The IRS has announced in IR-2017-102 that user fee payments will be made online for items such as letter rulings, closing agreements, and certain other rulings.  The payments will be made via the government’s Pay.gov website and the program begins on June 15, 2017.

The program will be phased in initially:

• From June 15 to August 15 payments may be made either via Pay.gov or by a check or money order;
• For payments made after August 15, the payments will only be accepted via Pay.gov.

The release indicates the following rulings are affected by this change:

Rulings described in Revenue Procedure 2017-1 and sent to the Docket, Records and User Fee Branch of the Legal Processing Division of the Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure and Administration) (CC:PA:LPD:DRU) are affected by this change. These include private letter rulings, closing agreements, and rulings using Form 1128, 2553, 3115 or 8716.

Determination letters are not covered by this change in procedures.  Also, the ruling request itself will not be submitted via Pay.gov—only the payment will be made at that site.

The news release offers the following instructions on submitting a payment:

To submit a user fee, visit www.pay.gov and use the IRS Chief Counsel User Fees (or Supplemental User Fees) for Form 1128, Form 2553, Form 3115, Form 8716, Private Letter Rulings and Closing Agreements form. This form can be found by entering “IRS Chief Counsel User Fees” in the “Search the Forms” box or by clicking on the “Agency List” link under “What Federal Agencies Can I Pay?” and choosing Internal Revenue Service.

Since the ruling request itself will not be submitted via Pay.gov, the taxpayer will need to submit evidence of payment with the request.  The news release provides the following options for providing that information:

Once payment is made, print a copy of the completed form and the receipt and include these with theletter ruling request. Then submit the complete package by mail or hand delivery:

Mail to:

Internal Revenue Service
CC:PA:LPD:DRU
P.O. Box 7604
Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC20044;

or

Hand deliver, or if using a private courier service, to:

Internal Revenue Service
CC:PA:LPD:DRU
1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
Room 5336
Washington, DC20224

In addition, for the fastest processing, please Efax a copy of the pay.gov receipt, the completed form and the ruling request to this eFax line, 877-773-4950.