What Is a 1040-V Payment Voucher: Filing, Mailing, and Deadlines

The 1040-V payment voucher is a one-page IRS form you include when you mail a check or money order to cover a balance due on your federal income tax return. Its job is simple: it tells the IRS whose account to credit and which tax year the payment belongs to. You use it with Form 1040, Form 1040-SR, or Form 1040-NR when you owe tax and choose to pay by mail. If you pay electronically, you skip the voucher entirely.¹

When You Need the Voucher

You need Form 1040-V only when two things are true: your return shows a balance due, and you’re paying that balance by check or money order sent through the mail. A balance due means your total tax for the year exceeds what was already covered by withholding, estimated payments, and refundable credits.

If you pay through IRS Direct Pay, EFTPS, or a debit or credit card, do not fill out or send the voucher. The form’s own instructions say to skip it when paying online.¹ Permanent residents of Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands also should not use Form 1040-V.²

Filling Out the Four Lines

You can download the current voucher from irs.gov/forms. The form is preprinted with the tax year, so during the 2026 filing season you’ll use the 2025 version. Print or type your entries so IRS scanning equipment can read them.³

Line 1: Enter the Social Security number of the person listed first on your return. If you have an ITIN instead, use that.
Line 2: If filing jointly, enter the second spouse’s SSN. Leave blank if you’re single.
Line 3: Enter the exact amount you’re paying, in dollars and cents. It should match the “Amount you owe” line on your return.
Line 4: Enter your name and mailing address exactly as they appear on your return. On a joint return, include both names.

Preparing the Check or Money Order

Make the check or money order payable to “United States Treasury.” Not “IRS,” not “Internal Revenue Service.” Do not send cash through the mail.¹

On the check itself, write the information the IRS needs to identify the payment if it ever gets separated from the voucher:⁴

Your SSN or ITIN (use the first SSN listed on a joint return)
A daytime phone number
The tax year, for example “2025”
The form type, for example “2025 Form 1040,” “2025 Form 1040-SR,” or “2025 Form 1040-NR”

Write the payment amount on the check in the same dollars-and-cents format you used on Line 3, with no dashes or lines through it.

Put the return, the voucher, and the check loose in the envelope. Do not staple or paper-clip them together, because fastened documents can be damaged during automated opening at IRS processing centers.¹

Where to Mail It

The mailing address depends on where you live. Voucher payments go to specific processing centers, so do not send them to the address you’d use for a return without a payment.²

If you live in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, or Wyoming: Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 931000, Louisville, KY 40293-1000.
If you live in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Texas: Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1214, Charlotte, NC 28201-1214.
If you have a foreign address, an APO/FPO address, or live in a U.S. territory: Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1303, Charlotte, NC 28201-1303, USA.

The IRS recommends regular USPS mail. Sending your payment by Certified Mail with a return receipt gives you dated proof of both mailing and delivery, which helps if a dispute over timeliness ever arises.⁴

Deadline and What Late Costs

Your payment is due by the federal filing deadline. For the 2025 tax year, that’s April 15, 2026.⁵ A filing extension gives you more time to file the return, not more time to pay. Anything unpaid after April 15 starts accruing penalties and interest.

The failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% of the unpaid tax per month or partial month, capped at 25%. If you’re on an approved payment plan and filed on time, the rate drops to 0.25% per month. If you ignore an IRS notice of intent to levy, it climbs to 1% per month.⁶

Interest compounds daily on top of the penalty. The individual underpayment rate is 7% per year for the first quarter of 2026 and 6% for the second quarter. Rates adjust quarterly.⁷

If You Cannot Pay in Full

File the return on time anyway. The failure-to-file penalty is much steeper than the failure-to-pay penalty, so filing on time and paying what you can protects you from the worse of the two. For the rest, the IRS offers payment plans.⁸

A short-term plan lets you pay the balance within 180 days with no setup fee. Penalties and interest keep accruing until it’s paid off.
A long-term installment agreement spreads monthly payments over a longer period. Setup fees range from $22 (applying online with automatic bank withdrawals) to $178 (applying by phone, mail, or in person without automatic withdrawals). Low-income taxpayers may qualify for reduced or waived fees.

If Your Mailed Payment Is Lost

Give it at least two weeks. If the check hasn’t cleared your bank by then, call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to see whether the payment has been credited. If it hasn’t, you can place a stop-payment order with your bank and send a replacement. The IRS won’t charge a dishonored-check penalty for a stop-payment made under these circumstances, and you may be able to seek reimbursement of any stop-payment fee your bank charged by filing Form 8546.⁹

Fixing an Error After You Mailed the Return

If you find a mistake on the return itself, file Form 1040-X to amend it. If the correction means you owe more, include a new Form 1040-V and a check with the amended return. Don’t try to calculate additional interest or penalties yourself; the IRS will figure those.¹⁰

If the error is only on the voucher, such as a transposed digit in your SSN, and the correct information appears on both your return and your check, the IRS can usually match everything up on its end. A call to 800-829-1040 to flag the issue can speed things along.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040-V (2025) Payment Voucher for Individuals
2
Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Addresses for Taxpayers and Tax Professionals Filing Form 1040-V
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1040-V, Payment Voucher for Individuals
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Internal Revenue Service. Pay by Check or Money Order
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Internal Revenue Service. IRS Opens 2026 Filing Season
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Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Pay Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2026-08
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Internal Revenue Service. Payment Plans; Installment Agreements
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Internal Revenue Service. General Procedural Questions
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Internal Revenue Service. File an Amended Return