Taxes must be paid as you earn or receive income during the year, either through withholding or estimated tax payments. If the amount of income tax withheld from your salary or pension is not enough, or if you receive income such as interest, dividends, alimony, self-employment income, capital gains, prizes and awards, you may have to make estimated tax payments. If you are in business for yourself, you generally need to make estimated tax payments. Estimated tax is used to pay not only income tax, but other taxes such as self-employment tax and alternative minimum tax.

If you don’t pay enough tax through withholding and estimated tax payments, you may be charged a penalty. You also may be charged a penalty if your estimated tax payments are late, even if you are due a refund when you file your tax return.

Estimated tax requirements are different for farmers and fishermen. Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, provides more information about these special estimated tax rules.

Who Must Pay Estimated Tax

Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when their return is filed.

Corporations generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $500 or more when their return is filed.

You may have to pay estimated tax for the current year if your tax was more than zero in the prior year. See the worksheet in Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, or Form 1120-W, Estimated Tax for Corporations, for more details on who must pay estimated tax.

Who Does Not Have To Pay Estimated Tax

If you receive salaries and wages, you can avoid having to pay estimated tax by asking your employer to withhold more tax from your earnings. To do this, file a new Form W-4 with your employer. There is a special line on Form W-4 for you to enter the additional amount you want your employer to withhold.

If you receive a paycheck, the Tax Withholding Estimator will help you make sure you have the right amount of tax withheld from your paycheck.

You don’t have to pay estimated tax for the current year if you meet all three of the following conditions.

You had no tax liability for the prior year

You were a U.S. citizen or resident for the whole year

Your prior tax year covered a 12-month period

You had no tax liability for the prior year if your total tax was zero or you didn’t have to file an income tax return. For additional information on how to figure your estimated tax, refer to Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

How To Figure Estimated Tax

Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders, generally use Form 1040-ES, to figure estimated tax.

To figure your estimated tax, you must figure your expected adjusted gross income, taxable income, taxes, deductions, and credits for the year.

When figuring your estimated tax for the current year, it may be helpful to use your income, deductions, and credits for the prior year as a starting point. Use your prior year's federal tax return as a guide. You can use the worksheet in Form 1040-ES to figure your estimated tax. You need to estimate the amount of income you expect to earn for the year. If you estimated your earnings too high, simply complete another Form 1040-ES worksheet to refigure your estimated tax for the next quarter. If you estimated your earnings too low, again complete another Form 1040-ES worksheet to recalculate your estimated tax for the next quarter. You want to estimate your income as accurately as you can to avoid penalties.

You must make adjustments both for changes in your own situation and for recent changes in the tax law.

Corporations generally use Form 1120-W, to figure estimated tax.

When To Pay Estimated Taxes

For estimated tax purposes, the year is divided into four payment periods. You may send estimated tax payments with Form 1040-ES by mail, or you can pay online, by phone or from your mobile device using the IRS2Go app. Visit IRS.gov/payments to view all the options. For additional information, refer to Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

Using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) is the easiest way for individuals as well as businesses to pay federal taxes. Make ALL of your federal tax payments including federal tax deposits (FTDs), installment agreement and estimated tax payments using EFTPS. If it’s easier to pay your estimated taxes weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. you can, as long as you’ve paid enough in by the end of the quarter. Using EFTPS, you can access a history of your payments, so you know how much and when you made your estimated tax payments.

Corporations must deposit the payment using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. For additional information, refer to Publication 542, Corporations.

Penalty for Underpayment of Estimated Tax

If you didn’t pay enough tax throughout the year, either through withholding or by making estimated tax payments, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax. Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholdings and credits, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. There are special rules for farmers and fishermen. Please refer to Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax , for additional information.

However, if your income is received unevenly during the year, you may be able to avoid or lower the penalty by annualizing your income and making unequal payments. Use Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts (or Form 2220, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Corporations), to see if you owe a penalty for underpaying your estimated tax. Please refer to the Form 1040 and 1040-SR Instructions or Form 1120 Instructions (PDF) PDF, for where to report the estimated tax penalty on your return.

The penalty may also be waived if:

The failure to make estimated payments was caused by a casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty, or

You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled during the tax year for which estimated payments were required to be made or in the preceding tax year, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.

Expanded penalty waiver available if 2018 tax withholding and estimated tax payments fell short; refund available for those who already paid 2018 underpayment penalty

The IRS lowered to 80 percent the threshold required for certain taxpayers to qualify for estimated tax penalty relief if their federal income tax withholding and estimated tax payments fell short of their total tax liability in 2018. In general, taxpayers must pay at least 90 percent of their tax bill during the year to avoid an underpayment penalty when they file. Earlier this year, the IRS lowered the underpayment threshold to 85 percent and recently lowered it to 80 percent for tax year 2018.

This additional expanded penalty relief for tax year 2018 means that the IRS is waiving the estimated tax penalty for any taxpayer who paid at least 80 percent of their total tax liability during the year through federal income tax withholding, quarterly estimated tax payments or a combination of the two.

Taxpayers who have not filed yet should file electronically. The tax software was updated and uses the new underpayment threshold and will determine the amount of taxes owed and any penalties or waivers that apply. This penalty relief is also included in the revision of the instructions for Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts.

Taxpayers who have already filed their 2018 federal tax return but qualify for this expanded relief may claim a refund of any estimated tax penalty amount already paid or assessed. To claim the refund, they will file Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement. Taxpayers cannot file this form electronically. They should include the statement “80% waiver of estimated tax penalty” on line 7 of Form 843.