Paying federal taxes with JCB Marukai 3% Discover Network card

[Menta33]

For those of you with the 3% JCB Marukai, you can pay your federal taxes with this card and make out ahead of the fees:

• https://www.officialpayments.com/fed/index.jsp

They charge 2.35% so you net 0.75% on federal tax payments, plus you can get the float on the money until the bill comes due. Further, I've found that if your credit limit is too low, you can pay down the account to a negative balance and you can charge up to your credit limit, so if your limit was $2,500 and you paid the account down to negative $2,500, you could make a single $5,000 charge and have it go through.

 

For those of you without the Marukai card, I recommend:

• https://payusatax.com/

They charge 1.87% (but it doesn't work for JCB) but if you have a 2% rebate card on Visa/MC/Amex/Discover they you will make out ahead of the fees, netting 0.13%.

 

Now if only you could buy Amex Gift Cards with a JCB card you could really make out like a bandit!

[Menta33]

If you don't mind waiting for the money, you could even overpay your estimated taxes and get even more back on the rebate when your refund comes.

[almostanonymous]

If you don't mind waiting for the money, you could even overpay your estimated taxes and get even more back on the rebate when your refund comes.

 

 

I can think of better things to do with my money than give the government an interest free loan.

 

But yeah, paying on a cash back card with a 1.87% fee sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

[shifter]

it's not interest free,

 

you're earning 0.75% for the couple of months.

 

that's 4.5% per year, which isn't great, but isn't bad with 0 risk.

[almostanonymous]

Difference of philosophies, I guess.

 

I can think of better things to do with my money for a few months to earn more than 0.75% for paying more taxes than required.

Edited January 7, 2015 by almostanonymous

[Burgerwars]

Using your figures, can someone overpay their JCB Card by $1,000,000, make an unneeded quarterly tax payment of $1,000,000 to the IRS paying with the card, apply for a tax refund to get your money sent back to you and collect your $7,500 cash back (net). Then immediately rinse, repeat?

 

I would no longer need to work.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Burgerwars

[Redfoot]

Using your figures, can someone overpay their JCB Card by $1,000,000, make an unneeded quarterly tax payment of $1,000,000 to the IRS paying with the card, apply for a tax refund to get your money sent back to you and collect your $7,500 cash back (net). Then immediately rinse, repeat?

 

I would no longer need to work.

That having $1,000,000 in cash first would be a bit of a stumbling block for myself.

[Burgerwars]

 

Using your figures, can someone overpay their JCB Card by $1,000,000, make an unneeded quarterly tax payment of $1,000,000 to the IRS paying with the card, apply for a tax refund to get your money sent back to you and collect your $7,500 cash back (net). Then immediately rinse, repeat?

 

I would no longer need to work.

That having $1,000,000 in cash first would be a bit of a stumbling block for myself.

Me 2. Edited January 7, 2015 by Burgerwars

[Goose123]

They charge 2.29% on Visa

[Menta33]

 

Using your figures, can someone overpay their JCB Card by $1,000,000, make an unneeded quarterly tax payment of $1,000,000 to the IRS paying with the card, apply for a tax refund to get your money sent back to you and collect your $7,500 cash back (net). Then immediately rinse, repeat?

 

I would no longer need to work.

That having $1,000,000 in cash first would be a bit of a stumbling block for myself.

 

 

Theoretically, yes, but I suspect other limits would come into play to either refuse your payment, or if accepted, refuse a single large charge at either JCB or the vendor processing the payment, or the IRS.

 

However, I have tested this on a scale of 1/1000th of what you propose, a single $3,800 charge on a $2,500 limit card by overpaying it, if others push it further, please report higher amounts that work! Who knows, maybe it will scale by 1,000 or more and you bankrupt JCB when they lose too much money on the transaction. Once my bank account gets to $1B, I'll see if it works!

[TheScholar]

Innnnteresting. This would have been more useful knowledge in previous years, but better late than never. Thank you!