Look, nobody actually enjoys thinking about taxes in the middle of the year. But if you're a freelancer, a small business owner, or someone with a side hustle that’s finally taking off, the IRS expects their cut every quarter. Missing a deadline is bad. Sending your hard-earned money to the wrong IRS service center is arguably worse because now you're stuck in a bureaucratic loop trying to prove you actually paid on time. Finding the correct address to send 1040-ES isn't as straightforward as just googling "IRS address" and hitting print on a shipping label. It’s a moving target based entirely on where you live.
The IRS divides the United States into two distinct regions for processing these specific vouchers. If you live in New York, you aren’t sending your check to the same place as someone in California. It’s that simple. And yet, every year, thousands of people get it wrong because they use an old form they found at the bottom of a drawer or they follow advice from a blog post written in 2018. The IRS changes these locations more often than you’d think.
Where Does Your Check Actually Go?
The IRS uses specific "Internal Revenue Service Centers" for estimated tax payments. These are specialized hubs. For the 2024 and 2025 tax years (and moving into 2026), the division is basically a "North/East vs. South/West" split, though the lines are a bit jagged.
If you are a resident of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, or any of the Southeastern/Southwestern states like Arizona or New Mexico, your address to send 1040-ES is typically the center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Specifically, you're looking at P.O. Box 1300. Now, if you’re up in the Northeast—think Maine, Massachusetts, or even over in Ohio—you’re likely routing that payment to Louisville, Kentucky, at P.O. Box 931100.
Wait. Did you move? If you moved from Boston to Austin in June, your second-quarter payment might go to a different state than your first. The IRS cares about where you live now, at the time you are filing the voucher.
The State-by-State Breakdown
Let’s get specific. If you’re in any of the following states, your mail goes to Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 931100, Louisville, KY 40293-1100:
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.
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It’s a long list. Basically, most of the East and the Midwest.
However, if you reside in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming, you need to use Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1300, Charlotte, NC 28201-1300.
Yes, Florida is weirdly grouped with the West Coast for processing. Don't ask why; it's just how their logistics are optimized this year.
Why Mailing a Paper Check is a Gamble
Honestly? Mailing a check is kinda old school. It works, sure. But you’re relying on the USPS to deliver a tiny envelope to a massive processing facility where thousands of other envelopes are arriving simultaneously. If that letter gets lost or the postmark is blurry, you might face underpayment penalties.
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If you insist on mailing it, do not just drop it in a blue mailbox on the corner and hope for the best. Use Certified Mail with a Return Receipt. It costs a few extra bucks, but that receipt is your "get out of jail free" card if the IRS claims they never got your money. The "postmark rule" is your best friend here. As long as the envelope is postmarked by the due date, the IRS considers it on time, even if it takes a week to arrive in North Carolina or Kentucky.
Common Blunders to Avoid
People mess this up constantly. The biggest mistake? Forgetting to include the actual voucher. The 1040-ES form has a little perforated slip at the bottom. That slip is the only way the IRS knows which account to credit the money to. If you just send a check, a confused clerk in Louisville has to manually look you up by your Social Security Number, which is a recipe for errors.
Speaking of checks:
- Make it out to "United States Treasury." Not "IRS."
- Write your SSN on the memo line.
- Write "2025 Form 1040-ES" (or whatever the current year is) on the memo line.
- Don't staple the check to the voucher. Just paperclip it or leave it loose in the envelope. Staples break the scanning machines.
Is There a Better Way?
Technically, you don't need an address to send 1040-ES if you go digital. The IRS has been pushing "Direct Pay" hard for the last few years. It’s free. You don't need to register for an account. You just pull the money straight from your checking or savings.
But I get it. Some people like the paper trail. Or maybe you're paying from a trust account that’s easier to manage via physical checks. If that's the case, just ensure you are using the most recent version of the 1040-ES package. The IRS updates the instructions annually, and while the addresses stay relatively stable, they do occasionally shift P.O. boxes.
Foreign Addresses and Special Cases
If you’re an expat or a "digital nomad" living in Bali but still paying Uncle Sam, your rules are different. Generally, if you are a bona fide resident of a foreign country, or if you're filing from a U.S. possession like Guam or the Virgin Islands, your address to send 1040-ES is almost always the Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1303, Charlotte, NC 28201-1303.
Military personnel with APO or FPO addresses also typically use the Charlotte location. It’s the designated hub for international and "out-of-country" taxpayers.
Understanding the Deadlines
Knowing where to send the payment is useless if you send it late. The IRS doesn't use a "standard" quarterly schedule. The windows are actually:
- April 15 (Q1)
- June 15 (Q2)
- September 15 (Q3)
- January 15 of the following year (Q4)
Note that the second "quarter" is only two months long. This trips people up every single June. If the 15th falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, you get until the next business day.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Payment
Stop guessing. Before you lick that envelope, do these three things:
- Verify your region: Double-check the state list above. If you've moved since your last tax return, use your current residential address to determine the service center.
- Prepare the check properly: Ensure "United States Treasury" is the payee. Confirm your Social Security Number is clearly written on the check itself, just in case it gets separated from the voucher.
- Use a trackable mailing method: Never send tax payments via standard First Class mail without some form of tracking. It’s worth the $4-5 for the peace of mind.
- Keep a photocopy: Take a picture of the signed check and the completed voucher before you seal the envelope. If you ever get a notice of underpayment, you’ll have a digital record of exactly what you sent and where you sent it.
The IRS is a massive machine. It's not malicious, but it's not particularly flexible either. If you send your payment to the Austin center instead of the Charlotte center, it will eventually get routed to the right place, but it might take weeks. In the meantime, you might get a scary letter in the mail. Avoid the headache. Use the correct address to send 1040-ES based on your specific geography, and always keep your receipts.