PayUSATax was an IRS-authorized third-party processor that let taxpayers pay federal taxes by credit card, debit card, or digital wallet. It stopped accepting payments on behalf of the IRS at the start of 2025. If you came here looking for a way to pay your federal taxes by card, the IRS now authorizes two processors in its place: Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc. Both follow the same basic workflow PayUSATax used, and their fees are comparable to what PayUSATax charged.
What PayUSATax Did
PayUSATax sat between taxpayers and the IRS. You visited the processor’s website, entered your tax details and card information, and the processor charged your card, forwarded the payment data to the IRS, and kept a convenience fee for handling the transaction. The IRS itself never touched your card number and never received any portion of the fee.
The service handled a broad range of federal tax obligations. Individual filers could pay their Form 1040 balance due, quarterly estimated taxes, extension payments, prior-year balances, and installment agreement amounts. Businesses could pay quarterly employment taxes, annual federal unemployment tax, and corporate income tax. That same range of tax types is still available through the two current processors.
Where to Pay the IRS by Card Now
The IRS currently authorizes two companies to process federal tax payments by card or digital wallet: Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc.1Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet Both accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Digital wallet options include PayPal and Click to Pay.2Taxpayer Advocate Service. Making a Tax Payment You can use either processor regardless of which tax software you file with.
If you still have PayUSATax bookmarked or saved in your browser’s autofill, update that habit now. Trying to pay through a defunct processor near a filing deadline can leave you scrambling and possibly late.
What the Two Remaining Processors Charge
Every card payment to the IRS carries a non-refundable convenience fee charged by the processor. The IRS receives none of it. Fee structures differ by card type, and the gap between the two processors is small enough that the choice rarely matters for typical payments.
Personal Credit Card Fees
Pay1040 charges 1.75% of the payment amount, with a minimum fee of $2.50. ACI Payments charges 1.85%, also with a $2.50 minimum.3Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet – Section: Fees by Processor On a $5,000 tax payment, that works out to $87.50 through Pay1040 or $92.50 through ACI. The original PayUSATax fee fell between those two, so you haven’t lost much ground.
Personal Debit Card Fees
Debit cards carry a flat fee instead of a percentage: $2.15 at Pay1040 and $2.10 at ACI Payments.3Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet – Section: Fees by Processor The flat structure makes debit dramatically cheaper for large payments. A $10,000 payment by debit card costs about $2.13 in fees versus $175 or more by credit card. Unless your credit card rewards math works out in your favor, debit is the better deal on anything above a few hundred dollars.
Commercial and Corporate Card Fees
Business credit and debit cards are priced higher than personal cards. Pay1040 charges 2.89% for commercial cards, and ACI charges 2.95%, each with a $2.50 minimum.3Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet – Section: Fees by Processor One upside for business taxpayers: card-processing fees paid on business taxes are tax-deductible.
All convenience fees are non-refundable, even if the IRS later determines you overpaid your taxes. If that happens, the IRS refunds or credits the tax overpayment, but the processor keeps its fee.
Payment Frequency Limits to Know About
The IRS caps how many card payments you can make for each tax type. For most individual and business tax forms, the limit is two card payments per year. Estimated tax payments get a slightly higher allowance of two per quarter, and installment agreement payments are capped at two per month.4Internal Revenue Service. Frequency Limit Table by Type of Tax Payment
If you hit the limit, the processor will reject the payment and you’ll need a different method, such as IRS Direct Pay or EFTPS, to make the additional one. This tends to matter most for business taxpayers making quarterly employment tax deposits, where two per quarter can become a real constraint.
What You Need Before You Pay
Whether you use Pay1040 or ACI Payments, have the same information ready:
- Your Taxpayer Identification Number: Social Security Number for individual payments, or Employer Identification Number for business payments. Individuals without an SSN can use an ITIN.5Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN)
- The specific tax form you’re paying (1040, 941, 940, 1120, and so on).
- The tax period the payment applies to (year or quarter).
- The exact dollar amount, calculated before you begin. The processor adds its fee on top.
- Card or wallet details: card number, expiration, security code, and billing address.
Getting any of these wrong can cause the payment to post to the wrong account or tax period, and fixing that after the fact is a headache. One useful detail: making a card payment of at least $1 toward your balance also counts as filing for an automatic extension if you pay before the filing deadline, even without submitting Form 4868.6Internal Revenue Service. Pay by Debit or Credit Card When You E-File
After you authorize the transaction, save the confirmation number you receive on screen and keep the email receipt the processor sends. Payments generally post to your IRS account within two business days.7Internal Revenue Service. Direct Pay Help – Section: How Do I Know My Payment Actually Got to the IRS and on Time You can verify by checking your online IRS account after that window.
Free Alternatives to Paying by Card
Card payments are convenient but not free. If you’re paying a large balance and card rewards don’t offset the convenience fee, two IRS-run options cost nothing.
IRS Direct Pay
Direct Pay pulls money straight from your bank account with no fee. You can pay up to $9,999,999.99 per transaction, with a maximum of five payments in any 24-hour period.8Internal Revenue Service. Direct Pay Help The system verifies your identity using information from a prior-year tax return going back five to six years. There’s no enrollment; you verify each time.
EFTPS
The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System is what the IRS built for recurring payments, especially business tax deposits. It’s also free. The tradeoff is setup time: after enrolling, you receive a PIN by mail in five to seven business days.9EFTPS. Welcome to EFTPS Online That makes EFTPS a poor choice for last-minute payments but the best choice for businesses making regular payroll tax deposits. EFTPS also handles payment types the card processors do not, including certain federal tax deposits that require same-day or next-day wire transfers.10Internal Revenue Service. Payments
When Paying by Card Is Actually Worth It
The math is straightforward. If your credit card rewards rate exceeds the processor’s fee, you come out ahead. A card that earns 2% cash back on a payment processed through Pay1040 at 1.75% nets you 0.25%. On a $5,000 tax bill, that’s $12.50 in your pocket. Cards with rotating bonus categories or sign-up spending bonuses can shift the math further in your favor.
Debit card payments almost always make sense when you want immediate proof of payment and don’t want to wait for a bank transfer to process. A flat fee of around two dollars is trivial insurance for an instant confirmation number on a deadline day.
Where card payments rarely make sense is when you’re carrying a credit card balance. Paying 20% interest to earn 2% back isn’t a strategy; it’s expensive procrastination. If you can’t pay your full balance right now, an IRS installment agreement at a much lower interest rate is almost certainly the better path.