It Seems People Are Still Confused About How to Handle Our First Tax Season Without Checks

Last March, President Trump issued the Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account executive order which ordered — nay, demanded — the end of paper checks as a form of payment both into and out of the entity described as “America’s bank account.” In simpler words, the government would no longer accept checks from taxpayers nor would they issue checks to them and everyone had six months to figure it out.

The order reads:

The continued use of paper-based payments by the Federal Government, including checks and money orders, flowing into and out of the United States General Fund, which might be thought of as America’s bank account, imposes unnecessary costs; delays; and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies. Mail theft complaints have increased substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, Department of the Treasury checks are 16 times more likely to be reported lost or stolen, returned undeliverable, or altered than an electronic funds transfer (EFT). Maintaining the physical infrastructure and specialized technology for digitizing paper records cost the American taxpayer over $657 million in Fiscal Year 2024 alone.

This order promotes operational efficiency by mandating the transition to electronic payments for all Federal disbursements and receipts by digitizing payments to the extent permissible under applicable law (but not, for avoidance of doubt, to establish a Central Bank Digital Currency).

You’ve got to love when official government orders include a shout-out to widespread internet conspiracies.

The timing of the order — March 25 — led many people including well-informed tax practitioners to assume this was some kind of April Fool’s joke. See: Trump Ends the Tax Refund Check (note we purposely chose to publish that article on April 2nd to not add further confusion). The effective date of September 30, 2025 also caused a bit of panic as that gave just six months from the time the order was issued to the time it was expected to be fully in effect.

Now four months past the date on which checks were supposed to disappear forever, the IRS has issued quite a bit of guidance to help those who are still confused by how all of this works. We’ve included the entirety of FS-2026-02 below for your reading pleasure.

There’s a little something for everyone in here: taxpayers, businesses, vendors, interested third parties, the unbanked, tax preparers…

Have fun!