IRS Payments & Refunds are Changing
In March 2025 an executive order was signed that requires all federal payments to be made electronically, and the IRS issued guidance that paper check payments will be phased out starting September 30, 2025. What does this mean for you as a taxpayer? This will affect how refunds and tax payments are handled.
Refunds: Clients will need to provide direct deposit (bank) information in order to receive refunds, physical checks will no longer be mailed.
Extension, return balance, and estimated payments: These will need to be made electronically online through an approved payment site, physical checks will no longer be accepted by the IRS.
Several states have already moved to only working with electronic payments and it is expected that with the executive order, the rest of the states will work to upgrade their systems to be fully electronic.
Attached are two documents that provide some general instructions on how to make electronic payments on the IRS and PA websites. These sites also offer their own guidance directly as well. Below is a small list of payment sites- all instruction letters included in “Action Item” files on your portal will always have links to the appropriate payment sites as well.
Federal, IRS payments: https://www.irs.gov/payments
Pennsylvania payments: https://mypath.pa.gov/_/
Philadelphia payments: https://tax-services.phila.gov/_/
New Jersey payments: https://www.nj.gov/treasury/
Delaware payments: https://revenue.delaware.gov/payment/
We highly encourage any clients who opt to receive or send physical checks to make the transition now to making and receiving payments electronically. While the IRS will currently accept physical check payments during this transition, electronic payments are encouraged to avoid delays. We will continue to monitor the IRS for guidance on this electronic transition and will provide updates as they are released. At Hark Maskarinec, PC, we are here to provide high quality service with the highest ethical standards in the business of CPA firms.