Citi PayAll offering 2 mpd earn rate for income tax payments – with a catch

For the last three years Citi’s PayAll facility, which allows you to settle a range of bills or invoices with your Citi credit card even when the merchant does not necessarily accept that as a payment method, has featured a fantastic offer with up to 2.5 mpd available across all payment types on its miles-earning cards.

Good news is that the latest deal is back again in 2024 – just in time for income tax season!

There’s some bad news this time round though:

• PayAll has hiked its service fee from 2.2% to 2.6%, having already increased it from 2% in 2023, meaning the promotional 2 mpd earn rate for income tax payments this year comes at a cost of 1.3 cents per mile (2023 – 1 cent per mile, 2022 & 2021 – 0.8 cents per mile).
• PayAll is only offering 2 mpd for income tax payments if you also spend at least S$5,000 in non-tax transactions, which have a promotional earn rate of only 1.6 mpd, and that means committing to a large chunk of spend at a far less appealing 1.63 cents per mile.

These changes make the PayAll promotion a lot less attractive and a lot less flexible than it has been in recent years, with previous offers boasting a promotional earn rate for all payment types, subject to an aggregate minimum spend across any of them.

It means that this year you’ll have to calculate more carefully whether the PayAll deal is worth it for you, depending on what other credit cards you hold, since both CardUp and ipaymy are repeating their 1.75% income tax payment deals with a Visa card, which allow you to buy miles from as little as 1.07 cents each.

On the plus side, Citi Miles and ThankYou Points earned via this offer are arguably the most flexible in Singapore, transferring to no fewer than 10 different frequent flyer programmes at good transfer ratios, which may also factor into your consideration.

Citi is also offering an S$80 GrabGifts voucher for the first 2,000 cardholders to spend at least S$8,000 on a single card during this promotion, in addition to the enhanced earn rates, effectively driving down the cost of non-tax payments to 1 cent per mile.

Promotion summary

The following table summarises the earn rates and gifts you can achieve during this promotion, based on your spend on a single eligible card, with the Citi PremierMiles card used as an example.

Total Spend (in non-tax categories)	Earn Rate		S$80 GrabGifts Voucher*
	Non-tax spend	Tax spend
S$5 – S$4,999	1.2 mpd	1.2 mpd
S$5,000 – S$7,999	1.6 mpd	2 mpd
S$8,000+	1.6 mpd	2 mpd

* First 2,000 cardholders only

As you can see the key to this deal is unlocking the enhanced earn rates by making at least S$5,000 in non-tax category spend, which is potentially unfortunate if you were looking at using PayAll only to settle your income tax payment this year.

That’s not too surprising though – Citi wants to get people used to using PayAll for a wider range of payments on a regular basis, not just once every tax year for IRAS, then never again until an identical deal comes around.

1.6 mpd non-tax bonus offer

Between 22nd April 2024 and 31st July 2024, Citi is offering eligible cardholders the option to earn 1.6 mpd for non-tax transaction spend using PayAll.

Your minimum aggregate total spend in non-tax transactions using the service during this period (regardless of the total number of transactions) must be at least S$5,000 on a single eligible card, to trigger the enhanced earn rate on all payments processed, on that single eligible card.

Non-tax spend with PayAll includes settling a range of bills and invoices, including Education Fees, Taxes, Rent and Insurance Premiums. Here’s a complete list.

• Education Fees
• Rent
• Insurance Premiums
• Renovation Fees
• Property Agent Fees
• Wedding Expenses
• Condo Management Fees
• Child Care Services
• Domestic Helper Service Fees
• Donation or Charity Payment
• Electricity Bills

• Event Management Fees
• Membership Fees
• Maintenance Fees
• Medical Services
• Payment for Retail Goods and Services
• Parking
• Professional Services Fees
• Storage
• Travel Expenses
• Transport Fees
• Utilities

Eligible cards for this promotion are:

• Citi ULTIMA Card
• Citi Prestige Card
• Citi PremierMiles Card
• Citi Rewards Card

This deal elevates your card’s usual earn rate for these PayAll payments to 1.6 mpd for any PayAll payment made between now and 31st July 2024, subject to your total non-tax payments on a single card across the three months of the offer being more than S$5,000.

There’s no need to set up recurring payments or meet a minimum / maximum number of transactions. Provided you hit S$5,000+ total non-tax spend across multiple payments on a single card – you’ll be eligible.

The upper limit for bonus miles earning is set at a generous S$150,000 spend per customer, in aggregate across both the non-tax and tax payment promotions.

Even if you already participated in the recent 1.8 mpd Citi PayAll promotion that ended in February this year, you’re eligible once again for this new deal.

Bonus mpd and the new cost per mile are as outlined in the following table for the miles-earning eligible cards in the promotion.

Citi PayAll Promotion
Non-tax Payments

Card	Earn rate	Cost per mile (2.6% fee)
Citi ULTIMA   APPLY	1.6 mpd (no bonus)	1.63¢
Citi Prestige   APPLY	1.3 mpd 1.6 mpd
Citi PremierMiles   APPLY	1.2 mpd 1.6 mpd
Citi Rewards   APPLY	0.4 mpd 1.6 mpd

Note that to qualify for the promotion, your Citi PayAll Payment set-up date(s) must fall within the promotion period of 22nd April 2024 (10am) to 31st July 2024 (11.59pm). The successful charge date(s) must be on or before 6th August 2024 (11.59pm).

If you set up any payments prior to 22nd April 10am that haven’t been processed yet, but which will fall in the promotion window, you’ll need to cancel them and set them up again for the amount to qualify towards the minimum spend for this offer, and for the 1.6 mpd deal itself.

2 mpd tax payments bonus offer

If you unlock the 1.6 mpd non-tax payments bonus offer outlined above (and only if you do), you’ll also be eligible for a promotional earn rate of 2 mpd on any IRAS tax payments made through PayAll between 22nd April 2024 and 31st July 2024.

This includes:

• Individual Income Tax
• Property Tax
• Other Tax Types
• Composition Fees

That unfortunately means you’ll have to spend at least S$5,000 at 1.6 mpd, which is equivalent to buying 8,000 miles for 1.63 cents each, in order to tap the 2 mpd tax promo, to buy further miles at 1.3 cents each.

Eligible cards for this promotion are the same as for the non-tax bonus element:

• Citi ULTIMA Card
• Citi Prestige Card
• Citi PremierMiles Card
• Citi Rewards Card

You don’t need to meet the S$5,000 in non-tax transactions before making a tax payment necessarily, but you must achieve the former requirement within the promotion period for the enhanced 2 mpd earn rate to take effect for the tax payments.

The minimum spend for tax transactions at 2 mpd under this offer is only S$5 (the PayAll minimum for a single payment), provided you have unlocked the promotional earn rate with S$5,000+ of non-tax spend.

The upper limit for bonus miles earning is set at a generous S$150,000 spend per customer, in aggregate across both the non-tax and tax payment promotions.

Even if you already participated in the recent 1.8 mpd Citi PayAll promotion that ended in February this year, you’re eligible once again for this new deal.

Bonus mpd and the new cost per mile are as outlined in the following table for the miles-earning eligible cards in the promotion.

Citi PayAll Promotion
Tax Payments

Card	Earn rate	Cost per mile (2.6% fee)
Citi ULTIMA   APPLY	1.6 mpd 2 mpd	1.3¢
Citi Prestige   APPLY	1.3 mpd 2 mpd
Citi PremierMiles   APPLY	1.2 mpd 2 mpd
Citi Rewards   APPLY	0.4 mpd 2 mpd

Again to qualify for the promotion, your Citi PayAll Payment set-up date(s) must fall within the promotion period of 22nd April 2024 (10am) to 31st July 2024 (11.59pm). The successful charge date(s) must be on or before 6th August 2024 (11.59pm).

PayAll also supports tax payments by instalment, so you potentially can spread the cost of your tax bill over this promotion if you have a GIRO arrangement set up.

Basically in this case you can meet or overpay owed amounts in individual months, potentially cancelling out subsequent GIRO payments, but you cannot overpay your total tax owed.

If you have set up any tax payments via PayAll prior to 22nd April 10am that haven’t been processed yet, but which will fall in the promotion window, you’ll need to cancel them and set them up again for the amount to qualify for this 2 mpd offer.

Just use one card during this promotion

Remember only PayAll spend on single card counts for bonus points or bonus miles earning during this promotion.

For example, if you make S$6,000 of non-tax PayAll payments using your Citi PremierMiles card and S$5,000 of non-tax PayAll payments using your Citi Prestige card during the promotion, only the card with the most accumulated spend will benefit from the enhanced earn rate on offer, in this case the PremierMiles card, despite the minimum spend having been met on both cards.

It’s therefore important to choose (and stick to) a single card for PayAll payments from now until the end of July 2024, if you’re participating in this promotion.

Remember that if you’re using a Citi ULTIMA, Prestige or PremierMiles card, the ThankYou Points or Citi Miles accrued will never expire, whereas if you use a Citi Rewards card the ThankYou Points accrued will fall under a (complex!) expiry system.

When are the bonus miles credited?

Initially you’ll earn the regular earn rate for your eligible Citi card when making PayAll transactions during the promotion period (e.g. 1 ThankYou point per S$1 for the Citi Rewards Cards).

This also reflects in the app when setting up your payment – so don’t worry.

The bonus miles, making up the applicable difference to 1.6 mpd or 2 mpd (either in equivalent ThankYou points or Citi Miles) will be credited within 16 weeks from the end of the promotion period, which is by 20th November 2024.

That’s a heck of a long wait for the bonus miles – 7 months from now – and once again is another major downside of the promotion this year.

S$80 GrabGifts voucher

If you are among the first 2,000 cardholders to hit S$8,000+ in non-tax transaction spend (under the 1.6 mpd offer) on a single card, you’ll be eligible to receive S$80 in GrabGifts vouchers.

Only one voucher can be awarded per customer.

That’s in addition to getting the enhanced 1.6 mpd / 2 mpd bonus earn rates for the payment as outlined above, which will also be triggered in this case.

It’s unfortunate that this part of the deal is capped, but 2,000 customers is a relatively generous eligible total, so we dare say if you were able to push through this spend in the coming days it’s likely that you’ll be picking up the voucher.

At 2.6% fee, the S$80 rebate is equivalent to completely cancelling the 2.6% fee charged for the first S$3,070 of payments, meaning you can effectively generate miles for 1 cent each with S$8,000 of payments, if you put ‘face value’ on the reward (and you actually get it!).

As with the bonus miles, the vouchers are also credited within 16 weeks of the end of the promotion period for those eligible – by 20th November 2024.

Average cost per mile

Since you’ll only be able to unlock the 2 mpd earn rate for tax payments during this promotion by making a hefty commitment to S$5,000+ of non-tax spend at a lower earn rate, you’ll never be able to truly access the 1.3 mpd cost per mile across all spend.

Here’s an example of the actual cost per mile you can achieve, which is optimised (lowest cost per mile) with only S$5,000 of non-tax spend and the highest tax spend possible.

Citi PayAll Promotion
Average Cost per Mile

Non-tax Spend	Tax Spend	Total Fee	Total Miles	Cost per Mile
S$5,000	S$2,500	S$195	13,000	1.50¢
S$5,000	S$5,000	S$260	18,000	1.44¢
S$5,000	S$10,000	S$390	28,000	1.39¢
S$5,000	S$20,000	S$650	48,000	1.35¢
S$5,000	S$35,000	S$1,040	78,000	1.33¢
S$5,000	S$145,000	S$3,900	298,000	1.31¢

At the top end, if you managed to max out the deal with S$145,000 of PayAll tax transactions during the promotion and S$5,000 of non-tax transactions, hitting the S$150,000 bonus cap exactly, you’d be generating 298,000 miles for a fee of S$3,900 (1.31 cents each).

More realistically though for many of our readers, a non-tax spend of S$5,000 and tax bill of S$10,000 means buying miles at 1.39 cents each.

Citi Miles / TYP are very flexible

While this PayAll deal is certainly a lot less generous than it has been in recent years, one of the best things about Citi Miles (and Citi ThankYou points like those you earn with the Prestige or Rewards card) in Singapore is the wide range of transfer partners compared with other bank loyalty points.

You can transfer your miles into 10 different frequent flyer programmes and on the hotel side into IHG points.

Here’s how Citi compares to other banks in Singapore.

= All miles cards for this bank
= HSBC: Only for the T1 card (all HSBC cards from 28th May 2024)

Our comprehensive guide also gives examples of some of the alliance and partner airline redemptions you can achieve that you might not have considered before.

As you can see from the table above, Citi gives you a wide range of flight redemption options including Oneworld and SkyTeam carriers.

While you might therefore be able to achieve a lower cost per mile through the likes of CardUp and ipaymy using cards like the DBS Vantage for income tax payments this year, you are then potentially restricting yourself to a much narrower selection of frequent flyer partners for the miles accrued.

For example, we’ve recently transferred Citi Miles / TYPs into British Airways Avios and Qatar Airways Avios, for great value intra-Asia Cathay Pacific and Bangkok Airways redemptions, plus cheap Finnair Business Class awards to Europe.

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for these promotions, which includes some payment illustrations, can be found here.

Citi PayAll is back with its April promotion in time for the 2024 Income Tax season this year, but unfortunately it’s far less generous and quite a bit more complex than it has been in recent years.

While the headline cost per mile for tax payments at 1.3 cents per mile remains very attractive, despite being 30% higher than last year, there’s another big catch.

You’ll have to buy at least 8,000 miles for 1.63 cents each on non-tax transactions, in order to tap the 2 mpd tax promo, to then buy further miles at 1.3 cents each.

For many readers with 1.4 mpd+ Visa cards like the UOB PRVI Miles Visa and the DBS Vantage Visa, this year’s 1.75% fee deal through CardUp and ipaymy allows you to buy miles at more competitive rates for income tax payments in 2024.

One downside there is less flexibility, since Citi offers arguably the most useful transfer partner list in town, opening up great alternative redemption options to KrisFlyer and offering increased protection against devaluations.

There’s an extra sweetener for the first 2,000 customers who spend at least S$8,000 in non-tax transactions during the promotion, in the form of an S$80 GrabGifts voucher, equivalent to completely cancelling any fee charged for the first S$3,070 of payments, if you put ‘face value’ on the reward.

(Cover Photo: mimisim / Shutterstock)