Paying Estimated Taxes Online
Since I have self-employment income and thus no automatic withholding, I need to make it up with extra payments to the IRS. Although I could just do this by adjusting my wife’s withholding like last year, I decided to start keeping it separate and just pay quarterly estimated taxes. TurboTax was nice enough to help figure out how much I needed to send in for 2006, but you can also use the worksheet on Form 1040-ES.
You can pay by check, but I found it easier just to do it via electronic bank transfer at EFTPS.gov (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System). It took a couple weeks to get my login information by mail after signing up online, but scheduling my e-payment was easy enough.
April 7th, 2006 at 6:17 am
Wow, I didn’t know you could pay estimated taxes online. I’ll have to check it out.
Saving me the trip to the post office to send a check by certified mail every quarter will be nice.
Thanks for the tip!
-Grant
April 7th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This hasn’t become an issue with me just yet but I was going to start researching on this very topic. Thanks for sending me in the right direction!
April 7th, 2006 at 6:34 am
Can you pay with credit card at the IRS site? It’d be nice if you could get rewards pts for paying taxes.
April 7th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Dan, according to the IRS publication 505 document (on estimated taxes), you can pay estimated taxes online with a CC @ officialpayments.com or pay1040.com.
However there is a “convenience fee” of 2.49% so this would either wipe out (or greatly reduce) any CC rewards/points you earn.
April 7th, 2006 at 9:25 am
(Chris beat me to typing.)
EFPTS.gov makes an online ACH transfer from your checking account without fees.
OfficialPayments.com takes credit cards, but charges a fee of 2.49%, with minimum fee of $1. That is greater than my credit card cashback %, so I chose to stick to the bank transfer.
April 7th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Hi Jonathan I just want to let you know that I got the $100 bonus from Tradeking today. Very nice. Thank you.
April 9th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
when paying estimated taxes, do you need to send in tax forms? Or do you just send in the money?
April 9th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
If you mail the check in, you have to send in a form with it, so they know what it’s going towards and who’s sending it.
If you do it online, it’s already in the system, so nothing to send in. Another good reason to do it online!
April 10th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Glad to hear it’s workign for you. I cite your experience in the latest entry on my blog: link
June 5th, 2006 at 10:10 am
I liked this so much, I included it in the inaugural Carnival of Taxes that went up today (linked to my sig).
April 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I know this is an old thread, but in case anyone else is curious…
If you go to https://www.incometaxpayment.com you can pay all kinds of taxes quickly, effortlessly, and timely (same business day!) AND use your credit card if its a NYCE, STAR, or PULSE (flip your card over to know if yours qualifies). The nice thing is its a flat fee of $2.95. I owed $2000 per quarter, so that’s less than 1%. Can’t beat that deal!