Some Ways to Squeeze Cashback/Miles Out of Your Income Tax That Still Work (For Now)

Update: check out the updated article for 2021

Tax filing season is ending soon in about two more weeks, and if you have already received your Notice of Assessment (NOA), it’s time to look at some options to squeeze some rewards from your contribution to the nation.

You can pay your income tax via GIRO, or one of the many online payment methods that IRAS accepts. None of these methods gain you any cashback or miles for your payment.

Personally, I’d use ipaymy for my tax payment to score either cashback or miles. For the uninitiated, you can read up on how ipaymy works in a previous article I’ve written.

Here are some ways that are available at the moment:

For cashback

Card	Cashback	ipaymy Fee	Effective Yield
BOC Family Card	3%	1.99% / 1.89%	1.07% / 1.17%
Amex True Cashback + GrabPay MasterCard	3%	2.25% / 1.89%	0.82% / 1.17%
UOB One	3.33% 5%	1.99% / 1.89%	1.41% / 1.5% 3.11% / 3.20%

2.25% is the usual rate.
1.99% is for using code APR199 during payment for Visa cards.

BOC Family Card
You can only get a maximum of $25 cashback on BOC Family’s online spend category, which is $833, so the sweet spot for your income tax should be around $800 to reach that amount after ipaymy’s fee. If your tax is lower than $800, you will then need to meet the minimum spend of $800 for there to be cashback.

For: People with income tax between $785 to $820.

Amex True Cashback + GrabPay MasterCard
This would work for people who are new to Basic Amex cards. Apply here, and as a new card member, you’ll get 3% on your first $5,000 of spend in the first six months. Should be plenty enough for your income tax and other stuff.

Simply top up your Grab card, and use your GrabPay MasterCard 16-digit number found in the app to make payment on ipaymy.

For: People with income tax of $5,000 and under.

UOB One
UOB One (apply here) gives the best yield for this, but it’s not suitable for a one-off income tax payment since you’ll need three months of consistent spending. People who are already on the UOB One train would find this useful to fulfil a month of spending.

My new quarter just started in February, which means I managed to get two months on Grab top-ups before the Tragic UOB One Nerf, and the income tax payment is timely for me to finish off the quarter on top of some other spend.

For miles

Paying your income tax using ipaymy is also a great way to get miles. Essentially, by paying the fee and geting miles as your reward, you are buying miles, and depending on the cost and the rate you redeem it at, this may make a lot of sense.

Card	Miles Per Dollar	ipaymy Fee	Cost Per Mile
UOB PRVIMiles (Visa)	1.4	1.99% / 1.89%	1.39¢ / 1.32¢
1.2 mpd Visa card	1.2	1.99% / 1.89%	1.63¢ / 1.55¢
1.2 mpd MasterCard	1.2	2.25% / 1.89%	1.83¢ / 1.55¢

UOB PRVIMiles (Visa)
The Visa variant of this card (apply here) will get you a lower fee using the promo code mentioned above. At under 1.40¢ per mile and no cap to worry about, PRVIMiles is quite excellent at scoring business class tickets rather cheaply. Heck, even economy to US starts to make some sense at this rate.

For: People with really high income tax and want to earn miles for business class.

CitiRewards (Visa) + GrabPay MasterCard

No longer works.

The Visa variant of CitiRewards still gives 4 mpd for Grab top-ups, which can then be used for the ipaymy transaction. This gives you an incredible rate of under 0.50¢ per mile.

To truly appreciate how awesome this rate is, imagine travelling to Tokyo on business class for around $600. That’s even less than some economy flights.

Unfortunately, you are limited to a $1,000 monthly capacity, so you may have to top up across months if you have a larger income tax bill. Also, it appears that the Visa variant has been removed for new sign ups. Oh well, should have followed my advice to sign up for cards even if you don’t immediately need it.

For: People who have under $1,000 of income tax.

1.2 mpd Visa or Mastercard
I included these so you have a sense of how much it costs to buy miles on such cards. You may want to do this over a more efficient rate because you might just need a few more points to redeem an entire block of 10,000 miles, for example.

For: People who need a bit more points on their existing cards.

Questions?

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