@Involver wrote:So you did get upset.
At least you admitted it.
And they are the same thing.
It's not like you're buying money with credit.
You're potentially overpaying a debt you owe, the difference of which is returned to you. It's like paying $100 at the grocery store for a $20 item and getting change.
put another way if one were to maximize contributions to 401k's flex-med hsa's and claimed higher exemptions and happened to owe at year end rather than over payment throughout the year... If when you file you happen to owe instead of giving the irs a tax free loan, then you could pay ypor balance when it is due with a cc? yeah, that makes sense.
Current Score: EX 712 4/28/15, TU 713 4/14/14 lender pull, EQ 723 9/16/15, 740 EQ bankcard 8 6/1/15 lender pull
I really don't see the value of continuing this conversation but a couple of notes:
They ALL jacked up the fees by 3 points from last year, why do you think they did that? They'll keep doing it to price the rewards cards out of the market if they continue to lose money on their services.
I know of precisely one card that can get better than .13% off it though there may be one or two others I'm unaware of, and you can do WAY better than that with easy investments with even marginal interest rate over the time period involved for their to return the money, that don't involve giving the government an interest free loan. They charge us interest when we're late (in addition to penalties), it doesn't work in reverse when they owe us money. The taxes you'd pay on the interest of the investment on a 1099-DIV or whatever still wouldn't make the rewards a good deal regardless of tax bracket.
Finally you are begging for additional IRS attention, and frankly that is never, ever, a good thing. If I never have to talk to the IRS again in my life that will be too soon.
/sermon
ETA: I am still going to be paying via CC this year like most years (until the fees become unjustifiable) and on a 2% card, but overpay... there's way easier ways to make more money. As another thought, we know lenders look at the transaction log, if suddenly they see something suspect in the stream of data on a large tax payment, I'll bet it gets flagged by the lender too. Again something to be avoided where possible.
@Revelate wrote:I really don't see the value of continuing this conversation but a couple of notes:
They ALL jacked up the fees by 3 points from last year, why do you think they did that? They'll keep doing it to price the rewards cards out of the market if they continue to lose money on their services.
I know of precisely one card that can get better than .13% off it though there may be one or two others I'm unaware of, and you can do WAY better than that with easy investments with even marginal interest rate over the time period involved for their to return the money, that don't involve giving the government an interest free loan. They charge us interest when we're late (in addition to penalties), it doesn't work in reverse when they owe us money. The taxes you'd pay on the interest of the investment on a 1099-DIV or whatever still wouldn't make the rewards a good deal regardless of tax bracket.
Finally you are begging for additional IRS attention, and frankly that is never, ever, a good thing. If I never have to talk to the IRS again in my life that will be too soon.
/sermon
ETA: I am still going to be paying via CC this year like most years (until the fees become unjustifiable) and on a 2% card, but overpay... there's way easier ways to make more money. As another thought, we know lenders look at the transaction log, if suddenly they see something suspect in the stream of data on a large tax payment, I'll bet it gets flagged by the lender too. Again something to be avoided where possible.
Agreed. It really doesn't make much sense to overpay....Perhaps if there was a 3-5% any purchase card with no limit.. 
But with the current crop of rewards cards it makes no sense. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:I really don't see the value of continuing this conversation but a couple of notes:
They ALL jacked up the fees by 3 points from last year, why do you think they did that? They'll keep doing it to price the rewards cards out of the market if they continue to lose money on their services.
I know of precisely one card that can get better than .13% off it though there may be one or two others I'm unaware of, and you can do WAY better than that with easy investments with even marginal interest rate over the time period involved for their to return the money, that don't involve giving the government an interest free loan. They charge us interest when we're late (in addition to penalties), it doesn't work in reverse when they owe us money. The taxes you'd pay on the interest of the investment on a 1099-DIV or whatever still wouldn't make the rewards a good deal regardless of tax bracket.
Finally you are begging for additional IRS attention, and frankly that is never, ever, a good thing. If I never have to talk to the IRS again in my life that will be too soon.
/sermon
ETA: I am still going to be paying via CC this year like most years (until the fees become unjustifiable) and on a 2% card, but overpay... there's way easier ways to make more money. As another thought, we know lenders look at the transaction log, if suddenly they see something suspect in the stream of data on a large tax payment, I'll bet it gets flagged by the lender too. Again something to be avoided where possible.
Agreed. It really doesn't make much sense to overpay....Perhaps if there was a 3-5% any purchase card with no limit..
But with the current crop of rewards cards it makes no sense.
I don't know if even a 3% card like the JCB Premium Makurai would work honestly for residents of Calfornia and other states likely too. 1.13% at even six months (and it can take longer than that to get your money as I understand it) vs. what pretty much guarunteed 2.3% (annually, 1.15% over the same time period) tax free from a Cali municipal bond fund of various different types is just bad financial math still with none of the other drawbacks that I posited.
4-5% I still think there's better uses of the money in the same time period, and without the extra scrutiny from folks that you don't really want to meet in their professional capacity.
@Anonymous wrote:
I was reading about just this the other day and apparently JCB does not play nice with tax payments.
Doesn't surprise me.
That card is my unicorn application the day my last tax lien falls off my report, figures there would be some drawbacks haha.
@yfan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Is this out of potential jealousy of the OP?... I mean if you wanted to make a higher salary, school is always there and you can take out loans to invest in your future. But just becoming angry and refuting what the OP is saying doesn't make much sense. I'm sure the OP knows the risk to rewards are high, and this thread is just out of curiousity while he was filing taxes.
I don't know, but this comment just strikes me as condescending and just in plain poor taste. You don't know what option someone "always" has, and just because they made a general comment about playing with 20 grand doesn't mean they're "jealous."
Bunch of this thread was marginal, but compared to other things on this forum wasn't something I was going to get worked up over as a moderator.
I treat people like they're adults until they insist on being children, didn't need a heavy hand on this one in my opinion.