How To Deposit

You must deposit employment taxes, including Form 945 taxes, by EFT. See Payment with return , earlier in this section, for exceptions explaining when taxes may be paid with the tax return instead of being deposited.

Electronic deposit requirement.

You must use EFT to make all federal tax deposits. An EFT can be made using EFTPS, IRS Direct Pay, or your IRS business tax account. If you don’t want to use one of these methods, you can arrange for your tax professional, financial institution, payroll service, or other trusted third party to make electronic deposits on your behalf. EFTPS is a free service provided by the Department of the Treasury. Payments made using IRS Direct Pay or through your IRS business tax account are also free. For more information about IRS Direct Pay and making payments through your IRS business tax account, go to IRS.gov/Pay . To get more information about EFTPS or to enroll in EFTPS, go to EFTPS.gov or call 800-555-4477, 800-244-4829 (Spanish), or 303-967-5916 (toll call). To contact EFTPS using TRS for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, dial 711 and then provide the TRS assistant the 800-555-4477 number or 800-733-4829. Additional information about EFTPS is also available in Pub. 966.

When you receive your EIN.

If you’re a new employer that indicated a federal tax obligation when requesting an EIN, you’ll be pre-enrolled in EFTPS. You’ll receive information about Express Enrollment in your Employer Identification Number (EIN) Package and an additional mailing containing your EFTPS personal identification number (PIN) and instructions for activating your PIN. Call the toll-free number located in your “How to Activate Your Enrollment” brochure to activate your enrollment and begin making your payroll tax deposits. If you outsource any of your payroll and related tax duties to a third-party payer, such as a payroll service provider (PSP) or reporting agent, be sure to tell them about your EFTPS enrollment.

Deposit record.

For your records, an EFT Trace Number will be provided with each successful payment. The number can be used as a receipt or to trace the payment.

Depositing on time.

EFTPS accepts same day payments of $1 million or less if the payment is submitted before 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on a business day. If your payment is more than $1 million, you must submit the deposit by 8:00 p.m. Eastern time the day before the date the deposit is due. If you use a third party to make a deposit on your behalf, they may have different cutoff times.

Same-day wire payment option.

If you fail to submit a timely deposit transaction on EFTPS, you can still make your deposit on time by using the Federal Tax Collection Service (FTCS) to make a same-day wire payment. To use the same-day wire payment method, you’ll need to make arrangements with your financial institution ahead of time. Check with your financial institution regarding availability, deadlines, and costs. Your financial institution may charge you a fee for payments made this way. To learn more about the information you’ll need to give to your financial institution to make a same-day wire payment, go to IRS.gov/SameDayWire .

How to claim credit for overpayments.

If you deposited more than the right amount of taxes for a quarter, you can choose on Form 941 for that quarter (or on Form 943, Form 944, or Form 945 for that year) to have the overpayment refunded or applied as a credit to your next return. Don’t ask EFTPS to request a refund from the IRS for you.