That can happen if you made estimated tax payments at the end of the year, and not 4 equal payments over the course of the year....but if you received extra income at the end of the year, and made a payment to cover it, the penalty can usually be reduced or eliminated by going thru the annualized income calculations.
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The automatic "initial" calculation's that are done, will assume that any income is received evenly over the year....thus, someone getting large late-year income (perhaps Mutual fund distributions, or a large bonus) might make an estimated payment to more than cover it (thus a refund)...but the initial penalty calculations spread the income over the year and that ends up showing you underpaid taxes in the first 3 qtrs...so, to eliminate the penalty, you have to do some extra works to show exactly when you received the income during the year...thus the annualized income calculations....but they are a pain to o, and take meticulous re-recreation of everything for the year...if penalty is less than ~$50, I wouldn't bother. I've done it once and won't again unless the penalty gets onerous.
____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*
