topic Why am I being charged a penalty when taxes paid through withholding or estimated payments were always higher than owed? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Why am I being charged a penalty when taxes paid through withholding or estimated payments were always higher than owed?

davidmesserly — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:52:48 GMT

Taxes withheld on 1Q W-2 income is greater than owed. No other W-2 income. Estimated taxes paid in 4Q after Roth conversion greater than need for all 2022 taxes owed. Why a penalty?

Re: Why am I being charged a penalty when taxes paid through withholding or estimated payments we...

LeonardS — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 16:29:27 GMT

The U.S. tax system operates as a pay-as-you-go system. What this means is that you must pay your taxes as they occur. For example, If your estimated tax payment for any quarter is less than the amount required for the income earned you will incur an underpayment penalty. This penality is not deleted by any future estimated tax payments even when the estimates exceed the minimum required to avoid a penalty for the quarter.

Re: Why am I being charged a penalty when taxes paid through withholding or estimated payments were always higher than owed?

Mike9241 — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 19:14:02 GMT

under normal 2210 rules even though the w-2 was in the first quarter the withholding is spread out over 4 quarters. the way around this is to check box D on the 2210 and then enter your actual withholding for each quarter.