To pay your 940 taxes online through EFTPS, enroll at eftps.gov, wait about a week for the Treasury to mail you a PIN, then log in with your EIN, PIN, and password and schedule a payment against Form 940 using tax period “12.” The deposit has to be scheduled by 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time at least one calendar day before the due date for the IRS to treat it as timely. Everything else is filling in the amount and saving your confirmation number.
The one thing that trips people up is the enrollment lead time. You cannot pay through EFTPS the same day you sign up, because the system mails a PIN to your business address before your account works. If a deposit deadline is close, register now.
Enroll in EFTPS Before Your First Deposit
Enrollment happens at eftps.gov. You’ll need your Employer Identification Number, the business name and address exactly as they appear on your most recent tax return, your bank’s routing number and account number, and a contact phone number.
After you submit the enrollment form, the Treasury mails a Personal Identification Number to the business address on file. Expect it in five to seven business days.1Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Welcome to EFTPS Online Once the PIN arrives, log back into eftps.gov, enter the PIN with your EIN, and create an internet password. That combination of EIN, PIN, and password is what you’ll use for every future login.2Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
How to Schedule a 940 Payment in EFTPS
Log in at eftps.gov with your EIN, PIN, and password, then choose the option to make a payment. The system walks you through four pieces of information.
1. Select Form 940 and the Tax Period
Choose Form 940 as the tax form. When EFTPS asks for the tax period, select “12” for December. Form 940 is an annual return, so the valid tax period ending is always month 12 no matter which quarter triggered the deposit.3EFTPS.gov. Payment Instruction Booklet Enter the two-digit tax year, for example “25” for a 2025 deposit.
2. Enter the Deposit Amount
Type in the exact dollar amount you want withdrawn. EFTPS does not calculate the FUTA liability for you.
3. Pick a Settlement Date
The settlement date is the day the money actually leaves your bank account. It cannot be later than the deposit due date, and you need to schedule the payment by 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time at least one calendar day before that due date for the IRS to consider it timely.4Fiscal.Treasury.gov. Your Guide for Paying Taxes If a deposit is due July 31, schedule it no later than the evening of July 30.
You can schedule payments up to 365 days in advance, so if you want to line up all four quarterly deposits at once you can do that in a single session.5Fiscal Service. EFTPS Payment Instruction Booklet
4. Confirm and Save the Acknowledgment Number
Review the confirmation screen carefully: your EIN, Form 940, the tax period, the dollar amount, and the settlement date. After you submit, EFTPS generates an EFT Acknowledgment Number. Save it. Print the page, screenshot it, email it to yourself. It’s your proof of a timely deposit if the IRS ever questions whether you paid on time.
Paying by Phone Instead
If you can’t get to the website, EFTPS accepts payments by phone 24 hours a day at 1-800-555-3453, or 303-967-5916 from outside the U.S. Have your EIN and PIN ready. The automated system asks for the same tax form, tax period, and amount you’d enter online, and gives you an EFT Acknowledgment Number at the end of the call.6Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). How to Activate Your EFTPS Enrollment The same 8:00 p.m. ET cutoff applies.
When Your 940 Deposits Are Due
Form 940 is filed annually, but deposits are quarterly whenever your accumulated FUTA liability exceeds $500. Check the running total at the end of each calendar quarter; if it’s over $500, a deposit is due by the last day of the following month.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 759, Form 940, Employers Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return – Filing and Deposit Requirements If it’s under $500, roll the balance forward and check again next quarter.
- First quarter (January–March): due April 30
- Second quarter (April–June): due July 31
- Third quarter (July–September): due October 31
- Fourth quarter (October–December): paid with your Form 940 filing
When a due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, it shifts to the next business day.8Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Due Dates For 2025, Form 940 is due February 2, 2026, since January 31 falls on a Saturday. If you deposited all your FUTA on time through the year, the filing deadline extends automatically to February 10, 2026.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 940 (2025)
If your total FUTA liability for the whole year is $500 or under, you can skip quarterly deposits and pay the full amount when you file.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 759, Form 940, Employers Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return – Filing and Deposit Requirements That’s the one situation where a paper check is allowed, using the Form 940-V voucher attached to the return.10Internal Revenue Service. Form 940-V, Payment Voucher Every other 940 payment must go through electronic funds transfer.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 940 (2025)
Other Free Electronic Options
EFTPS is the most common route, but the IRS also lets you make 940 deposits through IRS Direct Pay for businesses at irs.gov11Internal Revenue Service. Types of Business Payments Available Through Direct Pay or through your IRS business tax account. A payroll service, tax professional, or your bank can also initiate a same-day wire on your behalf, though wire transfers usually carry a fee from the financial institution.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 940 (2025)
Canceling or Correcting a Payment
If you enter the wrong amount or the wrong date, you can cancel a scheduled EFTPS payment online or by phone, but only up to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at least two business days before the scheduled settlement date. For a payment set to hit on a Monday, that means canceling by 11:59 p.m. ET the previous Thursday.5Fiscal Service. EFTPS Payment Instruction Booklet
Miss that window and you’ll have to work it out with the IRS after the fact. Overpayments can generally be applied as a credit on your Form 940. If a payment was posted to the wrong tax type or period, call the IRS and ask for the payment to be transferred to the correct account.
What a Late Deposit Costs
The failure-to-deposit penalty is a percentage of the unpaid amount and climbs the longer the deposit is outstanding:12Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
- 1 to 5 calendar days late: 2%
- 6 to 15 calendar days late: 5%
- More than 15 calendar days late: 10%
- Still unpaid 10 days after the IRS sends a notice: 15%
The tiers don’t stack. A deposit that’s 20 days late is charged 10%, not the sum of the lower brackets. A separate 10% penalty applies if you were required to deposit electronically and sent a paper check instead.13Internal Revenue Service. 20.1.4 Failure to Deposit Penalty
If this is your first slip and your prior compliance is clean, ask about first-time penalty abatement when you call the IRS or respond to the notice. The administrative waiver applies to failure-to-deposit penalties and generally requires a clean record for the prior three tax years.
Records to Keep
Hold on to records of every FUTA deposit for at least four years after you file the fourth-quarter return for that year. The IRS specifically wants the date and amount of each deposit along with the EFTPS acknowledgment number.14Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping Save the confirmation page each time you submit. Trying to rebuild that history years later without the acknowledgment numbers is much harder than saving a PDF in the moment.