Is ProSeries changing payment instructions for Q4 estimates on standard letters? IRS no long accepting checks after Sept. 30.

[BobKamman]

TACO

Treasury Always Chickens Out

[TaxGuyBill]

Maybe I just missed it, but where do you see that the IRS is no longer accepting checks after September 30th?

Maybe I just missed the update.  Or maybe you are misreading the Executive Order?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/modernizing-payments-to-and-from-americas-ba...

"Effective September 30, 2025, and to the extent permitted by law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall cease issuing paper checks ".

"As soon as practicable, and to the extent permitted by law, all payments made to the Federal Government shall be processed electronically".

Side Note:  I haven't seen guidance yet, but "processed" electronically MIGHT include them accepting paper checks but then "processing" it as an electronic transaction, rather than a check transaction (which they may already do; see below).

When you provide a check as payment, you authorize us either to use information from your check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account or to process the payment as a check transaction. When we use information from your check to make an electronic fund transfer, funds may be withdrawn from your account as soon as the same day we receive your payment, and you will not receive your check back from your financial institution.

https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-by-check-or-money-order

[DonnaAbbott]

Search for "IRS no longer accepting checks" in Google.  Even after you ignore all the AI slop, there are multiple articles addressing this situation.

[sjrcpa]

The text of the Executive Order is a higher authority than articles found by Google.

I had also heard IRS won't accept checks after then. Guess we have to wait to see what IRS says.

[BobKamman]

I trust our Secretary of the Treasury on this. He’s a smart guy even though he did go to Yale. Remember he worked for George Soros for 14 years and helped him make billions of dollars. He’s no doubt aware of the deadlines in the Executive Order. Are you?

First deadline:

“(a) Effective September 30, 2025, and to the extent permitted by law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall cease issuing paper checks for all Federal disbursements inclusive of intragovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments, and tax refunds, except as specified in section 4 of this order.”

So that’s where people are getting the September 30 date. It applies to payments from the government.

Second deadline:

“(c) As soon as practicable, and to the extent permitted by law, all payments made to the Federal Government shall be processed electronically, except as specified in section 4 of this order.”

Do you see a specific date there? I don’t.

[IRonMaN]

The internet also says paid tax preparers are required to e-file tax returns.  There is a weird urban myth out there that some preparers still are paper filing client returns --------------- and they are even doing it from outside of a jail cell.  Go figure.

[BobKamman]

My clients file paper returns.  I only prepare them.  The people who consent to random unannounced IRS searches of their files have not learned the definitions of "preparing" and "filing."  

[IRonMaN]

Sounds like you have heard those rumors too. 😉

[PATAX]

@sjrcpa @BobKamman @IRonMaN I think they are going to continue to accept paper checks after September 30th like Bob and others have said. I believe they already mailed all four estimated payment forms 1040ES to people earlier in the year so I doubt if they would refuse to accept a paper check mailed in after September 30 with the 1040ES. But I guess we will have to wait and see.

[IRonMaN]

Between the IRS and USPS, it would be six months before you ever got your check back if they did decide to not accept paper.  Sometimes the people making rules in this world are out of touch with reality.  Maybe some representatives from the Treasury department would like to sit down with 99 year old Auntie Annie to explain to her how she can make her payments using her 60 year old rotary phone.

[PATAX]

@IRonMaN just imagine how Brother Cooley feels with his vintage wooden wall phone😉

[IRonMaN]

He's lucky he did finally decide to upgrade from his telegraph system.