Pay Federal tax with a debit card

I found this over on Ken’s website and thought it was interesting.

Axios: A $4.7 million debit charge

The taxpayer made forty-seven grand.

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talk about heavy hitter. I need to up my debit card game. Hell at 4.7MM even a 2.5% card would work well

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Good tip about PayUSAtax. 0.3% less doesn’t seem worth the headache to pick the other two. (unless you’re doing paypal)

Only thing I don’t like about Pay1040 is they don’t have acct. payment hx. You need to keep track of CC# etc for look up.

1% debit cards ? Only one I have is Discover and that doesn’t work :frowning:

On Jiko, I guess you can call it a fintech but since they do own an actual bank so you can’t go wrong either way.

Whether they’re worth it depends on how much you owe the IRS I guess. Definitely worth it at $4.7M. Plus there are other places where you have much lower fees for using debit vs. credit so if you find yourself making a lot of these type of expenses, it may be worth it. I know my utility company and my real estate taxes are one example where debit vs. credit makes a difference and may make it worth forgoing the typical 2% cash back from credit cards.

I may go with them for my real estate taxes honestly. They charge 2.35% if using credit card but 0% for using debit.

I use my Citi Double cc for same. Also use for IRS payment & estimated taxes. This month is a biggee. :blush:

got my Jiko invite, but I’m a bit leary. Any downside risk with THEIR T Bills setup (I know about default fiasco some years go, )

Their other caveat is that they are currently free. But I’ve read that they plan on having a $9/month fee some time in 2021 making the proposition much less palatable. It may still be worth it for some but that monthly fee will offset some of the gains obviously.

I’m with you on being cautious however. I also got my invite but haven’t setup my account yet. I may test the waters first. Since there is no minimum, I think I’ll initially only keep a nominal balance on it until I have a bill I need to pay with it. Then I’ll ACH money and hope everything goes smoothly.

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yes what is the Jiko deposit return exactly?

Are there any other 1% Debit options?

Supposedly insured by SIPC up to $500k.

But the safest options may be to just ACH enough to cover your Debit card charges a few days before you need to make them. That way, outside of those times right before you make payments, you leave very little on the account itself to lose (since there is no monthly fee currently and no minimum balance).

Deposits are invested in T-bills by units of $100 so whatever the T-bills return is basically it as far as I understand.

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So not worth it from a deposit perspective yet What Are the Rates on Treasury Bills in 2020? - TheStreet

Rates are shooting up, if sustained I might move money there IF safe .Currently getting .7% @marcus with referral

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Yesterday was tax payment day for estimated taxes.

I attempted repeatedly to pay using PayUSATax because their service charge is the lowest.

No dice.

There was something wrong with their website.

PayUSATax continues to be listed as a service provider by the IRS. But I have heard bad things about the quality of their service.

Finally, after reloading and making several attempts, I just gave up and used both of the other two services to make my payments. It cost me a small amount of money. But the minimal potential saving at PayUSATax was just not worth the hassle.

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I used them a few weeks ago without any issues. They probably got overwhelmed by procrastinators :smile:

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I handle 3 sets of tax returns and have used all 3 processors without issue. You cannot expect all websites to be up 24x7. Even bank websites can be down when you need to make last minute transfers.

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As a data point, I used Jiko for both my 2021Q1 estimated tax payment as well as a 2020 extension payment so I can later request $5K in I-bonds with my 2020 return. Used payUSAtax for a $2.55 fee per payment. No issues.

I just used them to pay my taxes via Jiko and did not run into any issues with how promptly they submitted the payment to the IRS. That said, since I was 3 weeks ahead of the deadline, I didn’t risk much either if they had a slight delay.

But back to Jiko, they notified me that the paying of IRS taxes with 1% cashback was ending on May 29th Announcement here. May be enough time to make second quarterly tax payment but it’s too bad that they won’t keep it going after that.

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Each processor has its issues and limitations.

ACI (Official Payments): Didn’t work with Visa (at least the MetaBank ones) for a long time. Now both Visa and MC work fine.

Pay1040: Didn’t work with MC (at least the MetaBank ones) for a long time. Now both Visa and MC work fine. However, nothing worked in the past 2-3 days.

PayUSAtax: MC from MetaBank still does not work. Visa works.

These limitations can change at anytime, so don’t load up on the debit cards and expect them to work in the future.

Has anyone paid with Pay1040 in the past week? Either cannot get to the payment page, or the payment wouldn’t work.

With thanks and a tip of the cap to Shandril, here is my most recent data point:

Taking my cue from Shandril I tried today, once again, to pay with PayUSATax. This time I encountered no difficulty, and of course I saved a tiny amount of money as compared with the other two payment services.

My payment was for several thousand dollars and was applied to my 2020 tax payments. Last time back in April, when I was unsuccessful as reported up thread, the payment was for estimated tax.

OK, so I’m a few days early. Made no difference since my CC statement just closed. Also, I wanted to avoid the payment crush I anticipate several days hence.

Bottom line, the entire process went very smoothly, I have my printed receipt, and I’m a happy camper all paid up.

ETA

Probably should have mentioned both my failed attempt back in April and today’s success involved use of the same Visa credit card.

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As reported by several people on DOC as well, Metabank Visa and Mastercard GCs no longer work with Pay1040.

Update: As of 5/27/2021, both work again.

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