Will the ATO be forced to accept credit cards?

The Australian Taxation Office has announced it will stop accepting credit cards as payments from 1 December, in response to the Reserve Bank's reforms to ban surcharge fees on card payments. The ATO says absorbing the surcharge would effectively transfer the cost to all taxpayers, but the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry wants the decision reversed. So what does the change mean for small businesses that use credit cards to manage their cash flow?