IRS Payment: Paper vs. eFile

Tisha Morris

Many truck drivers and tax professionals have, at some point, filed a 2290 by paper. You may have gone to your local IRS office with your information. You had your payment in hand to file and pay for the 2290 form for the Heavy Vehicle Usage Tax. The process is a little different when you use an online 3rd party e-file provider.

When you e-file through a third party, the IRS issues you the Schedule 1 before they get their payment. You have three payment options when you e-file. 

1. ACH-Direct Bank Account Draft: With this payment option you will be required to enter your routing number, account number, phone number, and select if it is a checking or savings account. When you submit your 2290 in our site, we transmit your banking information along with the form to the IRS. Although it takes typically 5-25 minutes for the IRS to accept your 2290, they will not take your payment from your account until your form is accepted that day or the following business day.  It depends on your bank, and how they process payments. You will want to monitor your bank statement to confirm that the IRS takes the funds from your account. 
2. EFTPS-Electronic Federal Tax Payment System: This option, if selected, will require you to check a box stating that you will go to eftps.gov to make the payment. Once you submit the form, it takes the same amount of time for the IRS to approve your 2290, but unless you go to eftps.gov during that time and make the payment, or have already made it on this site, the IRS will not have received it yet. They will not receive it until you go to eftps.gov. 
3. Mail in Check: If you select to mail in the payment by check or money order, the IRS will still accept your 2290 within the same amount of time, but they will not receive your payment until you mail it in. You will want to make sure to get it mailed in as soon as you can. If a newly purchased vehicle, you will have until the last day of the month following the month of purchase, to file and pay your 2290, so in this case you will want to get it paid within that 30 day time frame.

If you have any further questions about these processes for the IRS payment, you can call or chat with us. Our hours of support are M-F 8AM-6PM Central.