Intuit Online Payroll service periodically sends out an email, as required by the IRS, to encourage customers to enroll in the federal government’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System® (EFTPS).
Once enrolled, you can make any payments due the IRS via this online service instead of writing a paper check and mailing it. I like electronic bill paying, so went to the EFTPS website to enroll.
Two things that piqued my interest in the “What You Need To Know” box:
- “…After your information is validated with the IRS, you will receive a personal identification number (PIN) via U.S. Mail in five to seven business days.”
-
“This EFTPS® tax payment service Web site supports Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and Mozilla Firefox for Windows.”
Rather ironic that the IRS wants to respond to your enrollment in an online service by sending you a piece of paper via regular mail. What do you want to bet that the envelope will also include a notice about the Paperwork Reduction Act?
The EFTPS programmers might want to check their visitor stats, where they are quite likely to find that a large majority of enrollees are using Chrome or Safari as their browser, with Firefox and Internet Explorer way down the list (and IEx is about to be dropped by Microsoft).
To the credit of the IRS/US Treasury Dept., the actual online enrollment process was easy to navigate and well done.