February 3, 2026
Paying Taxes with a Credit Card
Pam
Each year, we pay our estimated taxes and final tax bill by credit card. Is it worth paying your taxes with a credit card? I hate writing a check for taxes and getting nothing back. Taxes are hard enough to pay anyway, right?
Paying your taxes with a credit card can make sense for points and miles, but only in specific situations. The key is whether the value you gain outweighs the fees and risks.
The Basic Math
The IRS allows credit card payments through approved processors, and they charge a fee. Here are the two processors that currently allow this, along with their fees:
So, the question is, are the rewards worth more than the fee for paying by credit card. Yes, it can make sense. If not, you are paying extra for nothing. Here are situations where it does make sense.
1. You Are Earning a Large Welcome Offer
This is the most common and strongest reason for us.
Example:
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Spend $4,000 to earn 75,000 points
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Points are worth ~$1,000+ in travel
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Processing fee on $4,000 at 1.87% ≈ $75
You are effectively buying $1,000 in travel for $75. That’s a great trade, and paying taxes makes even more sense when I am trying to meet a minimum spend on a card with a very high minimum spend such as the American Express Platinum Card®.
Rule of thumb:
If the tax payment helps you earn a welcome offer, it is usually worth it.
2. You earn 2%+ in transferable or flexible rewards
Sometimes, you just need more points and miles but can’t open a credit card at the time. Paying taxes makes sense if:
Your card earns:
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2 transferable points per dollar, or
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a flat 2% cash-equivalent return
Then the math can work, or at least help you break even. This is something I don’t do often.
Examples:
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2 points per dollar worth ~2.0–2.2% each
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Flat-rate 2% cards with no caps
This is thin-margin territory. It works best if you value the points above the points-per-dollar average and plan to pay taxes anyway. Neither of these methods works or makes sense if you can’t pay the balance in full. Travel is not free if you pay interest!
Real-Life Example
You can use two credit cards to pay your tax bill, so I picked ones with high minimum-spend requirements. My Player 2 and I each opened the Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
The offer at the time was 110,000 American Express Membership Rewards® per person after a $15,000 minimum spend. I also referred my P2 from my card and earned an additional 35,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points. Note: Offers and terms vary, and these were my offers and terms at the time, a few years ago.
These now have an annual fee of $895, but were $695 when I opened them. I could offset most of it with benefits and credits. After all, I am the queen of using my credits.
I got 1.5 points per dollar spent on my taxes, which amounted to earning a grand total of 45,000 points + 35,000 points for the referral + 220,000 points for the welcome offers.
Total points earned: 300,000 American Express Membership Rewards®
I can fly to and from Florence in business class with part of my miles earned by paying my taxes!
Bottom Line
Paying taxes is NOT fun! If you can earn a welcome offer that leaves you with a nice stash of miles, it takes a little bit of the sting out of it. I will continue to get new credit cards to pay my income taxes in the future, because the value works well for me! You should do the math and figure out if this is an option that might make sense for you.
Related Posts
How I Earned Two Free Hyatt Nights by Paying My Taxes
It Can Be Worth It to Pay an Annual Fee
Review of American Express Platinum Card®
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I’m new as of yesterday and my mind is racing and overwhelmed but know this is par for the course! This particular blog is huge for me considering I paid $46k in taxes last year as a small business owner! I’m wondering if it’s worth doing the kids college bills as well. I’ve not used a card as there are fees attached but it’s going to be doing the math to see if it works.
When you are meeting minimum spend an getting a big bunch of points it IS always worth it in my book. You can see that the math played out in this post. It may not work if you are just using a card you already have and only getting points for that spend. That is why I always open a new card or two whenever I have to pay taxes. I would do the same with my kids college bills – get that new card then.
Newbie here! I’m so appreciating all of your content! I’d hoped to pay my taxes with my new Chase Ink card and like Alex, was planning to hit the whole minimum spend doing so. But I was surprised to find the credit limit was only 3K, which won’t cover my taxes (or meet the minimum spend of that card in one fell swoop). Am I missing an obvious way around this? Thank you!
Newbie here! I’m so appreciating all of your content! I’d hoped to pay my taxes with my new Chase Ink card and like Alex, was planning to hit the whole minimum spend doing so. But I was surprised the credit limit was only 3K, which won’t be enough to cover my taxes (or meet the minimum spend of that card in one fell swoop). Is there an obvious way around this that I am missing? Thanks!
I would pay $3000 and then pay off your credit card and pay another $3000. I paid mine with two different credit cards and had to go into the site again this way.
Thank you for replying! I didn’t realize this was possible. Final question, promise. Do you mean that you can do this within minutes? As in, I can pay a purchase up to the credit limit, then go to the credit card website and pay that off, then go back to the purchase website and finish paying, even when the payment is still pending on the credit card? Truly, thanks again so much.
You will need to wait until it has posted as a credit – that may take a day or two.
Thank you for this post! I was able to meet minimum spend on my husband’s and my new cards by paying our taxes – at least this way we can enjoy a couple of free nights with our kids in Orlando.
Awesome – it’s so nice to get something nice for paying taxes!
My husband has been self employed for years but, because we have several children, our tax liability is low or even zero. Is it possible to go ahead a pay a quarterly tax payment each quarter knowing that at the end of the year we would have paid in too much and just wait for the refund ( but still get to put money on a cc)?
Whoah, I am not a tax specialist so have no idea on this! Anyone?
I’m fairly sure you CAN do this but you are in effect just giving the government a 0% interest loan. You could still do this as long as you can float it. I have considered just paying higher for my last quarter tax so that I don’t have to wait as long to get my refund.
That works too!
Do you also pay estimated taxes each quarter? Can you tell me the best way to set this up if I can pay with my cc?
Yes, I do pay estimated taxes each quarter with credit cards. You can use up to two a quarter so that is nice. I just go to the IRS site and choose “Make a Payment”, then pick pay with a credit card (often using two). It’s super easy – I don’t mail those slips in that you get from an accountant.
Love all this info!! Thank you so much!!
Jess, what is the Dell credit you were referring to that off set your annual fee for Amex?
Thank you SO much!
The Dell credit is for the American Express Business Platinum card. Look at the benefits section, you have to enroll first.