It depends. If you have enough withholding or tax payments paid in for the 2021 tax return that will cover last year's tax by 100% then you can wait until you file your tax return because there should be no penalty for underpayment. See all penalty exceptions below.
- Check all your payments made through withholding or estimated payments and compare that to your 2020 Form 1040, line 24. It it is 100% then you can wait until you file.
In general, you may owe the penalty for 2021 if the total of your withholding and timely estimated tax payments didn't equal at least the smaller of:
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90% of your 2021 tax, or
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100% of your 2020 tax. Your 2020 tax return must cover a 12-month period.
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Higher income taxpayers. If your adjusted gross income (AGI) for 2020 was more than $150,000 ($75,000 if your 2020 filing status was married filing separately), substitute 110% for 100% in (2) above.
And I might add, that if you actually file it in late February, and if there is any late payment penalty (January 15th - file date), it should be minimal but it will occur because the payment is already late.
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