IRS.gov Estimated Tax Payments - New?

[PaunchyPirate]

Some of you may have seen a post I made on another thread about how my EFTSP login appears to gone away. I have gone thru the process to request access again, but am waiting the US Mail letter that sends your PIN.

In the meantime, I decided I wanted to make a Estimated Tax payment for 2023 since it appears my income will be a tad higher than I was expecting due to all this wonderful bond interest, brokage bonuses, etc. that I have received this year. I was planning on using IRS Direct Pay.

I decided that I would sign into my IRS.gov account (via ID.me authentication) just to make sure everything looked good there before I made the estimated payment.

I happened to notice that there was a "Make a Payment" button which I assumed was for payment plans and maybe delinquent payments. But lo-and-behold, it also had an option for Estimated Payments. I went thru the process and it let me make an estimated tax payment for 2023 from my checking account. You can do this with a credit card too, but it says that will link to an external site, so I assume it charges a fee to do this. The process worked fine. It gave me all the normal tracking numbers you would expect so you can prove it was paid.

Also, after paying it, I looked and found "Payment Activity" on the site and can see my new payment as Pending. But also, there is a view into all my past payments for previous years. I can see payments I made with filed returns as well as EFTPS payments made for estimated payments thru the years (back to 2019 when I started using EFTPS).

It does NOT let you set up scheduled payments for future dates. It refers you to the IRS Direct Pay website for that.

I really don't see a need for me to use EFTPS any longer. I never set my payments up in advance. This seems to help with one-stop-shopping for my IRS account.

I THINK, this is all new. I don't recall seeing this ability on my account in the past. Or did I just never see it?

 

[audreyh1]

I recently had to go through login.gov to access EFTPS. Since I already had an account set up with login.gov I was able to access EFTPS - still have to login there too. I think they are just using login.gov to do 2FA. I think you can use ID.me as well.

No, I hadn’t noticed the payment options at IRS.gov. I looked at it recently, but I was just looking at account records, so I ignored any payment button.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I recently had to go through login.gov to access EFTPS. Since I already had an account set up with login.gov I was able to access EFTPS - still have to login there too. I think they are just using login.gov to do 2FA. I think you can use ID.me as well.

No, I hadn’t noticed the payment options at IRS.gov. I looked at it recently, but I was just looking at account records, so I ignored any payment button.

audreyh1, the problem with my EFTPS account is not related to login.gov or id.me as far as I can tell. I have both of those set up and working fine. I use them on other sites. In fact they work fine on the EFTPS site. Both successfully return me to the EFTPS login page to enter the EFTPS credentials. That is where it fails. My credentials that previously worked on that sight no longer work. I tried to re-set my EFTPS password, thinking that might be the problem (even though I use a password manager for all my passwords) and it says it can't find an account to reset. I have no idea what is up with that. On Thursday, I just decided to re-enroll in EFTPS. It accepted my re-enrollment process and says it's sending me a PIN to use, which is the last step in getting set up. We will see.

But as I said in my post above. I doubt I'll use EFTPS again since I can do it all directly in my IRS.gov account now.

 

[audreyh1]

I only do scheduled payments, so I use EFTPS.

 

[Midpack]

I only do scheduled payments, so I use EFTPS.

+1. I just used ID.me to add MFA, easy peasy. I adjust each quarterly estimated payment some anyway, so I don't schedule them. Reminders tell me when to pay.

 

[jebmke]

I think Direct Pay allows setting up scheduled payments. I don't think one can have a bank link stored to avoid having to re-enter bank account details every time. I confess I have never used DP since EFTPS does everything I need.

 

[Sunset]

I have done the direct payment for years, until this year when I decided to try the EFTPS and schedule for the entire year at one time.

Don't know if this direct payment option is the same one OP is discussing, but it ends up at the same place, and no login required.

 

[lemming]

Fine you made me go in and pay my quarterly early. I use the direct pay . I had an EFTPS account years ago . The hoops you go through are not worth the setup to me.
Although it is nice to have the payment scheduled I hate the surprise deduction moment when I see something on my checking account for that much money. A trade off I suppose.
I take a lot out of my RMDs which I do twice a year. I want to stop with the quarterly payments but am concerned they will gripe. They like the consistancy of the quarter .

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I guess I'll add a little nudge to this thread as the original poster. There is another post already about using EFTPS that also incorporates discussions of using login.gov. That thread can be found here:

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/heads-up-eftps-now-requires-new-login-120128.html

The primary point I was trying to make with this separate thread is that, for those of you that have a IRS.gov account, you can now make estimated tax payments using that account. Having an IRS.gov account has proven very valuable to resolving issues for both me and my mother in recent years. There is a wealth of info in the account for each tax return you file and have processed. Having the ability to now be able to pay estimated tax payments in the same account is a big improvement. If you haven't created an account at IRS.gov, I would suggest that you should. It's a good thing to look over how your returns are processed and such. And it will help provide information should you have any problems with a return that is filed.

For those of you that wish to continue using EFTPS or Direct Pay, I'm fine with that too. I get it. I'm not looking to change you! I just wanted people to see there is another option. And it works great for my needs.

 

[COcheesehead]

I have used IRS direct pay before. It’s been around for awhile. The biggest benefit is no need for a PIN which if you need to make a payment within little time, takes awhile to get in the mail.

 

[Gumby]

..... If you haven't created an account at IRS.gov, I would suggest that you should. It's a good thing to look over how your returns are processed and such. And it will help provide information should you have any problems with a return that is filed.....

As someone who was rejected multiple times when trying to set up EFTPS, I immediately seized upon your original post to set up an IRS.gov account. It was not difficult, and now I may finally start e-filing my taxes. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[braumeister]

Both successfully return me to the EFTPS login page to enter the EFTPS credentials. That is where it fails. My credentials that previously worked on that site no longer work.

I think there is probably a timeout in the system. I had an EFTPS account that mysteriously disappeared after not using it for a number of years. That sounds like what happened to you as well. I just registered for a new account and that went through just fine. I'll have to remember to use it to make a payment at least once every year or two.

 

[gauss]

I was surprised to see that the MFA authentication step took place PRIOR TO the normal login.

This is the opposite of the normal convention on other sites where you login first then perform your 2FA/MFA step (often by entering a SMS code).

I had a prior login.gov site setup so the initial MFA step was fairly trivial (just approve sharing my email address with the IRS.)

FWIW I had also setup an id.me account a few months ago when IRS.gov began requiring it exclusively. I was pleased to see that EFTPS seemed to accept either of my existing login.gov or id.me accounts.

-gauss

 

[audreyh1]

EFTPS has multiple login credentials per user. Each login credential establishes a different bank to use. So they do the 2FA first. It’s a bit odd but it’s how they configured it long ago.