New credit card payment fees take effect

Newsletter issue - May 2016

Clients may be interested to know that HMRC have introduced a new schedule of fees, which apply from 1 April 2016, and replace the former 1.5% fee. The new rates vary depending on the type of card used and whether the card is a personal or corporate card.

Broadly, the fees for paying using personal credit cards have been reduced and the rates for corporate credit cards have increased. The new rates can be found in the schedule to The Fees for Payment of Taxes, etc. By Credit Card Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/333).

For personal credit cards, the fees are as follows:

• VISA Personal Credit Card - 0.415%
• MasterCard Personal Credit Card - 0.386%
• MasterCard World Premium Credit Card - 0.374%
• MasterCard Signia Premium Credit Card - 0.606%
• MasterCard Elite Premium Credit Card - 0.606%

For corporate credit cards the fees are as follows:

• VISA Business Credit Card - 1.508%
• VISA Corporate Credit Card - 1.744%
• VISA Purchasing Credit Card - 1.755%
• MasterCard Business Credit Card - 1.973%
• MasterCard Corporate Credit Card - 2.248%
• MasterCard Purchasing Credit Card - 2.406%
• MasterCard Fleet Credit Card - 2.134%

According to the explanatory memorandum to the Regulations, the change is being made to ensure HMRC recover the costs for credit card use charged by the various card-providers. The rates for personal credit cards are capped to 0.3% of an element (called the 'interchange' element) by an EU regulation introduced in December 2015. This cap does not apply to corporate credit cards.