Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Helping the federal government pay down the country’s soaring national debt is now as easy as reimbursing your friend for a round of drinks.
Earlier this year, the US Treasury Department began accepting Venmo payments on Pay.gov, where individuals can go online to contribute gifts to reduce the public debt.
The department had already accepted payments via credit card, debit card, and bank account, and it has accepted charitable contributions for decades.
According to Treasury data, the government has brought in roughly $120,000 a month in charitable contributions to pay down the debt since 2020.
The Treasury received more than $2.7 million in gifts in 2024, and roughly $1 million in 2023. In the first five months of this year, the department brought in about $434,500.
Reached by Business Insider, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service did not immediately provide comment on the change.
According to the Wayback Machine, Venmo was added as a payment method between February 22 and March 8 of this year. NPR reporter Jack Corbett first identified the change on Wednesday.
The United States government is more than $36 trillion in debt, a number that’s only expected to grow in the coming years.
President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” recently approved by Congress, is projected to add an additional $3.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
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