Treasury Department accepts PayPal, furthering push to go paperless

Pay.gov, a government website that collects payments to federal agencies, has added PayPal and Dwolla to its list of options.

You'll now be able to pay off certain bills to the government via PayPal.

The US Department of Treasury announced on Wednesday that its Pay.gov payment site will now accept both PayPal and Dwolla. Both services let you send money online to individuals, businesses, and now the US government without having to deal with checks, or credit or debit cards.

The government's goal is to move further away from paper-based transactions and more toward electronic ones, which it considers more efficient and secure. In 2014, the Treasury Department's Fiscal Service office handled $3.73 trillion in revenue by processing 400 million transactions through such programs as Pay.gov. Almost 98 percent, or $3.69 trillion, were settled electronically.

At Pay.gov, you can pay off certain government loans, medical expenses, fines and debts. You can pay for requests under the Freedom of Information Act and also make donations to certain government-funded organizations, such as the National Endowment for the Arts. The new PayPal option is already in place. For example, when I tried to make a donation to the NEA, I was given a choice of three different payment options: bank account, debit or credit card, or PayPal account.

"Digital wallets provide convenience, simplicity, and a trusted customer experience, while achieving cost effectiveness for the Federal Government," Corvelli McDaniel, assistant commissioner for Revenue Collections Management for Fiscal Service, said in a statement. "We are committed to operational excellence and continually improving our business processes; digital wallets help us achieve that goal."