FAQ

What is EFTPS?

Federal tax payments are a necessary part of business and being able to pay all your federal taxes on a secure website makes tax remittance easier. EFTPS makes online payments possible for individuals and business owners.

What is EFTPS used for, and what does the acronym mean?

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) is a service provided free of charge by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to businesses and individuals to help pay their federal taxes in a more efficient, cost effective, and secure manner. The system has been around since 1996 and becoming more and more popular as the days of writing and mailing checks are almost gone.

Because it is provided electronically, the service is available online or by telephone at any time, day or night, proving to be far more convenient than regular snail mail. EFTPS offers an easily accessible, step-by-step process that even those who are less Internet savvy than others can use without trouble.

Taxes you can pay using EFTPS

You can use the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System to pay all federal taxes. The following payments are common to small business owners.

• Estimated taxes: Unlike an employee, income taxes are not withheld from your salary. You must make estimated tax payments for your federal income tax liability. You can pay estimated taxes weekly, monthly, or quarterly using EFTPS.

• Self-employment tax: Social Security and Medicare taxes are not automatically withheld from your salary. You must pay self-employment tax unless you are incorporated, which combines Social Security and Medicare taxes.

• Payroll taxes: If you are an employer, you must withhold and remit income taxes from your employee’s wages. You also withhold employee portions of FICA tax from employee wages. FICA tax includes Social Security and Medicare taxes. You pay a matching amount of FICA tax for employee wages. You must also pay federal unemployment tax. You can use EFTPS to pay and remit FICA, income, and federal unemployment tax liabilities. A payroll service can also use your EFTPS account to pay taxes for you.

• Corporate taxes: If your business is a corporation, you can use EFTPS to pay federal corporate taxes.

• Excise tax: The government places excise taxes on certain goods, such as gasoline and alcohol. You do not directly pay excise taxes. Instead, you collect the tax from customers when you sell the applicable goods. You can use EFTPS to pay federal excise taxes online. For our purposes, you can also pay your Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax or 2290 tax with your EFTPS account.  Our web app will walk you through filing your Form 2290 and give you the option to have the tax debited from your bank account or you can choose “EFTPS” and our software will inform the IRS that you’ll be paying with your EFTPS account.

Paying federal taxes electronically is an easy, convenient way to ensure that your business taxes are never late.