Should i pay my taxes to the irs with a credit card?

Is it ever possible to make it worthwhile to charge your taxes? Possibly. “You need to be a bit creative,” Rossman says. The creativity comes from getting a new card with a big sign-up

bonus. For example, suppose your card issuer offered 40,000 points for signing up. In this case, you might be able to get 40,000 points for signing up with the new card and 10,000 points for

paying the $10,000 tax bill. In that case, you'd have 50,000 points, or $500 at a penny a point. Typically, these offers require you to charge a certain amount over a set period to

earn those points, and charging your taxes could possibly cover those requirements. But, says Rossman, you'd also have to check if the card has an annual fee, what the card charges in

interest and whether points are worth more for what you're looking for — say, airline points. “It's going to require a bit of work, and it will only work for a narrow slice of

credit card customers,” Rossman says. You also need to be sure that you can pay off your credit card balance in full once you charge the taxes; otherwise, you could get stuck not only paying

the processing fee for charging your taxes, but the interest that your credit card charges, which currently averages about 16 percent annually, according to bankrate.com. If you have the

money to pay your tax bill and still want to put it on plastic for convenience, use a debit card instead of a credit card. The three IRS-approved processors only charge fees ranging between

$2 and $3.95 to pay by debit card. You can also pay the IRS directly, with no fee, by entering your bank account information. DON'T DO THIS If you don't have the money to pay your

federal income taxes, don't just ignore the deadline and not pay your taxes or file your tax return. Your federal taxes won't go away. If you don't file a return and

don't pay the taxes owed, the IRS will charge you 5 percent a month on your unpaid taxes, up to 25 percent. If you can find a credit card that offers a zero percent introductory

interest rate, and you don't have cash on hand to pay your tax bill, charging your taxes might make sense. You just have to be very careful to pay your entire account off before the

introductory period ends and high interest rates kick in.