EFTPS is the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. It is a free service run by the US Department of the Treasury that lets you pay federal taxes straight from your bank account, online or by phone, at any hour. Businesses use it for payroll tax deposits, corporate tax and excise tax. Enrollment is free but takes about a week, because a PIN arrives by post.
EFTPS at a glance
Who actually runs EFTPS
Most people assume EFTPS belongs to the IRS. It does not. The system is built and operated by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service inside the Treasury. The IRS is the agency the money ends up with, and the IRS is the one that verifies your details during enrollment, but the payment rails are the Treasury’s.
That distinction matters for one practical reason. When you call about a payment problem, you are calling Treasury contractors, not an IRS agent. They can tell you where a payment went. They cannot tell you why you owe it.
Think of EFTPS as a locked door between your business bank account and the Treasury. You tell it how much, which tax, and what date. On that date the money moves, and you get an acknowledgement number that proves you paid.
What changed in 2026, and why it matters
This is the part most guides skip, and it changes who should even be reading this page.
On 25 March 2025 the White House signed Executive Order 14247, Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account. It told the Treasury and the IRS to move federal payments off paper. The order covers money going out, such as refunds and benefits, and money coming in, such as tax balances, fees and penalties.
| Date |
What Happened |
| 25 March 2025 |
Executive Order 14247 signed |
| 30 September 2025 |
The IRS began phasing out paper refund checks |
| 17 October 2025 |
Individuals could no longer create new EFTPS enrollments |
| January 2026 |
The IRS published Fact Sheet FS 2026-02 answering common questions about the switch |
| Late 2026 |
EFTPS is expected to close to individual taxpayers altogether |
So the short version. If you are an individual paying a personal tax bill or quarterly estimated tax, EFTPS is closing to you. Use IRS Direct Pay or your IRS Individual Online Account instead. If you already had an individual EFTPS login before October 2025, you can keep using it until the transition finishes.
If you run a business, nothing has been taken away. EFTPS remains the standard channel for federal tax deposits, and the pressure is going the other way. Paper is being squeezed out, so having a working EFTPS login matters more each year, not less.
Who has to use EFTPS now
- Employers with payroll. Federal tax deposits, meaning the income tax you withheld plus both halves of Social Security and Medicare, must generally be made by electronic funds transfer. In practice that means EFTPS.
- Corporations and partnerships. Estimated corporate tax and balances due.
- Trusts and estates. Same rule as businesses, enrolled under the entity EIN. A fiduciary should enroll early, because estate deadlines arrive fast.
- Payroll companies and tax professionals. They use the batch provider tool to submit many client payments in one go.
- Excise taxpayers. Fuel, air transport and other excise deposits.
If you have just taken on your first member of staff, this is now part of your month. Along with the deposit itself you owe the person a record of what came out of their pay, and our guide on what changes when you hire someone walks through both sides.
What you can pay through EFTPS
- Employment taxes reported on Form 941, meaning federal income tax withholding plus Social Security and Medicare
- Federal unemployment tax on Form 940
- Corporate income tax on Form 1120 and corporate estimated tax
- Excise taxes on Form 720
- Estimated tax and self employment tax, for individual accounts still active on the system
- Installment agreement payments and amounts due on a notice
You pick the tax form, the tax period and the amount. Getting the period right matters as much as the amount. A deposit tagged to the wrong quarter looks like a missed deposit in one quarter and an overpayment in another, and untangling that takes months.
How to enroll in EFTPS
Enrollment happens once and costs nothing. Have your EIN, your bank routing and account number, and the address the IRS holds for you ready before you start.
- Go to eftps.gov and choose Enroll. Pick the business option. There is a paper route too, Form 9779, if you would rather post it.
- Enter your details. EIN, business name, the address the IRS has on file, and the account you want debited. The address has to match IRS records or the PIN will not reach you.
- Wait for the PIN. The Treasury posts a personal identification number to your address of record. Allow five to seven business days. Between January and April, allow longer.
- Activate the account. Call the activation line with your PIN, get a temporary internet password, then sign in at eftps.gov and set a permanent one.
- Make one real deposit early. Do not let your first ever payment be one that is due tomorrow. Send a small genuine amount first and confirm it settles.
The mistake that costs money: enrolling the week a deposit is due. You cannot pay through EFTPS until the posted PIN arrives, and there is no way to rush it. If you are setting up payroll, enroll on the same day you register for the EIN.
Signing in later
Three things get you in: your EIN, your four digit PIN, and the internet password you created at activation. Repeated failed attempts will lock the account, so call support rather than guessing. The phone system needs only the EIN and PIN, which is useful if the website is down and a deadline is not waiting.
Payment timing rules that catch people out
Are you a monthly or a semiweekly depositor?
EFTPS is only the delivery method. It does not tell you when the money is due. That comes from your deposit schedule, which the IRS assigns before each calendar year based on a lookback period.
The lookback period is the twelve months running from 1 July to 30 June, two years before the year in question. For 2026, that window was 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
| Employment Tax Reported in the Lookback Period |
Your Schedule |
When the Deposit Is Due |
| $50,000 or Less |
Monthly |
By the 15th of the following month |
| More Than $50,000 |
Semiweekly |
Payday falls Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, deposit by the following
Wednesday. Payday falls Saturday through Tuesday, deposit by the
following Friday. |
| New Employer, No History |
Monthly |
By the 15th of the following month until the IRS says otherwise |
Two rules that override your schedule
The $100,000 next day rule. If you build up $100,000 or more of employment tax on any single day, it must be deposited by the next business day, whatever your normal schedule says. A monthly depositor who trips this rule becomes a semiweekly depositor for the rest of that year. Large bonus runs are the usual cause.
The small employer exception. If your total employment tax for the quarter stays under $2,500, you may pay it with the return rather than depositing during the quarter. This is a narrow rule and it is easy to slip over the line, so check the figure each quarter rather than assuming.
Semiweekly depositors also file Schedule B with Form 941, reporting the tax liability for every business day of the quarter. That is how the IRS checks you deposited on the right days, not just the right total.
What a late deposit actually costs
The failure to deposit penalty sits in section 6656 of the tax code. It is tiered by how late the money is, and the tiers replace each other rather than piling up.
Two things people underestimate. First, the penalty applies to each late deposit on its own, so four sloppy months in a quarter means four penalties. Second, paying a required deposit by a method other than electronic funds transfer draws a flat 10 percent penalty on its own, and first time abatement generally does not wipe that portion out.
The one that follows you home. The withheld portion of payroll tax is trust fund money. It belonged to your employee, not to your business. If it is not handed over, the IRS can assess the trust fund recovery penalty against any person responsible for the decision, personally, for the full amount. Company structure does not shield you and bankruptcy does not clear it.
Full penalty detail sits on the IRS failure to deposit page. First time abatement may remove the penalty if you have three clean years behind you, but it is available once in a rolling three year window, so it is not a plan.
EFTPS, Direct Pay or Online Account: which one do you need?
Rule of thumb. Payroll or corporate money goes through EFTPS. A one off personal bill goes through Direct Pay. If you want to see what you owe rather than just pay it, use the Online Account.
Spotting an EFTPS scam
This system is a favorite of fraudsters, because a letter from the Treasury looks alarming and most people have never seen one before.
- The Treasury contacts EFTPS users by post. An email or text asking you to confirm bank details is fake.
- Nobody legitimate will ever ask for your PIN or internet password. Not support, not the IRS, not your bank.
- Type eftps.gov into the address bar yourself. Sponsored search results have been used to push copycat sites.
- A real EFTPS letter containing a PIN after you enrolled is normal and expected. A letter demanding immediate payment by card or gift card is not.
- Callers who threaten arrest are not from the IRS. The IRS opens with a letter.
Keeping the records behind the deposit
A deposit and a record are two different obligations. EFTPS moves the money. It does not produce anything for the employee, and it does not prove what any single person earned.
That gap is where employers get caught. The deposit is one number covering everyone on the payroll. Your staff still need a statement showing their own gross pay, each tax line, and the running totals. Many states require you to give one every pay period, and even where the state does not, you will want it when someone queries a figure or applies for a mortgage. Our breakdown of the money that comes out of every paycheck covers the lines that should appear.
The two also need to agree. The withholding you report on Form 941 should match the sum of what your pay records say you withheld. When those numbers drift apart, the notice usually arrives a year later, and reconstructing the paperwork is far harder than keeping it. If the year end totals are the part you find confusing, the running totals column is worth ten minutes of your time.
Need the record to go with the deposit?
Our tool builds a clean earnings statement for each payday, with federal tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare and year to date totals worked out for you. Preview it free, then $6.99 sends a print ready PDF to your inbox.
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Questions people ask about EFTPS
What does EFTPS stand for?
EFTPS stands for the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. It is a free service run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, part of the US Department of the Treasury. Businesses use it to send federal tax payments straight from a bank account to the Treasury.
Is EFTPS free?
Yes. The Treasury charges nothing to enroll and nothing per payment. Your own bank may charge if you ask it to push an ACH credit instead, so check first. The standard debit through EFTPS carries no government fee.
How long does EFTPS enrollment take?
Plan on five to seven business days for the PIN to arrive by post, plus a short activation call. Between January and April the mail runs slower. You cannot make a payment until the PIN reaches you, so enroll before you owe anything.
Can individuals still use EFTPS in 2026?
Only those who enrolled before 17 October 2025. New individual enrollments stopped that day, and the Treasury plans to move individuals off the system entirely in late 2026. Individuals should use IRS Direct Pay or an IRS Individual Online Account instead. Businesses, trusts and estates carry on as before.
What time is the EFTPS deadline?
Schedule the payment by 8 p.m. Eastern Time at least one calendar day before it is due. A payment entered on the morning of the deadline will not settle in time. Business payments can be scheduled up to 365 days ahead.
What happens if a federal tax deposit is late?
The penalty is 2 percent at one to five calendar days late, 5 percent at six to fifteen days, and 10 percent beyond fifteen days. It reaches 15 percent if the deposit is still missing more than ten days after the first IRS notice. The tiers replace each other rather than stacking, and each late deposit is penalized separately.
Am I a monthly or a semiweekly depositor?
It depends on your lookback period, the twelve months from 1 July to 30 June two years before the year in question. For 2026 that ran from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Report $50,000 or less across those four quarters and you deposit monthly. Above $50,000 and you deposit semiweekly. New employers start monthly.
Can I pay payroll tax with a paper check instead?
Not for a required federal tax deposit. Using a method other than electronic funds transfer draws a flat 10 percent penalty, and first time abatement generally does not cover that portion. Employers whose quarterly liability stays under $2,500 may pay with the return rather than depositing, which is a separate rule.
Can I cancel a scheduled EFTPS payment?
Yes. Cancel online or by phone no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, two business days before the settlement date. After that the instruction has already gone to the bank.
Will EFTPS ever email me for my bank details?
No. The Treasury contacts EFTPS users by post. Any email, text or call asking for your PIN, password or bank account is a scam. Type eftps.gov yourself rather than following a link, and report suspicious messages to the IRS.
Where to go next
Sources checked for this article: IRS guidance on the failure to deposit penalty, IRS Publication 15 for deposit schedules and the lookback period, Executive Order 14247 of 25 March 2025, IRS Fact Sheet FS 2026 02 on electronic payments, and eftps.gov. Last reviewed 9 September 2026.
This is general information, not tax advice. Deposit rules turn on figures specific to your business. Speak to a CPA or an enrolled agent before acting on anything here. Check Stub Generator is not a payroll service and does not file or remit taxes.
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