The Short Method is described in the Form 2210 Instructions and is printed here for your convenience. As you can see it is used in specific circumstances.
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Part III—Short Method -
- You can use the short method only if you meet one of the following requirements.
- • You made no estimated tax payments for 2020 (it does not matter whether you had income tax withholding).
- • You paid the same amount of estimated tax on each of the four payment due dates.
If you don’t meet either requirement, figure your penalty using the regular method in Part IV of Form 2210 and the penalty worksheet in the instructions.
TurboTax wants to be certain that the income is entered when you actually received it during the annualized method. For example, they don't know by the W-2 entry when the wages were earned, or many other income documents. For these reasons it's important that you answer the questions about when the taxable income was actually received .
It can be difficult and I understand your experience. The key to the annualized method and when it may be beneficial is when you have a large amount of income in a period that is much later rather than earlier in the year.
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