Paying your income tax balance due online (a) saves a lot of hassle, (b) avoids mis-posting from human processing error, and (c) results in an easily saved confirmation — all good reasons to pay any balance due on your tax return via the government’s own website instead of placing a manual check in the mail.

And since many government agencies (including the IRS) are starting to no longer accept paper payments, combined with the fact that the USPS no longer postmarks envelopes for the date they’re placed in the mail, it’s an even more compelling time to pay online.

Below are key pointers and links to help you make the process as smooth as possible.

Key Pointers to Know

First, we generally recommend using a government’s own website for making tax payments rather than an authorized third-party. One reason is to limit the possibility of errors, but another is that third-parties usually add a processing fee (and who wants to pay even more on top of their tax?).

Second, it’s absolutely critical that you indicate the correct tax year — The IRS will not move payments between tax years. Sometimes states will, but only after a big hassle. So ensuring you select the correct tax year will save you a headache.

Thirdly, and related, be sure you indicate the correct tax form — You don’t want to accidentally pay sales tax when you’re trying to cover your income tax.

The easiest solution to the above? — Have the tax summary we’ve sent you at hand so you can read off the year, form, and dollar amount without having to guess your way through.

Links for Paying Income Taxes

Now for the links — keep in mind: the websites used to pay balance due on an e-filed return may be different than those used to quarterly estimates. For a list of websites for quarterly estimates, check out our sister blog post, Estimated tax payments for Business Owners.

• Federal (IRS) individual income tax — We recommend using IRS DirectPay for the easiest experience, though you can also use your IRS Online Account or EFTPS if you’ve set them up.

• Maryland *individual* income tax — We recommend paying via eCheck using Maryland’s ‘Velocity’ platform. NOTE: Maryland is expecting to launch a new platform for individual taxes the summer of 2026, so these links may change once that goes live. Also, here’s Maryland’s knowledgebase page with additional information for paying individual taxes online.

• Maryland *pass through entity* (PTE) income tax — If you have a ‘pass-through entity’ and it’s elected to pay taxes at the state level to Maryland, you can also use the eCheck option via Maryland’s ‘Velocity’ platform.

• DC *individual* income tax — You can use the MyTaxDC website to remit payment for DC individual income tax.

• DC *business* income tax — DC generally doesn’t recognize pass-through entities, so they have to file and pay taxes separately. To do so, you can use the MyTaxDC website as well.

• Virginia *individual* income tax — Virginia residents can use Virginia’s online payment coupon platform.

• Pennsylvania *individual* income tax — Residents of PA can use the MyPath site to remit individual income tax payments.

Last thoughts & Recommendations

Each of the services above will usually give you a confirmation screen at the end — We highly recommend saving to PDF into your personal or business records (and even save to your e-Cabinet with our team). Otherwise, they can be hard to track down after-the-fact if ever needed to provide evidence of timely payment.

We’ll also continually update this page for any changes in links which can shift from time-to-time, so feel free to bookmark it for future use as well. Equipping you with the latest and simplest is part of how our Tax Design Team helps to de-stress your tax time, so don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!