IRS Direct Pay .

Finance
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Estimated taxes being due this week, thought I would post this payment alternative:

Sure you can pay with a credit card and make money . . . . though not a lot. I can use that CC payment space to better advantage with my side hustle where I get to keep ALL of the profit. The IRS provides a friendly facility to help people in my situation avoid the US Mail. It’s called IRS Direct Pay:

Natch, the payment reaches the IRS via ACH.

Cost to the taxpayer: zero . . . . . except for the tax itself, of course. :wink:

Many states also offer a version of this way to pay.

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You are assuming one’s credit limit is, “limited” :slight_smile:

Also you forgot about debit cards.

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I used IRS Direct Pay for the first time today. Things went quite smoothly. I even was able to schedule the payment for tomorrow, when it’s actually due, leaving a lot of money in my savings for one extra day. Liked that.

In the past I paid estimated tax using a credit card. I got more back via my CC reward than the service fee. But this way I pay no service fee at all. I can use the CC credit thus freed up to buy other stuff (CDs) and pocket the entire reward as opposed to paying a portion of it out as a service fee.

Negative:

Using Direct Pay your payment to the IRS is pretty . . well . . pretty direct. So I lose the payment money out of my bank account straightaway. However:

Whatever I buy instead will still not need to be paid off for many weeks. So it all works out.

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Does it require you to give the IRS ACH access to your account?

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Yes, it does . . . . .

. . . in a manner similar to the data they receive when you ask them to send your income tax refund via ACH . . . . .

. . . . . or when you request your Social Security monthly payments be sent to your account . . . . . also via ACH.

Giving the government your ACH data is not particularly unprecedented.

It has been MANY years since the IRS has sent me a paper check . . . for anything.

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