What Is PayUSATax and Is It Still Available?

PayUSATax is no longer available. The IRS-authorized third-party processor stopped accepting federal tax payments at the start of 2025, and the IRS now authorizes only two companies to take tax payments by card or digital wallet: Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc.¹ Both follow the same workflow PayUSATax used, and the fees are close enough that for most payments the choice between them barely moves the number.

If PayUSATax is still bookmarked in your browser or saved in autofill, replace it now. Trying to pay through a shut-down processor near a filing deadline is the kind of mistake that leads to late-payment penalties.

What PayUSATax Used To Do

PayUSATax sat between taxpayers and the IRS. You entered your tax details and card information on its site, 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.

It handled the full range of federal tax payments: Form 1040 balances due, quarterly estimated taxes, extension payments, prior-year balances, installment agreement payments, quarterly employment taxes, federal unemployment tax, and corporate income tax. All of those tax types are still payable by card through the two remaining processors.

The Two Processors That Replaced PayUSATax

Pay1040 and ACI Payments, Inc. are now the only IRS-authorized card processors.¹ Both accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Both accept PayPal and Click to Pay for digital wallet payments.² You can use either one no matter which tax software you file with.

Fees Compared

Every card payment to the IRS carries a non-refundable convenience fee charged by the processor. The IRS receives none of it, and if the IRS later refunds an overpayment, the fee is not refunded with it.

Personal Credit Cards

Pay1040 charges 1.75% with a $2.50 minimum. ACI Payments charges 1.85% with the same $2.50 minimum.³ On a $5,000 payment, that is $87.50 at Pay1040 or $92.50 at ACI.

Personal Debit Cards

Debit cards carry a flat fee rather than a percentage: $2.15 at Pay1040 and $2.10 at ACI.³ That flat structure makes debit far cheaper for larger payments. A $10,000 payment runs about $2.13 by debit versus $175 or more by credit card. Unless your credit card rewards math works in your favor, debit wins for anything above a few hundred dollars.

Commercial and Corporate Cards

Business cards cost more. Pay1040 charges 2.89% and ACI charges 2.95%, each with a $2.50 minimum.³ Card-processing fees paid on business taxes are tax-deductible.

Quick Reference

Pay1040 personal credit: 1.75% (minimum $2.50)
ACI personal credit: 1.85% (minimum $2.50)
Pay1040 personal debit: $2.15 flat
ACI personal debit: $2.10 flat
Pay1040 commercial card: 2.89% (minimum $2.50)
ACI commercial card: 2.95% (minimum $2.50)

What You Need Before You Pay

Both processors ask for the same information:

Taxpayer Identification Number: your Social Security Number for individual payments, or your Employer Identification Number for business payments⁴
Tax form number (1040, 941, 940, 1120, and so on)
Tax period the payment applies to
Exact dollar amount, calculated before you begin, since the fee is added on top
Card or wallet details, including billing address

Individuals without a Social Security Number can use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead.⁴ A wrong form number or tax period posts the money to the wrong account, and sorting that out afterward is slow.

When you submit, the processor shows the fee and the total on a review screen before charging you. A successful payment produces a confirmation number right away. Save it. Payments typically post to your IRS account within two business days,⁵ and a card payment of at least $1 toward your balance also serves as an automatic extension filing if submitted before the deadline, with no need to file Form 4868 separately.⁶

How Often You Can Pay by Card

The IRS caps the number of card payments per tax type, and this surprises people. For most individual and business tax forms, the limit is two card payments per year. Estimated tax payments allow two per quarter. Installment agreement payments allow two per month.⁷ Hit the limit and the processor rejects the payment; you then need Direct Pay or EFTPS to send more. The two-per-quarter cap on estimated payments is the one that bites most often, especially for business taxpayers managing quarterly obligations.

Free Alternatives

Card payments are convenient but never free. Two IRS-run options cost nothing.

IRS Direct Pay

Direct Pay pulls money straight from your bank account at no charge. You can pay up to $9,999,999.99 per transaction, with a maximum of five payments in any 24-hour period.⁸ The system verifies your identity against information from a prior-year return going back five or six years. No enrollment; you verify each time.

EFTPS

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System is also free and is the IRS’s purpose-built system for recurring payments, especially business tax deposits. After enrolling, you receive a PIN by mail in five to seven business days.⁹ That setup delay makes it a poor fit for last-minute payments and a good fit for businesses with regular payroll tax deposits. EFTPS also handles federal tax deposits that card processors do not, including same-day and next-day wire transfer types.¹⁰

When Paying by Card Is Worth It

The math is simple: if your credit card rewards rate beats the processor’s fee, you come out ahead. A 2% cash-back card used through Pay1040 at 1.75% nets a 0.25% gain, or $12.50 on a $5,000 bill. Sign-up spending bonuses or rotating category bonuses can push the gap wider.

Debit card payments make sense when you want an instant confirmation number on a deadline day and would rather not wait on a bank transfer. Two dollars for immediate proof of payment is cheap insurance.

Where card payments do not make sense is when you are carrying a balance on the card you plan to use. Paying 20% interest to earn 2% back is not a strategy. If you cannot cover the tax bill in full, an IRS installment agreement at a far lower interest rate is almost certainly the better path.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet
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Taxpayer Advocate Service. Making a Tax Payment
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Internal Revenue Service. Pay Your Taxes by Debit or Credit Card or Digital Wallet – Section: Fees by Processor
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Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN)
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Internal Revenue Service. Direct Pay Help – Section: How Do I Know My Payment Actually Got to the IRS and on Time
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Internal Revenue Service. Pay by Debit or Credit Card When You E-File
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Internal Revenue Service. Frequency Limit Table by Type of Tax Payment
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Internal Revenue Service. Direct Pay Help
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EFTPS. Welcome to EFTPS Online
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Internal Revenue Service. Payments