Can I use a personal loan to pay IRS taxes?

The IRS offers both short-term (180 days) and long-term installment agreements for unpaid taxes. The long-term plan currently charges around 8-10% APR plus a $31-$130 setup fee. For borrowers with fair credit, a personal loan at 18-30% APR is usually more expensive than the IRS plan.

Where a personal loan can win: when you have good credit (sub-10% APR available) AND the IRS debt is large enough that the setup fee plus monthly admin friction makes the personal loan cleaner. Or when you want to avoid the IRS appearing as a debt on your credit (though IRS installment agreements typically don't report to bureaus).