topic Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs? in Credit Cards

Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

GZG — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 23:09:30 GMT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn9vbEsdeo0

the video claims Amex no longer considers tax payments to be eligible spend for SUB bonuses

anybody have any DPs to suggest this is true?

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

K-in-Boston — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 01:15:00 GMT

As with the overwhelming majority of click-bait YouTube videos, the producer of the video is clueless. Amex does not grant bonuses hours after making a charge, before settlement data has even been sent by the merchant. (This would be like getting points for the $200 authorization at the pump before the gas station settled the charge for $52.15.)

We should all know not to take information given by chat reps and CSRs as the absolute truth, and they were mistaken that these payments are considered cash equivalents. Amex points earnings are not updated in real time. The YouTube personality received the Welcome Offer based off previous spending, including the tax payment, and not from paying rent hours earlier.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

FireMedic1 — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:41:04 GMT

I got CB for paying my taxes with Discover thru the IRS third party CC payment folks. Re-adjusted what they take out to cover next year.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 19:08:04 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
As with the overwhelming majority of click-bait YouTube videos, the producer of the video is clueless. Amex does not grant bonuses hours after making a charge, before settlement data has even been sent by the merchant. (This would be like getting points for the $200 authorization at the pump before the gas station settled the charge for $52.15.)

We should all know not to take information given by chat reps and CSRs as the absolute truth, and they were mistaken that these payments are considered cash equivalents. Amex points earnings are not updated in real time. The YouTube personality received the Welcome Offer based off previous spending, including the tax payment, and not from paying rent hours earlier.

Right, but he is quoting chats from a rep, with what she says is the qualified amount.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

danzig47 — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 20:05:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
As with the overwhelming majority of click-bait YouTube videos, the producer of the video is clueless. Amex does not grant bonuses hours after making a charge, before settlement data has even been sent by the merchant. (This would be like getting points for the $200 authorization at the pump before the gas station settled the charge for $52.15.)

We should all know not to take information given by chat reps and CSRs as the absolute truth, and they were mistaken that these payments are considered cash equivalents. Amex points earnings are not updated in real time. The YouTube personality received the Welcome Offer based off previous spending, including the tax payment, and not from paying rent hours earlier.
Right, but he is quoting chats from a rep, with what she says is the qualified amount.

I went back and re-watched the end of the video after @K-in-Boston's post, and if you look at the dates on the transaction and the clock on his machine, it is definitly not the rent that put him over - that transaction wouldn't have even cleared yet. So, what really happened is he did finally get credit for the tax payment, it just took a while, and the CSR was wrong.

I am actually in this exact same boat - just made a tax payment that should put me over for a sign up bonus. I'll report back what happens so everyone has the data point.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

Dadof31978 — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 01:26:49 GMT

it's true i didn't get mine over tax payments.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

K-in-Boston — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 01:56:06 GMT

@Dadof31978 wrote:
it's true i didn't get mine over tax payments.

Data points would be helplful, but something has to be amiss. I've had no problems with Amex when paying using one of the three official companies the IRS supports.

American Express has a very good track record of clearly communicating policy changes such as this in advance. Quarterly estimated taxes were due just a few weeks ago. If this spend no longer counted as qualified spending, this would be a massive story in places such as FlyerTalk and DoC. Instead, this is someone clearly just not understanding how American Express operates, and that chat agents and CSRs from virtually all lenders may occasionally give incorrect information. Annual and estimated tax payments are a major driver of achieving high spend threshholds for certain Amex cards, such as MQM bonuses on Delta Platinum and Reserve cards (at $25k and $30k increments), Delta MQD waiver for Diamond Medallion at $250k, and Centurion Lounge access for guests at $75k spend on Platinum and Business Platinum charge cards.

Amex spend trackers and points earnings are not updated in real time.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

Junejer — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 02:26:16 GMT

@GZG wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn9vbEsdeo0

the video claims Amex no longer considers tax payments to be eligible spend for SUB bonuses

anybody have any DPs to suggest this is true?

Didn't watch the video, but I got my bonus for my tax payments.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

danzig47 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 19:23:05 GMT

Just following up here as promised. The tax payment counted towards ths sub for me and was the transaction that put me over.

For clarity sake - I don't have transactions after the tax payment that would put me over, it was definitly the tax payment.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

summerterrace — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:53:54 GMT

I was denied the sign up bonus for AmEx green when using it to pay taxes. I called CS and they said federal tax payments are excluded for sign up bonus purposes. I appealed and they still said no. So at least for me they didn't allow it. Btw, I paid my taxes due with my 1040 and used one of the authorized processors.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

MarkintheHV — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 08:27:00 GMT

4/15/2023, I paid my taxes and on my BBP business card and I got my 15k membership rewards.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

wasCB14 — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 06:26:32 GMT

State, not Federal, but...

Amex Delta retention 30k posted for a 7/19 California FTB payment via ACI.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

bytechma — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 08:24:55 GMT

I know this is an older post I but I paid my Federal taxes last week with the Blue Business Plus card for roughly $5k. My spend requirement was $8k. I had about $4k in spend before the tax payment. A few days ago the 50k MR points showed up on my account.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

AndrewF — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:42:35 GMT

Resurrecting this post because we just got an elevated Blue Business Cash SUB.

$500 when you spend $6,000 in 4 months.

I figure I'll put the IRS bill on it and see what happens. Either it will work or it won't. Card's coming in maybe a week or so.

Will come back and say whether it worked for us.

Re: Amex no longer allowing Tax payments to count towards SUBs?

AndrewF — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:09:40 GMT

The tax bill did count towards the bonus for us on the Blue Business Cash, so the answer seems to be that AmEx allows it, at least when the payment processor is Pay1040.