Did your accountant (possibly me) ask you to make a MyTax Illinois business tax payment for your Illinois pass-through entity, such as a Partnership or S-Corp — maybe an estimated tax payment or extension payment? And you’re not entirely sure how to make that happen? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

The big difference between making an Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) payment for an individual (or even with a sole proprietorship) and an entity-type business (for example, a Partnership, S-Corp, C-Corp, or Co-op) is that for an individual, you do NOT want to log into the MyTax Illinois system — it won’t work. But for an entity-level business, you MUST first log into the MyTax Illinois system — it’s the only way to get it to work. Once you know that little tidbit, the rest of it is pretty easy to figure out.

So, first things first: if you’re making a payment for your business entity, go to MyTax Illinois and log in under your business Username and Password. (But if this is for your personal taxes or Schedule C/ sole proprietor/ freelancer taxes, do not log in; instead follow these instructions.)

It will prompt you to verify your security code, usually sent to your business email address, and once you enter the two-factor authentication, you should see your IL business tax dashboard.

Go to the “Summary” tab.

On the ‘Summary’ tab, look for the ‘Business Income Tax’ section. (In other words, not the Unemployment Insurance, Withholding, Sales Tax or any other type of tax.)

Once you’ve found that section, look to the right of it. Click on the link for ‘View more account options’.

There are two ways to do it from here; the first is:

— In the ‘Account Options’ section, click the link for ‘Make An Estimated Payment’.

— Select the period you want to pay (which is 12/31/2024 for tax year 2024, if you’re paying a balance due or extension payment — or, choose 12/31/2025 if paying estimated taxes for any quarter in the current tax year).
— Click the first ‘Add Payment’ hyperlink in the Payment Schedule table for each payment you would like to schedule.
— If your payment information is saved in MyTax Illinois, you will see it as an option under ‘Payment Channel’.
— Otherwise, select ‘Use a new payment channel’ and enter your company bank info.
— In either case, on the right where it says ‘Payment’, you can change the payment’s debit date and enter the amount.
— Click Submit, and re-enter your password for security purposes.

Make sure to save or print the confirmation page that pops up as a pdf — for your files, but also please send it along to your amazing and dedicated tax preparer.

(If you miss that last bit, then please go into your payment history for this account and do a print-screen that includes the status section; it will show the amount, confirmation number, and date/time.)

And remember that when it comes time to log this payment in QBO, it will go in the “Taxes & Licenses” section of the Profit & Loss (not in the sub-account of Equity for personal tax payments). Please note the type of payment (balance due, extension, or estimated tax) in the memo, and the year to which it is being applied (and quarter if applicable).

That’s all there is to it! Congrats — you did it! I’m proud of you!

Alternative Approach — Now, just because I love it when people get really confused by having too many options, I’m going to point out that there is an alternative method to paying these taxes on the MyTax IL website. Should you prefer, you can follow these instructions instead… but I don’t recommend it, because it routes you to a “Select payment type” page that is a bit overwhelming if you’re not already a tax pro familiar with Illinois’ unique approach to forms and payment types. But if you insist… from the ‘View more account options’ page, you can do the following:
— In the ‘Periods and Submissions’ section, click the link for ‘View Account Periods’
— Click the 12/31/2024 link so that your payment is applied to tax year 2024 (or a later period if paying current-year estimated quarterly taxes)
— In the upper right corner of this page, click the ‘Make A Payment’ link
— Select the ‘Bank Account Debit’ link
— Click the IL-1120-ST Payment link (ST denotes a “Small Business” payment)
— Enter the amount you want to pay in the Amount and Confirm Amount fields
— Click Submit, and re-enter your password for security purposes

Either way, you’ve now made an Illinois state income tax payment for your pass-through entity, and you can sit back, relax, and enjoy all the other fun activities that come with being a small business owner.

One last thing… on the off-chance that you made a payment for the wrong period (some people get confused when making their 1Q estimated tax payment and instead book it to the prior year, since those tax returns are still fresh on our minds), IDOR finally has a way for us to cancel those payments instead of having to call and have them moved to the correct period. A client who made exactly that mistake this year sent me these instructions to share with y’all:

>> Log in
>> Go to Business Income Tax
>> View more account options
>> View Account Periods
>> Select the period
>> Select Payment Request
>> Then click Cancel Payment on the upper right.

Now you REALLY have everything you need to navigate the complexities of paying your business taxes on MyTax Illinois! And if possible, I hope that you’re able to do it all in good cheer. Hang in there, I see you. And you’re doing a great job.

---