The IRS continues to struggle posting and processing taxpayers’ mailed payments. We recommend that you electronically pay the IRS as its website, IRS.gov. In addition to quicker and more accurate processing, the IRS does not charge a fee for direct debits from a bank account. (If you choose to pay the IRS via debit or credit card, you will be charged a convenience fee.)
The IRS website can be tricky. You will be asked to verify your information which will be compared to your most recently filed tax return. Your input must EXACTLY match the IRS records.
Directions for making electronic payments from your bank account are as follows:
- Go to IRS.gov/payments
- Click Tab for Bank Account (Direct Pay)
- Click Make a Payment
- Reason for Payment – Choose Balance Due if paying taxes owed from a tax return filing or Estimated Payment if you are making a quarterly payment
- Apply Payment – For Tax Owed, choose Tax Form 1040. (This section is grayed out for estimated payments)
- Tax Period for Payment – Choose the tax year the payment should be applied to
- The next section is for verification purposes – the IRS will verify your information based on the last tax return that they have processed. If you use the most recently filed return information, and it does not work for verification, it may not have been processed yet by the IRS; you may have to try the previous year for verification.
- The name, address and filing status must match exactly with the IRS records. Regardless of the year you choose for verification, we recommend that you utilize a copy of that year’s return for reference.
Be patient; remember that it takes the IRS several weeks to process and post a tax return to their database. If you are unable to match the required information using your most recently filed return, then choose the previous year for your verification year.
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