B2BPay charge 2.2% + GST and RewardPay charge from 1.75% to 2.15% + GST for American Express cards, depending on transaction volume).

Assuming you have a card that is okay for business-related transactions, paying those surcharges may make sense if your Amex earns at least 1.5 frequent flyer points per $1 spent.
There are several American Express options that earn the equivalent of at least 1.5 frequent flyer points per dollar—we’ve explored the options available for highest points earning cards with RewardPay in a separate guide.
American Express terms and conditions for most personal cards do not specify that business-related transactions would be excluded from earning points. Indeed, using personal cards for business purposes is definitely permitted by American Express.
If you have an American Express that you can use with RewardPay or B2BPay, paying the ATO is just like paying another supplier. Find the ATO’s ABN and address details from the ATO website.
For more questions about this, you would be best to contact them directly.
Other options for paying the ATO and earning points
Another option for making payments to the ATO is to jump on prepaid debit Mastercard or Visa deals that can initially be purchased using a points-earning credit card.
Usually, the cost of acquisition of these cards is too high but there can be short-term offers for which you can keep an eye out for and then apply the same maths as above to figure out the cost of payment method vs points earned.
There are also other hazards in using prepaid cards to pay the ATO. Depending on the amount of money that can be loaded onto the card at the point of purchase, you could be running many cards through the ATO payment portal.
Each payment and its surcharge would need to be accounted for independently if it’s being made on behalf of a business.
Summing up
There’s no ‘best option’ amongst this list as the permitted transactions, points earned with each card and associated cost (and return in points) of payment to the ATO vary greatly from card to card.
We also cannot recommend specific cards to use for your circumstances, so dig through the few remaining cards in the table and the list of considerations above.
Try to find an option that works for your own valuation of points and whether it is worth paying the ATO surcharge to earn them. Their surcharges will change over time, of course.
Earning points from transactions to the ATO — once you have a card that offers this option — can be a very simple way to build your points balances from payments you had to make anyway.
It could also be a costly mistake if you overvalue the points earned or pay using a card that you thought earned points with ATO transactions but does not.
There is no doubt this is a complex and ever-changing landscape, and we will continue to update this list on changes being made by the banks to keep you updated.
There are still a number of points-earning credit cards for spend with the ATO and our general advice is to try to read and understand the terms of each card as much as possible and try and find the right fit for your own circumstances and preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are numerous ways to pay an ATO bill. BPAY is recommended for those who don’t want to pay any extra transaction fees, but reward points are not normally earned in this case.
Credit cards will incur a set fee depending on the card type. You could also process payments through a third party such as B2BPay and RewardPay, which would help earn rewards points.
No, not usually. Most banks and rewards credit cards do not consider BPAY transactions as eligible to earn rewards points.
According to the ATO website, card payment fees are not subject to goods and services tax (GST). However, it may be a deductible expense depending on your circumstances.
Yes, you can use an American Express card to pay the ATO. However, this normally incurs a higher payment fee compared to using an Australian-issued Visa or Mastercard.
Originally published by Matt Moffitt
Noticed only very recently, only in the last quarter (Jan-Mar 2021) that Qantas points earned has totally crashed per dollar value of purchases made on the St George Amplify card.
From simple analysis it could only be that ATO and State Government eligibility for reward point earnings has recently been axed.
So unless i want to jump ship it’s back to BPay for government transactions. Not paying those commission fees without earning points. No doubt other options are out there, but the extra handling costs incurred probably aren’t worth it.
https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/st-george-axe-points-tax-payments/
I would like (and expect to see) that level of detail from them in the T&Cs document.
The T&Cs for that card state (under section 4.5): Amplify Points are not earned in respect of the following amounts that may be charged to your Card Account: government charges (other than GST payable in connection with the purchase of goods or services on which you earn Amplify Points).
If you are earning full points on the transaction, then that’s great! However, in our guides, we do have to report on what is written in the T&Cs.
I should also point out that other government payments such as council rates do not earn points but somehow, ATO payments do.
Just thought I would post in case others already have the same card and want to test it out for themselves.
I am aware of the T&Cs so I check after each ATO payment in case they stop crediting the points but it has continued to work for me for over 3 years now.
I wont be using my Visa card. Thanks again.
As we have chosen to have low income/ high assets in retirement, I doubt if we could get a credit card to pay ato and get ffpoints. But if we went with Qantas Cash we could get a quarter of our bill back in points? Ie if our bill was $100,000 (it isn’t), we’d get 25,000 points?
Better than nothing!
What do you think?
You still may be able to get a credit card that earns points with the ATO though!
We have to pay a HUGE tax bill this year from Capital Gains. I just want a card that will give us the best value in 50 Curedale St Beaconsfield points!
I’m also holding off on booking this year,s round the world trip in case it could be advantageous to pay by a new card.
It’s our sixth RTW but we’ve never bothered to care about points before!
Very grateful for your thoughts! Sxx
Thanks for the article. its an excellent summary of all the cards.
I justed wanted to ask 2 Qs:
1. What is the card payment fees for Qantas cash ? is it like a once- off fees?
– lat34 & Samantha- ur help will be appreciated – as u guys hv done it.
2. Is there a similar fees for Velocity Global Wallet card as well ?
Hope 2 c replies soon.
Cheers.
Hassan.
I’ll have a look and see if it answers my questions.
Cheers.
Hassan.
Qantas Cash is a “prepaid Mastercard” so per the current table, ATO MasterCard surcharge is 0.40% (ie you need to have cashed loaded to cover both the tax payment PLUS the surcharge amount).
Hope this helps.
🙂
I am still experimenting with various ways to pay the ato and get points. I successfully used OnlyVisa gift card but this week ato have stopped accepting them. ( stuck with $500 of Cards!)
I joined Qantas Cash and succeeded in paying $95 to ato today. But now I see I will (eventually) only get one point per every $4. So cheap points but not many! ( And this will all change soon anyway.)
I guess B2Bpay is the best deal, with Amex Explorer. 2 points per $1 but fee of nearly 3%.
Still don’t know if I should pay the two-ish grand to get 120,000 ish points.
My husband says I never use gift vouchers I’ve been given!
And the using of points for upgrades seems like another whole nightmare of learning curve!
Any thoughts?
Savannah x
Very interesting to see their latest offers to convert ANZ Rewards points to Virgin (with bonus). I think their is more value redeeming ANZ Reward points directly for flights as opposed to redeeming for Virgin points and then booking same flights. Any comments on this?
So, take that as either confirmation that you will get the points (albeit with some legwork) until the PDS is updated, or avoid at all costs……
If i have an amex explorer, do i have to use the amex payment platform you describe? Or can i just pay my ato bill directly and still earn points?
Thanks
So I rang them to dispute this and was given the line about it being government spend, on the basis that it says REWARDPAY*ATO in the transaction details. I highlighted that my partner’s AMEX Explorer account has always earned the full 2 points on these transactions before, but so far they haven’t budged.
Wonder if it’s worth raising it with RewardPay at all, since their website does sort of imply that you’ll get the full amount of points with their service?
Samantha, can you please advise how you used your Qantas Cash to pay tax? Mine is only allowing to convert currency to currency, card to another Qantas card, or transferring Qantas cash to another of my own bank account. Not any options allowing for tax payments?! Thanks!
Please let me know if you have any other tricks, thanks.
the card payment fee).
FYI. I just got off the phone with AMEX
Can confirm David Jones AMEX and AMEX Platinum Edge do earn points for ATO payments (1 and 0.5 respectively).
Thanks for the article Keith 🙂
I have just tried to pay my tax using my Qantas Cash card but it rejected because it isn’t a credit card. How do I go about paying using Qantas Cash?
Curious as to what qualifies as a business transaction… My wife has AMEX Explorer and ANZ Black cards and is contracted/self-employed. We will need to pay her tax (she is the sole employee and has an ABN) and I’d like to use a card to do so. Does her paying tax for her own business count as a business transaction? Or is it simply just a tax payment by an individual?
My take would be that if you are paying a personal tax bill, it’s personal, but a business tax bill e.g. for your BAS or IAS, would be a business transaction. That said, the ATO bills through the same portal in either case, so the bank would probably decide more generally whether they thought you were using the card for business or personal purposes. It’s all very grey!
Great article.
Considering ANZ’s recent announcement to withdraw all AMEX cards from the bank from August 2017 (others will follow soon), do you think it is wise to convert ANZ points (approaching $1m points) to one of their affiliated programs; ie Velocity?
As a business owner with a trust structure, most of my points are earned paying personal tax debts for myself and other beneficiaries through the ATO EasyPay system. Of course, 4 of these transactions per year relate to business GST (BAS).
I am beginning to get worried ANZ will catch on and relinquish points earned, perhaps only the BAS component.
It would be brilliant to see an article related to how to best convert your points (or just redeem) considering these recent changes.
Thanks in advance.
I want to offer another perspective. I have a couple of cards that won’t earn anything for ATO spend. My Amex-issued cards will, and my ATO payments for my quarterly BAS are processed with no quibble.
Whether I use a card that earns points or not, I still have to make that quarterly payment. So for me, I immediately consider can I get something more for it? Let’s face it, the ability to earn a couple of, or even many, thousand lazy points every three months is nothing to be sneezed at.
I could apply for another card, generally at a membership cost of a couple of hundred dollars, in order to save a couple of hundred dollars. But I need to factor in the cost of owning that card for just ATO spend, unless it also provides a very good general points return. And, the effect on my credit rating if I’m applying for yet another premium credit card.
These are all qualitative rather than quantitative concerns, and don’t detract from the very valid points you raise about the cost of earning these points. For me, I find it’s a justifiable expense to spend a little more and get the bonus points, and “save” some time and dollars getting another card that is otherwise not really needed, and leaving my credit rating strong for any particularly compelling deals I see (such as when Amex Velocity Platinum offered a 100,000 point sign-up bonus).
Do you know anyone who tested that one?
One time it can be worth using a high cost-per-point card to pay the ATO is to meet bonus point minimum spends on a new card.
Thanks for the comprehensive article. Do you know if the Qudos bank CC still gives points for ATO payments?