If you’ve filed your tax return, your job may not be quite finished yet: If you owe money, you also need to actually pay your taxes.
Luckily, when it comes to paying your federal tax bill or your estimated taxes, you have a lot of options — all with different requirements and costs.
Here are nine ways to send a tax payment to the IRS.
1. IRS Direct Pay
One of the easiest ways to pay the IRS is via the agency’s Direct Pay feature. This method is free, and you can make payments directly from your bank account.
“Not only is this the quickest method, but it is also the most secure, so long as the taxpayer practices safe computer habits,” says Daniel Shomper, a certified financial planner and senior associate wealth manager at Fairway Wealth Management in Independence, Ohio.
“Tax-related scams are especially frequent around tax due dates, so it is best to go directly to the official IRS website and to avoid using links sent by unknown emails or phone numbers, no matter how legitimate they may seem,” he says. Read about 5 tax scams and how to stay safe.
Visit the IRS main Direct Pay page to make a payment this way. The service is available Monday through Saturday, 12:00 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. ET, and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. ET. Note that you can’t make more than two payments within 24 hours.
2. Electronic Funds Withdrawal
If you’re filing your taxes electronically via IRS Free File (the government’s free tax prep filing program), another tax filing software program or through a tax professional, you can opt to pay with Electronic Funds Withdrawal (EFW). You’ll request direct debit payments from your bank account, and can schedule payments up to a year in advance.
The IRS doesn’t charge fees to use EFW, but individual financial institutions may.
3. Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
Another option offered by the federal government for paying your taxes is the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Unlike with the Direct Pay option, you’ll need to register for EFTPS, which requires a tax identification number — your Social Security number or Employer Identification Number, or EIN — a PIN and password.
It can take up to five days to process registration, so plan ahead. You can schedule payments up to a year in advance. EFTPS is free.
4. Credit or debit card
While you can pay the IRS over the phone or online via a debit or credit card, you’ll have to use one of the third-party payment processors the agency works with: Pay1040 or ACI Payments. Both come with fees.
- For debit card payments, Pay1040 charges $2.15 and ACI Payments charges $2.10.
- For credit card payments:
- Pay1040 charges 1.75 percent of your payment amount; ACI Payments charges 1.85percent
- Both have a $2.50 minimum fee
- Both processors accept the following cards: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, STAR, Pulse, NYCE, Accel, AFFN, Cirrus, Interlink, Jeanie, Shazam and Maestro.
- They also both accept digital wallets Click to Pay and PayPal, but only ACI Payments accepts Venmo.
5. IRS2Go mobile app
The IRS has an app that allows you to make payments via IRS Direct Pay: IRS2Go. You can make direct payments from your bank account (for free) or make a credit or debit card payment subject to the fees listed above.
The app, which is available for both iPhone and Android, can also be used to check your tax refund status.
Read about the tax refund schedule and how long it takes to get your tax refund.
6. Same-day wire transfer
Depending on your financial institution, you may be able to initiate a same-day wire transfer for your federal tax payment. You’ll need to complete the IRS’ same-day wire taxpayer worksheet, which asks for your tax identification number, the type of tax and other information, and bring it to your bank. Keep in mind that the IRS will reject wire transfers sent after 5 p.m. ET and return them to your bank.
The cost of wire transfers varies from bank to bank (or credit union) but domestic wire transfers tend to range from $0 to $35.
7. Check or money order
If you want to send a check, money order or cashier’s check, make it payable to the U.S. Treasury and send it along with Form 1040-V. The check should include your name and address, phone number, Social Security number and the tax year.
If you decide to pay via a check in the mail, it may be wise to take the envelope to the post office yourself rather than dropping it in the mailbox, Shomper says.
“This way, you reduce the chance that your check will be intercepted or lost in transit,” he says. “Using a secure envelope that prevents someone from seeing inside is also crucial to keep your sensitive personal and bank information safe.”
Once at the post office, Shomper recommends sending the envelope via certified mail, which provides tracking, and requesting a return receipt to ensure it arrives at the correct destination.
8. Cash
You can’t mail cash payments to the IRS. However, you can pay with cash at a retail partner store, which can be found at Dollar General, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and others. You can find a participating store near you via the VanillaDirect map.
You’ll need to visit the website of one of the payment processors (ACI Payments or Pay1040) and provide your tax information. Then, you’ll receive a confirmation email from the payment processor, and a second email with a link to your payment barcode once the IRS verifies the information. You’ll take the barcode and cash to a participating retailer that will accept the cash. The fee is $1.50 per cash payment.
You may also be able to pay with cash at a local IRS office. You can find one near you on the IRS’ Taxpayer Assistance Center Office Locator.
9. IRS installment or payment plan
If you’re not able to pay your taxes when they’re owed, you can apply for a payment plan with the IRS, which is an agreement outlining how you’ll pay your taxes over an extended timeframe. Short-term payment plans require you to pay the full amount in 180 days or less, and are available if you owe less than $100,000. Long-term payment plans — also called installment agreements — give you more than 180 days and are available if you owe $50,000 or less.
Short-term payment plans have no setup fee, but long-term payment plans do. If you apply online, there’s a $22 setup fee if you pay monthly through automatic withdrawals or a $69 setup fee if you pay another way. If you apply by phone, mail or in-person, those fees jump to $107 and $178, respectively. If you’re a low-income taxpayer, the fee for payment plans set up with automatic monthly payments can be waived, and the fee for other types of payments can be reduced to $43 and potentially reimbursed if certain conditions are met.
Here’s more about what to do if you can’t pay your tax bill.
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