Newsbytes
December
2002
EFTPS Users Have Fewer IRS Tax Penalties
IR-2002-128, Nov. 25, 2002
WASHINGTON
– According to research conducted by the Internal
Revenue Service, businesses that pay their taxes
using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
(EFTPS) have significantly fewer IRS penalties assessed.
EFTPS
is a service offered free from two agencies of the
U.S. Department of the Treasury – the IRS
and the Financial Management Service. The system
enables taxpayers and tax professionals to make
federal tax payments electronically using EFTPS-OnLine,
EFTPS-PC Software, EFTPS-Phone, or EFTPS Batch Provider
software for professionals.
The
research analyzed 68,000 taxpayers, and compared
the penalties assessed to EFTPS users with the penalties
assessed to taxpayers that use a paper check and
Federal Tax Deposit (FTD) Coupon to make payments
for Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return.
The study showed that non-EFTPS users were 31 times
more likely to be assessed a penalty than EFTPS
users.
"We
believe this shows one of the hidden benefits to
EFTPS – the ability to schedule payments in
advance to avoid penalties," said Robert Hunt,
IRS Director, Taxpayer Education and Communication.
“The system helps taxpayers set up dates on
which payments will be made even if they are out
of town or on vacation when a payment is due. EFTPS
takes the worry out of remembering the deadlines.”
"This
also says a lot about EFTPS users,” Hunt said.
“They use the system to their benefit to maintain
a consistent and accurate tax payment record. We
have always noted the high accuracy rate of EFTPS
– 99.9 percent, almost 19 times more accurate
than paper coupons. This study reinforces that EFTPS
provides taxpayers with a more accurate tax payment
method that can ultimately help them avoid and alleviate
penalties."
Taxpayers
can enroll in EFTPS online, or by calling EFTPS
Customer Service at 1-800-555-4477 or 1-800-945-8400.
Since
the introduction of EFTPS in 1996, nearly 4 million
taxpayers have enrolled in the system to make all
their federal tax payments.
EFTPS
enables taxpayers to:
make
tax payments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from
home or office;
schedule payments up to 120 days in advance for
businesses, or 365 days in advance for individuals;
and
review the last 120 days of tax payment history
online or by calling Customer Service.
In addition, taxpayers receive an EFT Acknowledgement
Number for every EFTPS transaction for easy recordkeeping
and as proof of the transaction.
EFTPS
is ideal for all business taxpayers and for individual
taxpayers that make Form 1040-ES quarterly estimated
payments.
