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Your IRS Digital Toolkit: How to Handle Your Taxes Online, Safely

  • IRS & Tax Updates

Table of Contents

A few years ago, dealing with the IRS meant waiting on hold, writing checks and keeping an eye on the mailbox. Today, most of what you need is available online, often in a few minutes.

The IRS is pushing further in this direction. At its Nationwide Tax Forum last month, it made clear that technology is central to how it plans to work with taxpayers. The tools are already here. The challenge is knowing which ones you need, and how to use them without falling for the scams that have grown up around them.

This guide brings the main tools together in one place, so you can save it and come back to it.

1. Your IRS Online Account

What it does: Shows what you owe, your payment history, notices the IRS has sent, and your tax records and transcripts.

Who it’s for: Every individual taxpayer. If you own a business, there is a separate Business Tax Account that does the same for your company, now available to more business types, including partnerships.

When to use it: Any time you want to confirm a payment arrived, check a balance, read a notice or pull a transcript, without calling the IRS.

The online account also makes working with your tax professional easier. It connects with the IRS Tax Pro Account, so you can approve your advisor’s authorization online instead of signing and mailing forms.

If you set up just one thing from this guide, make it this. You can create or sign in to your IRS online account on IRS.gov.

2. The New IRS App

What it does: Brings many of your online account features to your phone. You can check refund and amended-return status, view balances, make payments, see select notices and letters, and access your Identity Protection PIN.

Who it’s for: Individuals who want quick access on the go.

When to use it: For quick checks between bigger tasks. The app replaces the old IRS2Go app, and if you had IRS2Go, the update arrives automatically. It doesn’t replace IRS.gov or your full online account, which remains the place for everything else. Verified download links are on the official IRS app page.

3. IRS Direct Pay

What it does: IRS Direct Pay pays federal taxes directly from your checking or savings account, free of charge.

Who it’s for: Individuals and businesses. It covers balances due, estimated tax payments, extension payments and, for businesses, federal tax deposits.

When to use it: Whenever you’d otherwise mail a check. There is no account to create. You verify your identity, choose a date, and receive a confirmation number. You can pay the same day or schedule up to 365 days ahead, and change or cancel up to two business days before the payment date.

Scheduling ahead is especially useful for estimated payments. The January payment is easier to set up now than in the last week before it’s due.

4. The Tax Withholding Estimator

What it does: The IRS Tax Withholding Estimator uses your recent pay stub, income, deductions and credits to estimate whether your employer is withholding too much or too little federal tax.

Who it’s for: Anyone paid through payroll, especially if this year brought a new job, a second job, marriage or divorce, a new child, or a significant change in income.

When to use it: Now, while there are still paychecks left in the year to adjust. If a change is needed, give an updated Form W-4 to your employer. It doesn’t go to the IRS.

5. IRS Text Updates

The IRS now offers text message updates for some of its news services, including IRS Newswire and QuickAlerts, with more topics planned. You opt in to receive them through the IRS news bulletins page.

These are subscription bulletins, not messages about your account. That distinction matters, because it leads directly to the most important section of this guide.

Staying Safe While You Go Digital

Every new IRS tool attracts imitations: look-alike apps, sponsored search results, emails and texts designed to look official. A few simple rules will protect you from almost all of them:

  • The IRS won’t ask for sensitive information by unsolicited text, email or pop-up: It won’t ask for your Social Security number, bank details or passwords that way.
  • Go to IRS.gov directly: Type it in yourself rather than following a link, and be wary of sponsored search results.
  • Download the app only from official listings: In the Apple App Store or Google Play, or through IRS.gov.
  • Don’t click links in unexpected messages: Even ones that look genuine. If a message says there is an issue with your account, check it by logging in to your online account yourself.
  • Report suspected scams at IRS.gov/submitatip.


If something looks off, it is always fine to pause and ask your tax professional before doing anything.

Getting the Most From These Tools

Used together, these tools give you a clear, current view of your federal tax position, something many people have never had. They can confirm whether payments arrived, flag a notice early and show what the IRS has on record about your income.

For business owners, they work best alongside a well-run finance function. IRS records only help if they match your books, and that depends on reporting that keeps pace with the business. If it hasn’t been, that’s often a sign of the issues covered in When Your Financial Reporting Stops Keeping Up With Your Business. It also helps to be clear about who in the business monitors IRS notices and approves tax payments. As a company grows, that is one of the responsibilities that points to the need for stronger oversight, as discussed in When Does a Growing Business Need Controllership Support?

For more on where these tools fit into the IRS’s wider plans, see our recap of what we heard at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum.

Where We Fit

These tools are designed for self-service, and for many everyday tasks, that’s exactly what they offer. Where a tax professional adds value is when something in them doesn’t look right: a balance you don’t recognize, a notice you’re unsure about, or a payment that hasn’t been applied correctly.

That’s when it helps to have someone who knows how the IRS works, and who to talk to, on your side.

TTS Advisory provides tax, accounting and advisory services to technology-driven and innovation-led businesses and the people behind them. To speak with our team, schedule an appointment.