How do I make a payment WITHOUT an IRS.gov account?
If you don’t have an IRS.gov account, you can still make a payment online via IRS Direct Pay. The following screenshots illustrate how to use the IRS Direct Pay website and provide some tips as you are going through the process.
STEP 1 of 5
The IRS asks for a reason for the payment. Common options:
If you are making an estimated tax payment, choose “Estimated Tax.”
If your taxes are completed and you have a balance due, choose “Balance Due.”
If you are filing an extension and want to make an estimated payment of your amount due with the extension, choose “Extension.” (Note that making a payment doesn’t file the extension itself.)
WARNING - See the little box that says “business taxes?” Our clients will almost NEVER click that. If you have business income from a single member LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, or scorp, you are making a PERSONAL tax payment on this website. You are not making a business tax payment. For most people, your business doesn’t owe IRS income taxes because the income flows through to the owner.
In this example, we are making a Balance Due payment. Choose the following options:
STEP 2 of 5
This step will ask you to verify your identity. If we are filing your 2023 taxes, you cannot use 2023 tax information to verify your identity because the IRS has not yet processed this return. You will need to recall your filing status and address used on your 2022 taxes to complete this step (or whatever year you select to use for verification).
This step will also ask for an SSN. To verify your account, you must use the SSN of the first person listed on the tax return, if you filed a joint tax return. You won’t be able to verify with the secondary SSN.
TIP: a balance due payments MUST be paid under the SSN of the first person listed on the joint return or the IRS will not credit it properly, in our experience. This is not true if you are making an estimated tax payment - you can make this under your respective SSNs for joint filers.
STEP 3 of 5
This section just asks how much you want to pay and for your bank info. You cannot use a credit card on this website (though there are third party websites to do that, like this one we trust).
We recommend that you enter your email address and check the box to get an email confirmation of the transaction. This is good record-keeping and proof for you, if there’s ever a discrepancy with the IRS.
STEP 4 of 5
You are simply confirming your previous entries.
STEP 5 of 5
No additional work - success!