Underpayment Question - form seemed to change halfway through

[tomg8]

I'm filing jointly for the first time and got to the Underpayment penalty section. I entered my and my spouse's Tax Liability, and just my Adjusted gross income because that page didn't mention my spouse (2023). What I can't tell is if I should be entering just my Annualized Gross Income or if it should be my spouses as well. And is there a way to tell if this will actually help my taxes and/or choose not to do the Annualized option after? There's not much information on this in TurboTax that I could find. 

[DavidD66]

Unless you had uneven income throughout the year, there is probably no benefit to annualizing your income.  If you are self-employed and your income varies throughout the year would probably be helpful.    If you had a very large capital gain or received a very large bonus in the third or fourth quarter it could be beneficial.  But if you are a W-2 employee and your monthly income doesn't vary, then it's not going to help you.   In addition, the IRS will calculate whether you actually owe an underpayment penalty.  They won't annualize it, but they will do the calculations for you and your spouse going from single to married filing joint.  They do it whether you do or not. 

[tomg8]

Thank you - I had one capital gain from stock sale in May that was larger than normal paychecks, and then a bonus in q3, so that may apply to me. 

Do I just enter my quarterly numbers or do I combine with my spouse? 

[MonikaK1]

If you are filing a joint return, then you would include both of your income for 2024 and should be able to identify the amounts received in the applicable time periods. 

You could also opt to let the IRS calculate the penalty. 

The law allows the IRS to waive the penalty if:

1. You didn't make a required payment because of a casualty event, disaster, or other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty, or
2. You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled during the tax year or in the preceding tax year for which you should have made estimated payments, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.

For more information, refer to Penalties and the Instructions for Form 2210 PDF

@tomg8