Starting this year, business owners will be able to pay [tag]employment taxes[/tag] — Forms 940 and 941 — with plastic.

For the first time this tax season, business owners who paid $1,500 or more in wages in any quarter of the previous year will be able to make federal business-tax payments on their American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa, the [tag]Internal Revenue Service[/tag] announced on Jan. 5.

On top of collecting air miles and other bonus points on their cards, small-business owners could cover employment taxes with a credit card payment, then — depending on cash flow — could hold-off on paying the balance on the cards until later in the month.