Fees for paying IRS taxes via PayPal trigger Venture Business software credit

A popular way to earn extra rewards is by paying personal and or business taxes with a credit card. In fact, we like doing so much that we wrote a whole post about it, and use it to compile current data on what works and what doesn’t.

In seemingly completely unrelated news, the recently renamed and revamped Capital One Venture Business card now comes with a $50 annual credit for “purchases at qualifying advertising or software merchants.”

Recently, we learned about an unexpected connection between the two from a member of our Frequent Miler Insider Facebook group. They had recently received a new Venture Business card and were working on the minimum spend for the welcome offer, so a tax payment seemed like a great idea.

They made the payment with the Venture Business card through PayPal via ACI Payments, one of the IRS’s main online payment processors. ACI charges a higher fee for business credit cards than for personal cards, but when paying with a business card through PayPal, the lower consumer fee is usually applied.

Like most processors, ACI charges the fee portion separately from the tax payment, so you actually see two charges: in this case, one for $2,000 and one for $37 (which were the fees on the tax payment). Much to their surprise, after the charges posted, the $37 fee was credited by Capital One via the Venture Business’s software credit.

Card Offer and Details

Capital One Venture Business ⓘ $1335 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates 100K Miles ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 100K miles after $10K spend in the first 3 months from account opening $95 Annual Fee Learn more Unlike many other Capital One business credit cards, the Venture Business doesn't report to personal credit reports. This card was formerly known as the Spark Miles for Business. Recent better offer: Earn up to 150K bonus miles: 75K miles after spending $7,500 in the first 3 months & an additional 75K miles after spending $30K in the first 6 months (expired 6/8/26) FM Mini Review: This card is similar to the Spark Cash Plus card, but it has the advantage that miles earned with this card can be transferred to a large number of airline & hotel programs. The three credits can help offset most or all of the annual fee. Earning rate: Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacations rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Business Travel ✦ 2X Miles everywhere Base: 2X (2.9%) Portal Hotels: 5X (7.25%) Card Info: Mastercard issued by CapOne. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: $50 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One Business Travel ✦ Up to an annual $50 statement credit for purchases at qualifying advertising or software merchants ✦ Up to $120 fee credit for TSA PreCheck® application fee or Global Entry application fee every four years ✦ Redeem miles for travel at value of 1 cent per mile ✦ Transfer Miles to airline miles & hotel points

In the past, we’ve seen some credit and debit cards process PayPal transactions as odd categories like online shopping, office supply…and software. We have no idea whether that’s what happened here, or whether it was Capital One that saw the small charge from ACI as a software or advertising merchant. My guess is the latter, since no credit was applied to the IRS payment itself.

Regardless, it seems the Venture Business software credit is a bit broader than it initially appeared. At the very least, being able to make (essentially) fee-free tax payments while earning rewards is a fun superpower for the card to have. I’ll be curious to see what other uses folks discover, especially when using PayPal.

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