Income Tax season is upon us once again in Singapore and CardUp has been one of the first payment providers to launch its discounted fee offers for 2023, allowing you to earn a large stash of points or miles towards future travel in the process of settling this sometimes significant bill.
In addition to extending a 1.75% fee for Mainly Miles readers using a Visa card to the end of August 2023, a discounted rate of 1.99% is now available for both new and existing customers using a local Mastercard to pay with the same cut-off date.
This Mastercard deal is only valid for one-off (lump sum) payments, unlike the unlike the Visa card offer, which is valid for one-off payments or an entire series of recurring (GIRO) income tax payments.
1.99% represents a 23% discount on the provider’s usual 2.6% fee when you use your credit card to settle these kind of payments, but it is still worth using the latest Citi PayAll deal instead if it’s a Citi miles-earning card you’re using to pay, which boasts a more competitive cost per mile under the bank’s latest promotion.
New Mastercard 1.99% offer
If you schedule a one-time income tax payment using CardUp between now and 31st August 2023, with a due date on or before 8th September 2023, you’ll be eligible for the discounted fee using the MCTAX23 promo code.
The offer is subject to the following terms and conditions:
- Valid for personal account users for a one-off income tax payment with a locally-issued Mastercard credit card.
- Valid on a payment scheduled on CardUp on or before 31st August 2023. The payment due date must be on or before 8th September 2023. Payments must be scheduled at least three business days in advance of the due date to allow for processing time.
- Enter the promo code MCTAX23 during the “Schedule payment” process when setting up payment details. The 1.99% CardUp fee for the eligible payments will be reflected before you confirm and submit payment.
- The promo code may only be redeemed once per user, and is valid for new and existing customers.
- The promo code is not valid to be used:
(a) with Visa, China Unionpay, American Express credit cards and credit cards issued outside of Singapore.
(b) with debit/preloaded cards.
(c) on any additional fees incurred for Next Day payments.
(d) on any payments in foreign currency
(e) in conjunction with any other promotions, offers or discounts.
There is no upper cap on the tax amount paid under this promotion.
| MCTAX23 |  |
1.99% | ||
| One-time IRAS income tax payment with a Singapore-issued Mastercard. | ||||
Cost per mile (Mastercard)
Here’s how the all-important cost per mile looks for some popular miles-earning Mastercard credit cards issued in Singapore.
You can refer to the latest full list of cards awarding points and miles for CardUp payments here.
Cost per mile – MCTAX23
| Card | Mpd | Cost per mile (1.99% fee) |
 UOB PRVI Miles MC |
1.4 | 1.39¢ |
 Citi Prestige |
1.3 | 1.50¢ |
 OCBC 90ºN MC |
1.3 | 1.50¢ |
 Citi PremierMiles MC |
1.2 | 1.63¢ |
 KrisFlyer UOB |
1.2 | 1.63¢ |
 BOC Elite Miles |
1.0 | 1.95¢ |
If you have a 1.3 or 1.4 mpd Mastercard, the cost per mile of 1.5 cents or less may be worth considering, but unfortunately for the more widely-held 1.2 mpd cards like the KrisFlyer UOB credit card a cost per mile of 1.63 cents isn’t so attractive.
You probably won’t want to be using the BOC Elite Miles card at a cost per mile of 1.95 cents.
Do remember that if you hold a Citi card, then provided your income tax bill is S$8,000 or more, or you have S$8,000+ of total payments to make via a card payment service on a single card between now and 20th August 2023, it’s far better to use the latest Citi PayAll promotion to pay your income tax bill as a lump sum this year.
That comes in at a highly competitive cost of 1 cent per mile, much better than you’ll achieve with this CardUp deal.
Extended Visa 1.75% offer
If you schedule an income tax payment using CardUp between now and 31st August 2023, with a due date on or before 31st March 2024, you’ll be eligible for the discounted fee using our Mainly Miles MMTAX23 promo code.
The offer is subject to the following terms and conditions:
- Valid for personal account users for a one-off income tax payment, or all payments in a recurring series.
- Valid on a payment scheduled on CardUp on or before 31st August 2023. The payment due date must be on or before 31st March 2024. Payments must be scheduled at least three business days in advance of the due date to allow for processing time.
- Enter the promo code MMTAX23 during the “Schedule payment” process when setting up payment details. The 1.75% CardUp fee for the eligible payments will be reflected before you confirm and submit payment.
- The promo code may only be redeemed once per user, and is valid for new and existing customers.
- The promo code is not valid to be used:
(a) with Mastercard, China Unionpay, American Express credit cards and credit cards issued outside of Singapore.
(b) with debit/preloaded cards.
(c) on any additional fees incurred for Next Day payments.
(d) in conjunction with any other promotions, offers or discounts.
There is no upper cap on the tax amount paid under this promotion.
| MMTAX23 |  |
1.75% | ||
| One-time IRAS income tax payment or all income tax payments in a recurring series with a Singapore-issued Visa card. | ||||
Cost per mile
Here’s how the all-important cost per mile looks for some popular Visa credit cards issued in Singapore.
You can refer to the latest full list of cards awarding points and miles for CardUp payments here.
Cost per mile – MMTAX23
| Card | Mpd | Cost per mile (1.75% fee) |
 Citi ULTIMA |
1.6 | 1.07¢ |
 DBS Insignia |
1.6 | 1.07¢ |
 UOB Reserve |
1.6 | 1.07¢ |
 DBS Vantage |
1.5 | 1.15¢ |
 UOB PRVI Miles Visa |
1.4 | 1.23¢ |
 Standard Chartered Visa Infinite |
1.4* | 1.23¢* |
 UOB VI Metal |
1.4 | 1.23¢ |
 OCBC 90ºN Visa |
1.3 | 1.32¢ |
 OCBC Voyage Visa |
1.3 | 1.32¢ |
 Citi PremierMiles Visa |
1.2 | 1.43¢ |
 DBS Altitude Visa |
1.2 | 1.43¢ |
 X Card |
1.2 | 1.43¢ |
* For SCVI 1.4 mpd is subject to a minimum spend of S$2,000 in the same statement cycle, otherwise 1 mpd. CardUp payments do count towards the minimum.
Even with one of the widely-held 1.2 mpd cards like the DBS Altitude Visa, an effective cost per mile of 1.43 cents is competitive.
For those lucky enough to have 1.6 mpd earning cards, the cost per mile drops to an excellent 1.07 cents.
For those with a large enough tax bill, that could mean earning enough miles for a one-way Singapore Airlines Business Class saver award to Tokyo (52,000 miles) for just S$558.97!
Again do remember that if you hold a Citi card, then provided your income tax bill is S$8,000 or more, or you have S$8,000+ of total payments to make via a card payment service on a single card between now and 20th August 2023, it’s far better to use the latest Citi PayAll promotion to pay your income tax bill as a lump sum this year.
How to pay
Whichever promotion you use, the process to pay your income tax bill with CardUp is quite straightforward. First log on to your account and press the ‘Create Payment’ button, then select the ‘Taxes’ icon.
After that, select the first option – ‘IRAS – Income Tax’.
You then need to enter your payment amount as per the outstanding tax balance as shown in your IRAS Statement of Account, or the monthly instalment if you’re using that method, plus select (or add) the relvant card you wish to use.
Don’t forget to refer to the cost per mile tables above, to make sure you’re using the card with the best earn rate for this payment if you have more than one in your wallet!
Next you’ll have to select your tax due date.
Your payment reference number is automatically pulled from the NRIC number registered on your CardUp account. This prevents any erroneous payments to the wrong tax accounts not tied to your own NRIC.
Then it’s the all-important PROMO CODE, where you can enter the MCTAX23 code (1.99% using Mastercard), or the MMTAX23 code for a 1.75% fee using a Visa card.
Note that the regular CardUp 2.6% fee shows initially, but once you proceed to the payment stage the discount will be reflected.
Once you click ‘Continue’, you will be required to upload an up-to-date copy of your Statement of Account, showing your Name, NRIC, Outstanding balance and date of outstanding balance for CardUp to verify your payment.
You can pay the full outstanding amount, the monthly instalment, or a lower amount, but you cannot overpay your taxes because this makes IRAS very upset.
Here’s how it looks for a S$10,000 income tax payment with the MCTAX23 code applied:
As you can see, the reduced fee of 1.99% (usually 2.6%) then applies. In the above example an income tax payment of S$10,000 now carries a fee of S$199 (1.99%) instead of S$260 (2.6%).
Here’s how it looks for a S$10,000 income tax payment with the MMTAX23 code applied:
In this case an income tax payment of S$10,000 now carries a fee of S$175 (1.75%) instead of S$260 (2.6%).
Monthly payments are an option for Visa cardholders
One downside of the 2023 discounted income tax deal from CardUp when it first launched was that if you wanted the provider to settle your monthly GIRO instead (see here for details), the discounted fee when using the promo code with a Visa card only applied for the first monthly payment.
Thankfully that’s been resolved with the MMTAX23 code (Visa at 1.75%) – which is also good for all recurring payments.
Simply set up your payment with the appropriate start and end dates and the promo code will be applied to all of them.
Unfortunately the MCTAX23 code (Mastercard at 1.99%) does not support recurring payments and is only valid for a one-time income tax settlement, as mentioned above.
Not received your IRAS NoA yet?
Don’t worry if you haven’t received your bill yet and/or don’t have a ‘Notice of Assessment’ date showing at the online IRAS portal. NOAs will be sent out right through to September 2023, so your tax liability may be in a later ‘batch’.
CardUp has thankfully extended its Visa payment offer (1.75%) for Mainly Miles readers and launched this new Mastercard offer (1.99%) with an expiration of 31st August 2023, which should cover you.
For those using the excellent Citi PayAll promotion, do be aware this is valid for payments (including Income Tax) made until 20th August 2023.
Summary
CardUp has added a 1.99% fee offer for Mastercard holders when paying a one-time IRAS income tax bill between now and 31st August 2023.
Apart from Citi cards, which benefit from the excellent (and frankly unbeatable) PayAll offer, this represents the cheapest way to generate miles through your income tax payment with a Mastercard this year.
For Visa cardholders, CardUp has extended its 1.75% fee offer to Mainly Miles readers through to the end of August 2023, and added the option to apply this every month when paying your income tax by GIRO instalment.
Links on Mainly Miles may pay us an affiliate commission.
(Cover Photo: CardUp)