CEO Spends 1.83 Million Amex Points to Pay Surprise Tariff Bill

CEO spends 1.83 million Amex points to pay surprise tariff bill

When a tariff bill for almost $11,000 arrived without warning, Robert Keeley reached for one of his last financial lifelines and cashed in 1.83 million American Express reward points to pay it. “It’s like a needle pin holding back a crack in the dam,” said Keeley, who runs Keeley Electronics, a guitar-pedal manufacturer with 35 employees in Oklahoma City. Keeley’s scramble is part of a broader reckoning for America’s smaller businesses, which ar…

A guitar pedal CEO used 1.83 million Amex points to settle a tariff bill

Keeley found a creative way to pay the surprise bill...

CEO Spends 1.83 Million Amex Points to Pay Surprise Tariff Bill

When a tariff bill for almost $11,000 arrived without warning, Robert Keeley reached for one of his last financial lifelines and cashed in 1.83 million American Express reward points to pay it.

Insight of the week: legally ditching higher duties

There are many ways to hoodwink the tax collector, one of them being tariff engineering. The actual practice can be traced back to 1882, when an importer in the United States had sugar coated with molasses to avoid higher duties imposed on lighter-coloured sugar. The Supreme Court ruled the act to be perfectly legal as long as the goods were truly invoiced. Similarly, Columbia