To highlight consumers’ ability use credit and debit cards to conduct tax payments, MasterCard Worldwide is touting acceptance of its products at a tax-payment Web site.
RBS Worldpay and Value Payment Systems LLC earlier this month announced consumers may make federal tax payments to the Internal Revenue Service using their MasterCard-branded payment cards at payUSAtax.com, a Web site RBS Worldpay owns that enables consumers to pay their federal taxes online. Though they emphasized MasterCard acceptance in the announcement, the site also accepts Visa- and Discover-branded payment cards, and Bill Me Later Inc. also is a payment option.
All payments options have been available since the site launched in January.
Any consumer filing a personal or business tax return is eligible to use the service, says Scott Slusser, Value Payment chief marketing officer.
“As payment cards continue to replace cash and checks, taxpayers are increasingly taking advantage of the convenience that comes with filing and paying taxes online,” says Mathias Lilja, MasterCard vice president of commerce development.
More than 4 million taxpayers paid their taxes electronically last year, according to the IRS.
PayUSAtax.com is charging consumers a reduced convenience fee of 1.95% of the total tax being paid for credit card payments. For example, a consumer paying $100 in taxes would have to pay a $1.95 fee. Two other Web sites, operated by Official Payments Corp. and Link2Gov Corp., charge 2.35%.
PayUSAtax.com and Link2Gov’s pay1040.com charge a flat $3.89 convenience fee for signature-debit payments. Official Payments’ officialpayments.com/fed charges $3.95. The fees are based on card association rules, Slusser says.
The IRS has certified the Web sites to accept tax payments online.
Launched in January, payUSAtax.com is experiencing more traffic now as the deadline to file taxes approaches on Thursday, Slusser says. The site welcomes visitors throughout the year because it also accepts tax-installment-agreement payments.
“It’s extremely important for consumers to have variety in the type of tax payments that are available to be paid online,” Slusser says.
