IRS No Longer Accepting Paper Checks

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
January 30, 2026
2 replies
24 views

Does anyone know if Lacerte has any plans of modifying the cover letters as a result of the IRS position of no more paper checks?

Lacerte Tax

sjrcpa

Level 15

They still accept checks from individuals, but prefer electronic payment.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/taxpros/fs-2026-02.pdf

The more I know the more I don’t know.

D

dgrubercpaAuthor

Level 2

Thank you for this. We have been informed that even though they will still accept and cash the checks, they are most likely not going to be posted to the taxpayers account and will therefore be sitting in the IRS suspense account. If this happens, the time involved in tracking these payments down and having them properly applied to the taxpayer's account is incredibly time consuming, so much so, that we have already informed our clients that if they choose to still send paper and issues arise, we will have to bill out our time in rectifying the situation. We have had to find funds in this suspense account for other clients recently and you can easily burn up a couple of hours between sitting on hold and providing the IRS with the information they need to go find the money. We have also been told that returns with refunds without direct deposit information will probably be issued a tax notice about 6 weeks after filing requesting banking information for direct deposit. I know for a fact I would have to field several calls over that six week period to explain the answer to, "Where's my refund?". I hope that I have been misinformed on all of the above, but I certainly don't want to be hundreds of filed tax returns into this before I find out either way. Sorry for my lengthy response.

BobKamman

Level 15

We have been informed

We have also been told

By whom?

BobKamman

Level 15

I have been informed, and also been told by this statement on the IRS website, that it's the electronic payments that are all f'ed up:

June 12, 2025

The IRS is aware that there is a delay in processing some electronic payments, and that some taxpayers are receiving IRS notices indicating a balance due even though payments were made timely.

Who is affected: Taxpayers who paid tax reported due on their tax return electronically may see payments on their accounts as pending, although the IRS has received payment through their banking institution. The notice may have been initiated before the payment was processed on the account, or the payment may have been processed but contained errors and requires additional handling to address the error before updating the tax account.

No phone call needed: Taxpayers who receive a notice but paid the tax they owed in full and on time, electronically, do not need to respond to the notice at this time. Taxpayers may monitor the status of their payments by viewing the payment activity page in their IRS online account where they will be able to view their payment history as well as pending payments that are being processed. If a taxpayer has checked their online account and does not see the payment processed by July 15, they may call the number on their notice.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-statement-on-delay-in-processing-some-electronic-payments

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