Executive Order 14247
President Trump’s Executive Order 14247 (“EO 14247”) was issued on March 25, 2025. EO 14247 provides that, starting September 30, 2025, “the Secretary of the Treasury shall cease issuing paper checks for all Federal disbursements inclusive of intragovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments, and tax refunds,” So as of October 1, 2025, the IRS will no longer issue tax refunds in the form of paper checks (for the most part taxpayers will receive refunds going forward via electronic payments transferred to the US bank accounts of each taxpayer). This may present a real challenge for some foreign individuals seeking IRS refunds however, as it is not always so simple for a non-US person to open a US bank account. This issue will be of great concern to foreign sellers going forward, but not necessarily will it be of great concern to escrow companies.
What should be of great concern to escrow companies is that EO 14247 also states “as soon as practicable, and to the extent permitted by law, all payments made to the Federal Government shall be processed electronically.” So just as the IRS will no longer issue tax refunds via paper checks, it also will no longer accept tax payments in the form of paper checks. It’s not entirely clear by the text of the EO 14247 when the requirement that all payments made to the federal government be made electronically becomes effective, but many commentators following EO 14247 assume this requirement also takes effect on September 30, 2025. EO 14247 further directs compliance plans be issued by the various federal government agencies to assist the government and the public in transitioning off of paper checks (going out and coming in), but no compliance plans has been made public by the Treasury Department or the IRS (or any other federal government agency/ department) thus far (leaving critical implementation questions somewhat unanswered).