I had a significant income boost the previous year in 2021 from side income via 1099 earning interest on things like crypto, which is not available to me in 2022, so I will not be seeing anything remotely close to the 1099 income I saw in 2021, in 2022. When filing taxes for 2021 Turbotax obviously suggested I prepay taxes for next year so I would not be hit with any penalties. I already sent in the first pre payment in April along with the actual taxes I owed for 2021.
My question is, since I will not be making a fraction of that extra 1099 income (which was the reason my taxes were underpaid for 2021 at filing time) do I need to prepay taxes for 2022 beyond what I normally have taken out of my normal W2 paychecks? The prepayments are working off of the assumption I will be making as much side income with 1099 in 2022 as I did in 2021 which is not the case. Are there any repercussions for simply not sending the remaining 3 prepayments this year? I imagine I will be getting all of it back as a tax return anyways since I am not actually making that extra 1099 income this year, but was afraid to not follow through with the suggested prepayments at the time of filing taxes.
No, the estimates are optional to pay. You can ignore them. They don't get sent with your return and the IRS won't be expecting them.