dmertz
Level 15

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Preparing Schedule AI of Form 2210 to annualize income to avoid underpayment penalties for the first three tax quarters would like require a substantial amount of work on your part.  As Bsch4477 said, these penalties can be avoided by having a sufficient amount of taxes withheld from your IRA distribution since, by default, the tax withholding is applied evenly to all four tax quarters, making up for what would otherwise be underpayment for the first three quarters. 

 

If you would need to take a greater IRA distribution to cover the taxes because your original plan might have been to use early 2025 income to pay Q4 estimated taxes, that might mean an increase in 2024 taxable income.  However, you could potentially use that early 2025 income to roll over part of the 2024 IRA distribution within 60 days of the 2024 IRA distribution and avoid the increase in 2024 taxable income, but beware of the one-rollover-per-12-months limitation on IRA rollovers.