Citi PayAll offering 1.8 mpd Income Tax promo – with a catch

In recent years, Citi’s PayAll facility – which lets you pay a wide range of bills and invoices using your Citi credit card, even when the merchant doesn’t typically accept card payments – has featured some compelling offers, including earn rates of up to 2.5 mpd across all payment types on its miles-earning cards.

The payment facility’s income tax deal for 2025 has now been launched, and unfortunately it’s even worse than 2024’s lacklustre offer, unlocking the top rate of 1.8 mpd (previously 2 mpd) only with a convoluted and annoying mixed spend requirement, for most customers.

Long story short:

• PayAll is only offering 1.8 mpd for income tax payments – a cost of 1.44 cents per mile – if you also spend at least S$6,000 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.

It certainly seems there were enough willing customers for this offer last year for the bank to effectively repeat it with an even lower earn rate for 2025, so sadly it does seem that the days of simple, unrestricted and cheap miles earning for income tax payments via PayAll are now be over.

That’s seen rates of 1 cent per mile offered in 2023, and just 0.8 cents per mile back in 2022 and 2021, but we can perhaps only dream of those rates now.

It means that once again 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.

This year you can also tap a 1.55% – 1.67% fee deal for income tax payments with a Mastercard via CardUp (capped at S$3,500 or S$5,000 for new and existing users respectively), or an uncapped 1.99% fee deal using a Mastercard or American Express card via ipaymy.

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$100 eCapitaVouchers for the first 3,000 cardholders to spend at least S$6,000 in non-tax payments during this promotion, in addition to the enhanced earn rates, effectively driving down the cost of non-tax payments to 0.58 cents per mile.

Additionally, this year those with a banking relationship with Citi, like Citigold customers, are exempt from the non-tax spend requirement and can pick up 1.8 mpd on tax payments straight away.

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.

Regular Citi Credit Card Customers

* First 3,000 cardholders to hit S$6,000 non-tax spend

As you can see the key to this deal is unlocking the enhanced earn rates by making at least S$6,000 in non-tax category spend, which is 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 12 months later.

Enhanced deal for those with a Citi banking relationship

If you have a banking relationship with Citi, there’s a better deal for you during this year’s PayAll tax promotion.

Citi defines the following customers as having a ‘banking relationship’:

• Citibanking / Citi Priority / Citi Plus, or
• Citigold with AUM ≥ S$250,000, or
• Citigold Private Client with AUM ≥ S$1,500,000

In this case, you won’t need to hit S$6,000+ in non-tax spend to unlock 1.8 mpd on income tax payments this year, meaning you can jump straight in with a tax payment at a cost of 1.44 cents per mile without any added complication.

The only element of the deal you won’t be eligible for in this case is the S$100 eCapitaVouchers – these still require S$6,000+ of non-tax spend.

Here’s how that looks based on your spend on a single eligible card, with the Citi PremierMiles card used as an example.

Citi Banking Relationship Customers

* First 3,000 cardholders to hit S$6,000 non-tax spend

1.6 mpd non-tax bonus offer

Between 18th April 2025 and 31st August 2025, 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$6,000 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.

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 August 2025, subject to your total non-tax payments on a single card across the four months of the offer being more than S$6,000.

There’s no need to set up recurring payments or meet a minimum / maximum number of transactions. Provided you hit S$6,000+ 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.

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 18th April 2025 to 31st August 2025. The successful charge date(s) must be on or before 4th September 2025.

If you set up any payments prior to 18th April 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.

1.8 mpd tax payments bonus offer

If you unlock the 1.6 mpd non-tax payments bonus offer outlined above (and only if you do, unless you have a banking relationship with Citi), you’ll also be eligible for a promotional earn rate of 1.8 mpd on any IRAS tax payments made through PayAll between 18th April 2025 and 31st August 2025.

This includes:

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

That unfortunately means unless you have a banking relationship with Citi you’ll have to spend at least S$6,000 at 1.6 mpd, which is equivalent to buying 9,600 miles for 1.63 cents each, in order to tap the 1.8 mpd tax promo, to buy further miles at 1.44 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$6,000 in non-tax transactions before making a tax payment necessarily, but you must achieve the former requirement within the promotion period for the enhanced 1.8 mpd earn rate to take effect for the tax payments.

The minimum spend for tax transactions at 1.8 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$6,000+ 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.

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 1.8 mpd	1.44¢
Citi Prestige   APPLY	1.3 mpd 1.8 mpd
Citi PremierMiles   APPLY	1.2 mpd 1.8 mpd
Citi Rewards   APPLY	0.4 mpd 1.8 mpd

Again to qualify for the promotion, your Citi PayAll Payment set-up date(s) must fall within the promotion period of 18th April 2025 to 31st August 2025. The successful charge date(s) must be on or before 4th September 2025.

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 18th April 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 1.8 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$8,000 of non-tax PayAll payments using your Citi PremierMiles card and S$6,000 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 August 2025, 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 1.8 mpd (either in equivalent ThankYou points or Citi Miles) will be credited within 12 weeks from the end of the promotion period, which is by 23rd November 2025.

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$100 eCapitaVoucher

If you are among the first 3,000 cardholders to hit S$6,000+ in non-tax transaction spend (under the 1.6 mpd offer) on a single card during the promotion period, you’ll be eligible to receive S$100 in eCapitaVouchers.

Only one voucher can be awarded per customer.

That’s in addition to getting the enhanced 1.6 mpd / 1.8 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 3,000 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 very likely that you’ll be picking up the voucher.

At 2.6% fee, the S$100 rebate is equivalent to completely cancelling the 2.6% fee charged for the first S$3,850 of payments, meaning you can effectively generate miles for 0.58 cents each with S$6,000 of payments, if you put ‘face value’ on the reward (and, of course, if you actually get it!).

As with the bonus miles, the vouchers are also credited within 12 weeks of the end of the promotion period for those eligible – by 23rd November 2025.

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Average cost per mile

Since you’ll only be able to unlock the 1.8 mpd earn rate for tax payments during this promotion by making a hefty commitment to S$6,000+ 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$6,000 of non-tax spend and the highest tax spend possible.

Citi PayAll Promotion
Average Cost per Mile

At the top end, if you managed to max out the deal with S$144,000 of PayAll tax transactions during the promotion and S$6,000 of non-tax transactions, hitting the S$150,000 bonus cap exactly, you’d be generating 268,800 miles for a fee of S$3,900 (1.46 cents each).

More realistically though for many of our readers, a non-tax spend of S$6,000 and tax bill of S$10,000 means buying miles at 1.51 cents each.

Citi Miles / TYP are very flexible

While this PayAll deal is certainly a lot less generous than it has been in the past, 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.

Singapore credit card transfer list
to FFP and hotel partners

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.

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Citi PayAll has returned with its April promotion just in time for the 2025 Income Tax season, but once again, it falls far short of earlier, more generous offers. The promotion retains the added complexity introduced in 2024, including the frustrating mixed spend requirement for most customers.

The spend requirement for non-tax payments at 1.6 mpd has also been hiked by 20% this year to S$6,000, before a lower 1.8 mpd rate (2 mpd in 2024) for income tax payments is unlocked.

One benefit is for those holding a banking relationship with Citi – this year there’s no non-tax spend needed for these customers – with immediate access to 1.8 mpd on tax payments from the get go.

While the headline cost per mile for tax payments at 1.44 cents per mile remains reasonable, here’s the main catch for non-banking relationship customers:

You’ll have to buy at least 9,600 miles for 1.63 cents each on non-tax transactions, in order to tap the 1.8 mpd tax promo, to then buy further miles at 1.44 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 2025.

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 3,000 customers who spend at least S$6,000 in non-tax transactions during the promotion, in the form of a S$100 eCapitaVoucher, equivalent to completely cancelling any fee charged for the first S$3,850 of payments, if you put ‘face value’ on the reward.

(Cover Photo: mimisim / Shutterstock)