Pay property taxes by credit card

Tax
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Property taxes April due date is coming again :pensive:
I just realized that I can pay property tax of my rentals by credit card (San Mateo county) and the fee is 2.15%. I have a credit card give me a 2% reward. As far as I know, payment fee is deducible in my schedule E and reward is not taxable. Is it a good idea to use my credit card to pay? Am I missing something important or credit card is the default payment method you all big landlords have already been using :sweat_smile:?

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Wow, did you just find a big loophole? :tada::confetti_ball:

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hmmm I searched more about itā€¦
https://www.plastiq.com/
With this, we can play mortgage, utilities and almost everything by credit card and then deduct themā€¦
It seems like that startup was built on the top of the loopholeā€¦

But is it too good to be true?

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You will still be paying the difference in fee. you can also use bank account with $15 as flat fee or using higher discounted credit card.

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You can get greater than 2% with Bank of America credit card with platinum preferred rewards. Look it up

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Ask Apple to let you make property tax payments at the app store for 3% cash back using the titanium card :ghost:

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I donā€™t think any option from both the 3% categories list or 2% categories list will cover property tax. If I miss it, let me know. If it is 1%, then even platinum honors preferred rewards will bring you to 1.75%

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Yes, the fee will certainly be higher than the reward. But after considering tax consequence (as fee is deducible and reward is not taxable), it seems it is a net gain to use credit card in general, am I right?

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BofA cards

Travel Rewards card

Instead of earning an unlimited 1.5 points for every $1 you spend on all purchases everywhere, every time - you could get up to 2.62 points for each $1 you spend

Premium Rewards card

You could earn up to 3.5 points for every $1 you spend on travel and dining purchases and up to 2.62 points for every $1 you spend on all other purchases.

~~Bogleheads thread on paying taxes by card:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=276677&p=4454252&hilit=bank+of+america#p4454252

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You naughty naughty tax cheaters ā€¦ errā€¦ optimizers.

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Wow thank. I am holding the cash reward card and not aware that there are other 1.5% Premium Rewards card out there. :+1:

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You have to be a preferred rewards client with BofA to get up to 2.62 points per dollar though (checking account with certain balance thresholds plus a whole bunch of other things). If you donā€™t have a BofA account you can use the Chase Freedom Unlimited to get 1.5 points for every dollar and then redeem your rewards from your Chase Sapphire Reserve card to get 50% bump on redemption.

But all of the above is probably too many hoops to jump through so the simplest way is just to use the Citi Double Cash card (best no fee card ever).

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Those are great options too. I use double cash myself.

For Bank of America, one can park some etfs or index funds to quality for their rewards program. Not too hard and donā€™t need to move everything. Itā€™s just another option.

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Now, I understand the benefit you are talking, good ! For many years, I have been using online payment only, it is easy and up to date.

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Niceā€¦ good job, you just earn yourself a good dinner,
Next time you need free labor to fix your house, hire undocumented ppl. when theyā€™re almost done and need to pay them salary, call ice ā€¦ Free laborā€¦

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Ugh what?

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if you want to increase your cashback by paying with credit cards, look into paying the PG&E bill.
One of my smaller MF properties has a PG&E bill between $600 and $1,400/month for me.
PG&E does not charge a % but a flat fee of $1.25 for the use of the card.

That one works even ā€œbefore taxesā€, and even for low-income folks who pay no taxes.

What would be nice? If PG&E would allow me to lump all monthly bills into ONE payment (say $5,000) and charge me only $1.25 for it. I think itā€™s not possible unless you put all properties into one billing account (a big no-no to me).

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Good point as well. Since PG&E doesnā€™t charge a late fee, I wait for the 2nd bill to come so I can pay 2 periods at once and just pay the fee once.

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Why not pay a year in advance. Basically gives PGE a free loan but saves 1.25x12 in fees.

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Settle credit card bill with another credit cardšŸ’”