Taxes! What are they and how do I pay them?
A brief overview of how to make common personal and self employed tax payments
How do I pay estimated taxes? If you are required to pay estimated taxes over the current year, we have likely calculated those balances for you. Just like balances due with your returns, you can also pay those electronically:
Individual Federal tax payments - You can make these payments directly on the IRS.Gov website. You will be making a payment for an “estimated tax payment” towards your 2025 form 1040. The due dates for estimated tax payments this year are 4/15 for Q1, 6/16 for Q2, 9/15 for Q3 and 1/15/2025 for Q4
Individual NYS tax payments - You can make these payments on the tax.ny.gov website. NY does require you to create a login, so you will need a copy of a previously filed return to set that up. Once you are in, about halfway down you’ll see a section that says “make a payment” and you’ll select “pay estimated tax” for 2025, and then continue with your payment details.
NYS Pass Through Entity tax (PTET)- You can also make these payments on the tax.ny.gov website, but these payments will be under your business name and ID (not your personal). NY does require you to create a login, so you will need a copy of a previously filed return to set that up. Once you are in, on the top left click services, then select corporation tax or partnership tax (depending on your entity type) then “PTET Web file”. This will redirect you to a new page for the PTET. There, you can select “PTET estimated payment and make it there. Heres’ a quick video walkthrough
NYC Unincorporated Business Tax (or GCT for S-corps)- You can make these on the NYC E-services website and similar to the NYS, you will need to create a login, and information from a previously filed return. If this is your first year filing the UBT or GCT, you may need to pay that by check. Note the Q4 S-corp GCT is due 12/15 not 1/15!
CA tax payments - You can make these via the CA franchise tax board website and works very similar to the IRS website. These will be 2025 estimated income tax payments.
CA Pass Through Entity Tax (PTET) - You can make these via the CA franchise tax board website and works very similar to the IRS website. These will be 2025 estimated PTET Payments. Note, for your 2025 CA PTET election to be valid, you MUST make a Q2 payment of 50% of your prior year PTET, or $1,000, whichever is higher by 6/15!
How do I pay the taxes I owe with my tax returns? - If you owe taxes with your current year tax returns the easiest way to pay those balances is online. Linked below are the respective government websites and instructions. If you can’t pay, see information further down about payment agreements.
Federal tax payments - You can make these payments directly on the IRS.Gov website. You will be making a payment for a “tax return or notice” towards your 2025 form 1040. The due date for 2025 payments is 4/18 this year.
NYS tax payments - You can make these payments on the tax.ny.gov website. NY does require you to create a login, so you will need a copy of a previously filed return to set that up. Once you are in, about halfway down you’ll see a section that says “make a payment” and you’ll select “pay my return” for 2025, and then continue with your payment details.
NYS Pass Through Entity tax (PTET)- You can also make these payments on the tax.ny.gov website, but these payments will be under your business name and ID (not your personal). NY does require you to create a login, so you will need a copy of a previously filed return to set that up. Once you are in, on the top left click services, then select corporation tax or partnership tax (depending on your entity type) then “PTET Web file”. This will redirect you to a new page for the PTET. There, you can select “PTET return payment and make it there.
NYC Unincorporated Business Tax (and GCT for S-corps) - You can make these on the NYC E-services website and similar to the NYS, you will need to create a login, and information from a previously filed return. If this is your first year filing the UBT, you may need to pay that by check.
CA tax payments - You can make these via the CA franchise tax board website and works very similar to the IRS website. This will be a 2025 individual tax payment for individuals and freelancers, or a business tax payment for S-corporations and partnerships.
If you run into difficulty with any of these websites processes, you can always send out a paper check using the instructions noted in tax return we sent you, but paper checks are far more likely to get lost and miscoded by the government. We strongly recommend using the electronic payment methods above.
What if I can’t pay my tax return balance? If you have a balance due with your 2024 or prior tax returns and will not be able to pay in full by the 4/18 due date, you can request an installment agreement. The agreement allows you more time to pay without escalating collection action, however penalties and interest continue to accrue until the balances are repaid. The current combined penalty and interest rate is around 13%.