Today (Monday) marks two deadlines. Second quarter estimated payments must be made by today in order to be considered timely. Additionally, taxpayers who were out of the country on April 15th have until today, June 15th, to either file their returns or go on extension without penalty.
The estimated payment deadline is a postmark deadline. As usual, we strongly recommend that you mail your payments using certified mail, return receipt requested. This gives you proof of mailing. Those two extra services will cost you $5.10. If your payment gets lost it will usually cost you far more in interest and/or penalties.
Alternatively, you can pay electronically. You can enroll in EFTPS, the federal government’s online system. Unfortunately, it takes two to four weeks to enroll in EFTPS as the passwords are mailed to you. California also offers an online payment system; no enrollment is necessary. Many other states offer such systems; you can check with their websites to see if your state offers such a system.