How to pay your tax bill with a credit card in the UK
In 2018, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) imposed restrictions on using personal credit cards for tax payments, leaving individuals and businesses in the UK seeking alternative solutions. Luckily, a workaround already existed in the form of Curve Fronted. Curve Fronted enables you to pay taxes with a credit card where credit cards aren’t accepted e.g. HMRC. This can be a lifeline for freelancers and self-employed contractors who may need to spread the cost of their tax bill using the interest-free period on their credit card. It’s also a savvy way to capitalise on your credit card rewards programs. Those extra points could go a long way towards earning enough air miles for your next flight!
How to pay taxes with a credit card using Curve
If you want to pay your tax bill with a credit card – first things first, you’re going to need to download Curve. Curve is a smart digital wallet that connects all your cards in one and supercharges your money with rewards, insights and control. Load up your Curve Wallet with your credit cards and debit cards. You can even load your PayPal account. When you’re ready to pay your tax bill with a credit card, turn on the Curve Fronted feature in the app – this will unlock credit card payments for places like HMRC where they aren’t normally accepted. Then just select the credit card you want to use from your Curve Wallet. Whatever card is selected in the Curve app is the card that’s charged when you pay. You can order a physical Curve card from the app or add a virtual Curve card to your mobile device and use it straight away. Think of Curve as your whole wallet in a single card. Curve works with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Huawei devices. If you have a Samsung device, you can get a Samsung Pay+ card, which is powered by Curve and comes with all its unique benefits.
Should you pay taxes with a credit card?
So we’ve established that you *can* pay your tax bill with a credit card using Curve. But should you? Well that depends on a number of factors. For contractors and freelancers awaiting invoice payments while their tax bills loom, Curve Fronted offers a valuable solution. HMRC charge a 4% penalty on unpaid tax bills at day 30. Failure to pay could even result in a prison sentence, so Curve could quite literally be your get-out-of jail card in exceptional circumstances. Curve Fronted transactions come with a 2.5% fee for Curve Standard and Curve X customers. But Curve provides fee-free allowances for Curve Black and Curve Metal customers. Curve Black customers enjoy a fee-free allowance of £1000 per rolling 30 days, while Curve Metal customers benefit from a more substantial fee-free allowance of £3000 per rolling 30 days. When using a credit card to cover tax payments due to insufficient available funds, it's crucial to leverage the interest-free period offered by many credit cards. This approach helps avoid accumulating high-interest charges, especially when credit cards provide 0% interest for over 12 months. It's a strategic move to buy time without incurring additional financial burdens.
Earning credit card rewards on your tax bill
Curve Fronted opens up the opportunity to earn credit card rewards on tax payments. For those facing substantial tax bills, the accrued credit card points can offset the 2.5% Curve Fronted fee. This adds an extra benefit, turning a financial necessity into a rewarding opportunity. Several credit cards offer bonus points for reaching spending milestones. For example, HSBC provides an additional 2500 points for yearly expenses exceeding £10,000. The fee-free Barclaycard Avios card offers 5,000 Avios points for an initial spend of £1,000, and for those spending £20,000 within a year, a choice between a British Airways cabin upgrade voucher or 7,000 bonus Avios. Paying your tax bill with a credit card can take you over the spending threshold needed to nab those extra points and take advantage of introductory rewards programs.
The only way to pay taxes with a credit card
As Billhop stopped accepting personal customers back in April of 2023, Curve Fronted is now the only way to pay a HMRC tax bill with a personal credit card at the time of writing. But that's not all Curve is good for. As well as simplifying your financial life by connecting all your cards in one, Curve offers its own set of competitive rewards. Customers earn cashback every time they shop at places like Argos, Primark, Waterstones and more. All cashback builds up in a virtual Curve Cash card, which you can spend from just like any other card in your wallet. Download Curve and supercharge your money today.
