EFTPS Now Requires MFA

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System – more simply referred to as EFTPS – recently announced their implementation of multi-factor authentication for all EFTPS payments.

For those who do not know, EFTPS is a secure, free service from the U.S. Department of Treasury through which federal taxes can be paid.  Certain federal taxes, such as payroll tax deposits, are required to be submitted through EFTPS, which makes this announcement especially important for business owners.

 If you are not a business owner, you might not be familiar with EFTPS, as other federal tax payments, such as your 1040-V, can be paid through different online systems found on IRS.gov/payments.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF THIS…

To maintain a high-level of security in this ever-changing online environment, and to maintain compliance with U.S. Department of Treasury requirements, the EFTPS has now implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all EFTPS payments, effective mid-October 2023, going forward.

Now, every time you log in to EFTPS, you are first redirected to a page through which you “authenticate,” or verify your identity.  Once authenticated, you are then directed back to EFTPS to input your EIN or SSN, PIN, and Password, to proceed as usual.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

If you are a business owner, you are required to submit your federal payroll tax deposits through EFTPS.  If you run ongoing payroll (such as weekly or bi-weekly), you probably came across this new requirement in recent weeks, and have already set up your MFA for EFTPS.

But for those of you running payroll less frequently (monthly, quarterly, or annually), you may not have come across this just yet.  In that case – heads up!  Your MFA for EFTPS could take as little as 15 minutes to setup, but may take quite a bit longer if additional information is needed to verify your identity the first time around.

ATLAS recommends planning for this new requirement by setting up your MFA for EFTPS in advance of the due date for your next federal payroll tax deposit.  While some federal payroll deposits can be paid same day, others must be scheduled ahead of time for the deposit to reach the IRS timely.  As you know, federal payroll tax deposits which are not paid timely, are subject to penalty fees.  Therefore, we suggest you setup your MFA for EFTPS sooner than later, to avoid any delays in making your next federal payroll tax deposit and those pesky penalty fees for late payment.

NOTES FOR NEXT STEPS.

As noted in the EFTPS announcement, you will need to register with a trusted authentication service.  The first, PIV/CAC, is specifically for the authentication of U.S. Federal employees or contractors, so many of you will need to use one of the other two authentication options.

Login.gov is a trusted, government issued sign-in service for secure access to other government services.  Login.gov is fairly simple to setup and use, but will of course require some additional details to verify your identity during the setup process.

ID.me is a trusted, secure agency for online identity verification, which has partnered with the IRS and other divisions of U.S. and State government as an approved authentication option.  ID.me will ask you to jump through a few additional “hoops” to verify your identity, such as providing a picture ID, but all for the sake of security.

 

If you have any questions about EFTPS, the new MFA requirement, or the ways in which ATLAS can help you and your business, please do not hesitate to reach out to your ATLAS office directly, or contact us via our ATLAS website.

We are always happy to help, and are grateful every day for the opportunity to serve you!

Onward. Upward. Beyond.
Your ATLAS Team