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Retirement tax questions
Generally, you have to make estimated tax payments if your tax due (after withholding and estimate tax payments) was more than $1,000, unless you meet a number of exceptions.
Did you owe tax at the end of your 2019 return? Was it more than $1,000?
When you receive Social Security, do you have withholding done for taxes (honestly, most taxpayers don't). And if your only income is from Social Security, you likely won't owe any taxes.
However, it often happens that a taxpayer takes a modest to large distribution from a retirement fund. This "outside" income is not only taxable, but because of the complex rules on determining how much of your Social Security is taxable, much of your Social Security may now be taxable - up to 85% of it.
Because most retirees are not aware of this potential double whammy, they generally do not withhold enough in the retirement fund distribution (the 1099-R). The result very likely could be that you owed more $1,000 at the end of your return, so TurboTax generated the 1040-ES vouchers for estimated taxes.
Is this necessarily going to happen this year (for tax return 2020)? It depends on the size of any retirement fund distribution. Note that you can increase the amount of withholding on the retirement fund distribution in lieu of doing the 1040-ES vouchers - it doesn't matter to the IRS how they get the taxes.
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