Credit card tax payments

The 1.5% fee charged by HMRC to taxpayers who pay their tax by credit card is being replaced by several rates.

After reviewing its rate charging policy the department has decided to impose fees depending on the type of credit card used and whether it is personal or corporate. The costs recovered by HMRC for credit card use will not exceed the cost that it is charged.

The changes are intended to ensure that HMRC recovers the costs for credit card use charged by the card providers. They take into account an EU Regulation introduced in December 2015 which capped at 0.3% the ‘interchange’ element of the charge for personal credit cards. Corporate credit cards are unaffected.

The new rates vary from 0.374% on a personal MasterCard World Premium credit card to 2.406% on a corporate MasterCard Purchasing card.

For details see the Fees for Payment of...