Hi MikeJW.
On the surface this seems odd. I went back and checked all my steps in my previous post and found them to be in order.
However, I was able to recreate the issue you describe. Just for the record - I am not a tax expert or accountant. But having faced a penalty situation I took some time to read and educate myself on Form 2210. I was humbly reminded that paying Federal Income Tax is "PAY AS YOU GO".
Here was our tax situation.
- We missed paying at least 100% of our 2024 tax liability in 2025 by a few hundred bucks thus getting us into this mess.
- Had income (1099-R mostly) with taxes WITHHELD throughout the year and DID NOT pay any ESTIMATED taxes until the end of the year (December). I emphasize WITHHELD vs. ESTIMATED since Form 2210 clearly does (i.e. Form 2210 Line 6 Withholding taxes). Tax is tax right? Not at the Federal level it seems.
- Working through Form 2210, Box C and form AI clearly calculated a penalty.
- Selecting the steps above in my previous post allowed Box D to be used since we did have taxes withheld throughout the year and reported in 1099-R.
Here is the way I was able to recreate your issue. There could be other ways as well. Did you have Federal taxes withheld throughout the year? At this point forget about any estimated taxes you may have paid. Go to the forms view and pull up Form 2210 and look at line 6. Is it 0? I found that if I removed or zeroed out all 1099-R Federal withholding (and any other Federal withholding), that I got exactly to the point you are asking about. And YES we did pay estimated taxes at the end of the year. To be able to use Actual Withholding probably (most likely?) depends on if you had any withholdings throughout the year. Estimates are handled differently than withholdings for the 2210. Tax is tax right? The Feds treat them differently for the purpose of this calculation. For our State taxes (Ohio) they don't care when and how you pay them as long as you pay them.
Hope this helps.
