Volunteer Dick Paul, right, helps a couple prepare their taxes at the Coventry Senior Center, where returns were being completed at no charge through the AARP Tax-Aide program.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

If you owe Rhode Island income tax, and electronically file your return, there’s a new method for paying what you owe.

It’s called direct debit, and it’s available for the first time this filing season.

Instead of writing and mailing a check to the state Division of Taxation to pay your Rhode Island personal income tax, you essentially arrange for payment to be made automatically, electronically, from your bank or credit union account.

You make the arrangement in advance, through your computer software (assuming the program permits), or through your preparer (assuming the preparer’s software permits).

State Tax Administrator David M. Sullivan said, “It’s a great way to pay. It’s simple, it’s convenient and you can set the date up.”

In other words, you decide when you want the money to come out of your account.

Thus, you could e-file your Rhode Island return today, for example, but arrange to have your bank account debited, to pay the tax you owe, on Tuesday.

Jacquelyn H. Tracy, president-elect of the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants, said that direct debit is “great for people who like the convenience.”

It also benefits the state because it can save staff time and money otherwise spent on opening envelopes and processing paper checks, said Tracy, partner at Mandel & Tracy, LLC, a CPA firm in Providence.

The direct-debit option has been available for some time through the Internal Revenue Service for federal income tax. But Rhode Island recently introduced it, with little fanfare, for the filing season that ends on Wednesday.

A somewhat similar payment arrangement is already available for businesses to make payments of sales and withholding tax, said Michael F. Canole, the Rhode Island Division of Taxation’s chief of examinations, and Linda C. Riendeau, chief revenue agent for the agency’s personal income tax section.

Last week, the agency completed and tested its direct-debit program for individuals and it’s now up and running, Canole said.

The system began working April 3, Sullivan said. On that date, the state took in about 480 individual income tax payments by direct debit, totaling about $292,000, he said.

An additional 4,500 direct debit arrangements are queued up for payments to be made by the filing deadline, totaling about $1.2 million, Sullivan said in an interview Wednesday at state tax agency headquarters in Providence.

The agency is working to allow estimated tax payments by direct debit in time for next year’s tax-filing season, Sullivan said.

The agency also hopes to make its direct-debit system available “in the near future” to taxpayers who make past-due tax payments in installments, he said.

TODAY’S TIP: If you plan to take advantage of direct debit this season, arrange for the payment to be made no later than Tuesday, April 14, Canole and Reindeau said.

That way, you can be assured that the money will be transferred by your bank or credit union to the state by the payment deadline, which is midnight on Wednesday, April 15.

One more point: If you e-file and are owed a refund, don’t forget that you may have your refund deposited directly into your bank or credit union account.

(The Rhode Island Division of Taxation does not permit direct deposit of refunds for those who file paper returns.)

Questions about your money matters? Call us at (401) 277-7484 and leave a message, or e-mail:

moneyline@projo.com

Whether you phone in or e-mail your question, please be sure to include your name, home town and home phone in case we need to reach you. Sorry, no personal replies; as many questions and issues as possible will appear here.Where, when to file

Income-tax returns are due by midnight April 15.

You may obtain a six-month extension to the deadline, but it is an extension for filing, not for paying; you still must pay what you owe by April 15 to avoid penalty and interest.

Taxpayers in Rhode Island who file paper returns must mail or otherwise have them conveyed to an IRS processing center in Kansas City, Mo. In previous years, Rhode Island taxpayers mailed their paper returns to an IRS center in Atlanta.

The correct address is included in tax packages that the IRS mailed earlier this season. Those who did not receive a package can find the correct address on the back cover of the instructions to U.S. Form 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ.