[matt-p]

Interchange average in the UK was about 0.2% last time I looked (which was a few years ago), it't not much anyway.

Also the government doesn't really do card transactions. I imagine this is for fairly rare things like renewing your passport, booking a driving test or buying a title copy. Oh and visa fees maybe? Small beer anyway, it's not like people are paying taxes via card.

[nocorrect83]

Interchange as a standalone might be low but scheme fees are about the same nowadays. Aydens provide a detail breakdown per transaction, for example on a UK consumer credit card there's sometimes 8 different line items (interchange, ayden markup, various scheme fees), one generally does not get out under 0.5% on interchange++ even in the UK on the most favourable cards. When you're on interchange pricing with either Stripe, Adyen or another big boy you're paying extra for AVS, 3DS, and several other scheme services. No one is walking away with 0.2% all in. A lot of people find these Visa and Mastercard published PDFs for interchange and think that's cheap, but reality is when the schemes got their nuts tightened on interchange fees they just spread the loss by marking up various scheme services and mandating them. John still want's his Avios points even in Europe/UK.

The gov.uk runs card transactions for dozens of services - which add up - from car tax, driver license renewal, passport replacements, to paying previous NI years (do you consider this tax?) and so on..

[iancarroll]

0.5% is a pretty incredibly low interchange rate in any case. But if you are saying that half of it is going to scheme fees, I doubt it is funding rewards programs for consumers.

[martinald]

Why do you think that? People definitely pay taxes by card.

But regardless this contract is _not_ for HMRC payments, its for gov.uk pay which is basically a centralised service that other services can use.

[helsinkiandrew]

GOV.UK pay has done £9.2B in payments in the last decade, with an average of £67

https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/performance/

A very crude calculation for £1B a year in payments (thats probably too low) would mean a payment to Ayden (contract is upto £25M over 3 years) of 0.8%

[ralferoo]

Most of the things I pay on the government website (except vehicle tax renewal), so basically tax, I've been pushed towards a one-off direct debit each time instead of a card payment.

[nly]

Most underpaid taxes are collected via a change in tax code for the following year.

[bigfatkitten]

> Small beer anyway, it's not like people are paying taxes via card.

I do. If I’m going to give the government a big pile of money, I may as well earn some points for my trouble.

[mahmoudimus]

They charge a surcharge when you pay by card, don't they?

[bigfatkitten]

They do, but with the redemption value I still end up ahead.

[JBorrow]

Not in Europe, where there are strict limits on credit card surcharges

[derektank]

My state government certainly does

[TreeInBuxton]

Depends on the tax - I pay my vehicle tax through the gov.uk website!

[edoceo]

With CC or bank transfer?

[TreeInBuxton]

By credit card, it's quite useful for the reward points - I'm fairly sure it was MC and Visa only (no AMEX) last time I did it, though that may change with this new payment provider

[properbrew]

Paying UK corporation tax can be done with a personal credit card.

[Tinkeringz]

Isn’t it illegal to pay a corporate entities tax with a personal card?

If it isnt it would be one hell if a headache with reimbursement and the accounting and reporting around it.

[properbrew]

I imagine it is a bit of a headache, but it is an available option you can choose.

Has to be a personal debit (not credit) card - https://www.gov.uk/pay-corporation-tax/debit-or-credit-card

[harvey9]

Road fund licence aka car tax is probably the most common thing that lots of people pay for regularly.

[ndsipa_pomu]

In the UK, the so-called car tax is an emissions tax (i.e. electric vehicles pay £0) and doesn't pay for road maintenance etc. Roads are paid for out of general taxation (e.g. income tax). Actual road tax ended in 1937.

I feel this is worth correcting as "don't bloody pay road tax" is a common form of abuse aimed at cyclists which is wrong on a number of levels. A lot of cyclists also drive a car and non-driving cyclists would fund roads if they pay tax. Another way to think about it is that the emissions tax for cycles would be zero anyway.

[elFarto]

The tax for electric cars is normally £200 after the first year or £20 for electric cars older than 2017.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Ah yes - looks like they changed it in 2025.

[CamouflagedKiwi]

And Companies House - still relatively rare though, like one payment of £50 per company per year.