Starting this summer, any taxpayer who wants to request a letter ruling, a closing agreement, and other certain rulings from the IRS will need to pay the user fee electronically. The IRS will now be using the Pay.gov system to deal with taxpayer fee payments. Pay.gov allows people to pay for a variety of government services. Users can use a credit or debit card or can have funds withdrawn electronically from checking or savings account. In the past, users wanting to request rulings could only pay the required user fee by check or money order.

During a two-month transition period from June 15th to August 15th, taxpayers can choose to make user fee payments through either Pay.gov or by check or money order. After August 15th, Pay.gov will be the only way for user to pay the user fee. User fees range from $200 to $28,300, depending upon the type of ruling being sought. Pay.gov is used to accept payments only. The original, signed ruling request and supporting materials must still be submitted by mail or hand delivery to the IRS.

The rulings affected by this change include rulings described in Revenue Procedure 2017-1 that are sent to the Docket, Records and User Fee Branch of the Legal Processing Division of the Associate Chief Counsel. This includes private letter rulings, closing agreements and rulings using Form 1128, 2553, 3115, 8716. Determination letters are not affected because they are sent to other offices as described in the revenue procedure.

A letter ruling is a written determination letter that is issued by the IRS Chief counsel to a taxpayer in response to the taxpayer’s written inquiry. Taxpayers can request for the legal theory behind tax law or for more explanation. The letter ruling mostly concerns the taxpayer’s status for tax purposes or the tax effect of its acts or transactions. Letter rulings and other similar ruling requests interpret the tax laws and apply them to the taxpayer’s specific set of facts.