Look on the bright side, at least they didn't force this on us in the middle of tax season!  We got two whole days off before the next crisis.

But I agree, this is going to be a huge mess.  I don't think the powers-that-be understand how this process works for small businesses in the real world.  This was quietly added to the login screen of the EFTPS website where nobody will read it because they're busy trying to find out which sticky on their monitor has the right password.

Expect a flood of calls from clients and non-clients, "I can't get into my IRS account to pay my payroll taxes, is this something that you can do for me?"

Also expect the EFTPS phone number to be busy.  Even if you know what you're doing, it's not a quick process over the phone.  Everything you enter gets a follow-up confirmation prompt.  "You entered 9-4-1, if this is a federal tax deposit, press 1.  You entered six. thousand. five. hundred. forty. three. dollars. and. twenty. one. cents.  If this is correct press 1."

Or this will go off without a hitch and I will be happy to be completely wrong about it.

When it doesn't go well, reach out to your IRS Stakeholder Liaison so they can report up-the-chain what problems people are having.  We have a new liaison in VA and she's invited me to join the monthly IMRS Teams meetings.  There was no mention of EFTPS in yesterday's meeting.  Looks like for Area 3-Indiana that's Michael Mudroncik.  OH (for Jim) is Nichelle Gray.  PA/MD folks, you're in Area 2 and I only have the Area 3 name list but there are generic phone numbers/email addresses listed here:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/stakeholder-liaison-local-contacts

They can't help with anything account specific but they can report systemic problems (say, for example, a significant percentage of small businesses are no longer able to remit payroll taxes.)

When you can't log in to your online account and don't have the right pin for the phone payment (or the phone number is always busy), does anyone know what alternatives are available at this point?  Looks like maybe you can make a same-day wire payment (I'm sure subject to bank wire fees) if you take this form to your financial institution:

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/files/federal-tax-collection/SameDayPaymentWorksheet.pdf

Post back with your experiences and especially solutions.  I will be blissfully exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway when this goes into effect later this week so I'll have to read about what happened when I get back next week.

Rick