In my previous post, I introduced Cardup and UOB PRVI Pay, two different ways in which you can earn miles from making miscellaneous payments. To recap, miscellaneous payments are those that you usually do not make on demand, and tend to be payments you make in the background, such as insurance premiums and income tax. This post focuses on how you can settle your income taxes using payment facilities offered by banks.
Standard Chartered Bank Visa Infinite
If you are holding the SCB VI card, you are in luck. You can pay your taxes and earn miles at the same time. All you need to do is to complete the online application form and upload a copy of your latest IRAS Notice of Assessment (NOA) no later than 7 days prior to your tax payment due date. Note that no pre-login to Internet Banking or 2FA authentication is required, which makes this very convenient. Next, the tax amount as indicated in your IRAS NOA is debited from your SCB VI card and credited to your designated bank account. You then have to simply make the necessary payment arrangement with IRAS (eg GIRO) and the miles will automatically be awarded to you.
If you accumulate a minimum spend of S$2000 in a statement cycle, using this tax payment facility will earn you 1.4 mpd. However, any spend below S$2000 in a statement cycle will only earn you 1 mpd. But this beats getting 0 miles if you’ve been making payment via GIRO doesn’t it?
Do note, however, that an applicable processing fee of 1.6% of your tax amount. Also, this tax payment facility is only for the payment of your own personal income tax, so you can’t go around paying for others just to get miles. That being said, if you are a supplementary SCB VI card holder, you can apply for this tax payment facility provided you are making payment for your own income tax.
I have personally used this service before and everything went smoothly.
HSBC Tax Payment Programme (HSBC Visa Infinite)
HSBC also offers a tax payment facility. Simply settle your income taxes with your HSBC credit card and you can turn your tax payments into miles. Just complete the online application form and submit the relevant supporting documents, such as your NOA. Your HSBC credit card account will be debited and the full amount will be credited to your designated bank account. Next, simply make the necessary payment arrangements with IRAS via your preferred method of payment (eg GIRO).
Unlike the SCB VI tax payment facility, HSBC has an option for monthly instalments should you wish to spread your payments to IRAS throughout the year. Just complete the application form with your GIRO instalment plan from IRAS, and your HSBC credit card will be debited and the monthly instalment is credited to your designated bank account before your IRAS deduction date. IRAS then deducts your monthly instalment from your bank account via GIRO.
Note that for HSBC VI cardholders, an administrative fee of 1.5% of your tax amount is applicable.
The benefit of using the HSBC tax payment facility is that there is an option to make payments in instalments, especially since income tax is a big ticket item. However, the tax payment facility by HSBC only earns you 0.4 mpd, compared to up to 1.4 mpd offered by SCB VI.
OCBC Voyage
OCBC Voyage cardholders can also may payments for income tax using the OCBC Voyage tax payment facility. Using this facility, you can enjoy 1 mpd subject to a 1.9% processing fee. There is also an option to make payments via monthly instalments if you wish.
With an earn rate of 1 mpd, the OCBC Voyage tax payment facility is better than HSBC, but still falls short of Standard Chartered’s 1.4 mpd earn rate.
So there you go, earn more miles from making your income tax payments, since the banks are helping you to do so.