Every way to pay US federal tax from overseas, compared: international wires, approved card processors, checks, penalties, payment plans and what happens to refunds when you have no US account.
If you owe US federal tax and bank only outside the United States, three routes are realistically open to you: an international wire transfer from your foreign bank using the IRS Same-Day Taxpayer Payment Worksheet, a debit or credit card through an IRS-approved processor, or a check or money order sent by mail. IRS Direct Pay and payment through your IRS Online Account both require a US bank routing number, so they are closed unless you still hold a US account. Every payment must reach the IRS in US dollars, and the date the IRS receives it — not the date you instruct your bank — is what stops penalties and interest running.
Filing from abroad is a solved problem. Paying is where people get stuck, because almost every convenient IRS payment channel was built around the US domestic banking network — close your last US checking account and three of the IRS's headline options quietly stop working for you. A payment that bounces back for a missing routing number costs you a penalty plus daily-compounding interest that runs from the original due date, not from the date you first tried to pay.
| Method | Needs a US bank account? | Typical timing | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IRS Online Account | Yes — domestic bank account | Same day to next business day | Free |
| IRS Direct Pay | Yes — US routing number, no SWIFT | Same day to next business day | Free |
| EFTPS | Yes — and individuals can no longer enroll | Scheduled up to 365 days ahead | Free |
| International wire from a foreign bank | No | Same day if you meet your bank's cut-off | Your bank's wire fee plus FX spread; IRS warns it "can be costly" |
| Debit card via approved processor | No | Same day | $2.15 (Pay1040) or $2.10 (ACI Payments) per consumer debit payment |
| Credit card via approved processor | No | Same day | 1.75% (Pay1040) or 1.85% (ACI Payments), minimum $2.50 |
| Check or money order by mail | No | Weeks — international post plus IRS processing | Postage; the IRS still accepts mailed payments "for now" |
| Cash | No | In person only | Requires being physically present at a US retail partner |
Both are free, both settle quickly, and both assume a domestic account. Publication 6147-C, the IRS's own one-page guide for international taxpayers, lists "IRS Online Account" and "Direct Pay" under the heading US Bank Accounts and describes each as paying "with a domestic bank account." The Direct Pay help page is blunter: it needs a nine-digit US routing number and will not take a SWIFT or BIC code. If your foreign bank has a US affiliate that can supply a genuine ABA routing number, Direct Pay may work; most retail accounts in the UK, the UAE or the EU will not.
The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System is free and lets you schedule payments up to 365 days ahead, with enrollment taking up to five business days. But the IRS now states plainly that individual taxpayers can no longer create new EFTPS accounts; individuals are directed to their Online Account, or to Direct Pay for less common payment types. Existing individual users can carry on, and businesses and tax professionals can still enroll. If you are an individual abroad without an existing account, treat this route as closed.
This is the route the IRS built for people in your position. Its guidance opens: "International taxpayers who do not have a U.S. bank account may follow the instructions below to transfer funds from their foreign bank account directly to the Internal Revenue Service." Three conditions matter.
1. Your bank must be able to do it. "Your foreign bank must have a banking relationship with a U.S. bank, although the U.S. bank does not have to be an affiliate or otherwise related to the foreign bank." Large banks generally can; small local banks and some app-only challengers often cannot.
2. You must complete the Same-Day Taxpayer Payment Worksheet and give it to your bank, with the proper tax type code and tax period. Each separate payment needs its own worksheet.
3. It must be in US dollars. The IRS is explicit: "Payments of U.S. tax must be remitted to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in U.S. dollars."
The destination details the IRS publishes are routing number 091036164 (US TREAS SINGLE TX) and IRS account number 20092900IRS. Tax type codes for individuals include 10406 for a Form 1040 estimated tax payment, 10402 where an extension has been filed, 10400 for an amended return, and 10407 for a subsequent payment. Availability, fees and cut-off times come from your own bank — the IRS does not set them, and it adds its own caveat: "it can be costly. Please consider other options, including paying by credit card, to avoid the high cost of international wire transfer."
No US bank account is needed to pay by card, and from overseas this is frequently the cheapest and fastest option. The IRS lists two approved processors with published fees:
Between them the accepted networks include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club International, China Union Pay, JCB and Maestro. The IRS states no general rule on foreign-issued cards, so confirm with the processor before relying on a non-US card for a large balance, and expect your issuer's exchange rate and possibly a foreign transaction fee on top — Publication 6147-C says only to "be mindful of fees/currency conversion." A flat $2.15 debit fee on a five-figure balance is nonetheless remarkable value.
Still permitted, still slow. In its guidance on Executive Order 14247, the IRS says "For now, mailed payments to the IRS, including cash, checks and money orders, will still be accepted and processed," while signalling that it intends to reduce reliance on paper over time. If you do mail one:
With a foreign address, Form 1040 with a payment goes to Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1303, Charlotte, NC 28201-1303, USA; without a payment, to Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, TX 73301-0215, USA. The risk is timing: international post is unpredictable, and the IRS's designated private delivery services deliver to street addresses rather than PO boxes. Within a fortnight of a deadline, pay by card instead.
1. Confirm the exact amount and tax period — for example, 2025 Form 1040 balance due, or 2026 third-quarter estimated tax.
2. Check whether you hold any US dollar account with a card attached. If you do, pay by debit card through Pay1040 or ACI Payments for a flat fee and keep the confirmation.
3. If not, price a credit card payment at 1.75% of the balance against the wire fee plus the FX spread your bank quotes.
4. If 1.75% hurts, ask your bank whether it can send a federal tax wire. Request the Same-Day Taxpayer Payment Worksheet, complete the tax type code and period, and confirm the cut-off time for same-day value.
5. Pay early. Publication 6147-C's headline advice is to "Pay early from abroad to ensure your payment is received on time."
6. Save the confirmation number or wire reference and reconcile it against your account transcript weeks later.
7. If you cannot pay in full, still file on time and arrange a payment plan — failure to file costs ten times as much as failure to pay.
Your tax is denominated in dollars; your money is not. Whichever route you choose, someone converts — your bank on a wire, your card issuer on a card payment — and the retail spread is frequently larger than the IRS's card processing fee. So when wiring, send slightly more than you owe, in case an adverse rate or a correspondent bank charge leaves a small underpayment quietly accruing interest. And build in time: a wire instructed on the due date but credited two business days later is a late payment, and penalties and interest run from the original due date regardless of your intention.
Misapplied payments are the most common avoidable problem for taxpayers abroad. Every payment — card, wire or check — should carry four identifiers: your SSN or ITIN, the tax year, the form number (1040, 1040-ES, 1040-NR), and the payment type (balance due, estimated tax, extension payment, amended return). On a wire that is the tax type code and tax period on the worksheet; on a card it is the reason-for-payment selection; on a check it is written on the payment itself. Get a digit of your SSN or ITIN wrong and the money sits unapplied while penalties accrue on a balance the IRS still shows as outstanding.
Assume a 2025 Form 1040 balance due of $9,400, originally due 15 April 2026, for an American resident in the UK with no US bank account.
Pay by credit card on the due date. Pay1040's 1.75% credit card fee is $164.50, plus whatever the issuer charges for a US dollar transaction.
Pay five months late, on 15 September 2026. The failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% of the unpaid tax for each month or part month — five months is 2.5%, or $235. Interest runs on top at 7% compounded daily, the rate for individual underpayments, adding roughly $280 on $9,400 over five months. Total: around $515, and still climbing.
The card fee costs about a third of a five-month delay and buys certainty that the payment landed. Anyone tempted to wait for a better exchange rate should price the wait first.
US citizens and resident aliens living outside the United States and Puerto Rico receive an automatic two-month extension to file, moving a calendar-year deadline from 15 April to 15 June, and must attach a statement to the return explaining which situation qualified them. It is not an extension to pay: the IRS states that "Even if you are allowed an extension, you will have to pay interest on any tax not paid by the regular due date." Interest accrues from 15 April. The numbers to know:
If several years are outstanding rather than one, the payment question is secondary — read our guide to missed US tax returns first and, where the failure was non-willful, the IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure.
If you cannot pay in full, the IRS offers two individual plans through its Online Payment Agreement application:
Two frictions bite expats. Direct debit requires a US bank account, so the cheapest tier is often unavailable; and applying online requires passing IRS identity verification, which taxpayers with no US phone number or US-issued identity documents can find difficult. Where you cannot apply or revise a plan online, Form 9465, Installment Agreement Request, is the paper route — the IRS describes it as the way "to request a monthly installment plan if you cannot pay the full amount you owe shown on your tax return (or on a notice we sent you)."
While a plan is in force the failure-to-pay penalty halves to 0.25% a month, but interest keeps running at the full rate. A plan is a cash-flow tool, not a discount.
If you are self-employed abroad, or your US tax is not covered by withholding, quarterly estimated payments apply exactly as they would at home. The safe harbor is to pay the smaller of 90% of the current year's tax or 100% of the prior year's tax — rising to 110% of the prior year if that year's adjusted gross income exceeded $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately). Due dates are 15 April, 15 June, 15 September and 15 January.
The wire tax type code for a Form 1040 estimated payment is 10406; card processors carry 1040-ES as a payment reason. Four payments a year means four sets of fees, so the gap between a flat debit fee and a percentage credit card fee compounds. Our deadlines page tracks the dates across jurisdictions.
This is now the harder half of the problem. The IRS says a refund "should only be deposited directly into a United States bank or United States bank affiliated accounts that are in your own name," and that to request direct deposit you need "a U.S. account (a member of the Federal Reserve System), or a correspondent bank (foreign or international) that maintains an account at a Federal Reserve Bank." No more than three electronic refunds may go to a single account or prepaid debit card.
The fallback used to be a paper check to your overseas address. Under Executive Order 14247 the IRS "generally stopped issuing paper refund checks for individual taxpayers after Sept. 30, 2025," with certified payments continuing only in limited circumstances. The IRS says alternative electronic methods, including certain mobile apps and prepaid debit cards, will be available, and that it is working with Treasury, the FDIC, the National Credit Union Administration and a US bank to help taxpayers open accounts. Filers of Form 1040-NR may still give an alternative mailing address outside the United States for a refund check.
The planning conclusion is uncomfortable but clear: if you expect refunds, some route into the US banking system is no longer optional. Raise it before you file, not after.
Most people can pay the IRS from abroad unaided once they know which channel will accept them. Professional help earns its keep when the balance is large enough that the choice between a wire and a 1.75% card fee is material, when several years are outstanding, when a payment has been misapplied and will not clear, or when you need an installment agreement without a US bank account. Our wider guide to US tax compliance for Americans abroad covers the filing side; if you would like a licensed CPA or Enrolled Agent to review your position and sign off the return, our US-UK expat tax accountants can help, or you can book a consultation.
This article is general information about US federal tax administration, not advice on your circumstances.