After sending in my state income tax payment through TurboTax in April, I was just notified that I am now being charged a late estimated payment penalty. What is this?

[DoninGA]

How did you pay the state taxes owed?  Do you have a bank or credit card statement showing the payment?
Most states do not allow a direct debit from a bank account using tax preparation software.  The state payment would either  be made by a payment voucher to be printed and mailed with your check.  Or you needed to go to the state website to pay by direct debit or by credit card

[tmarsden99]

Thank you for your response.  My income tax payment was accepted at the end of April.  I paid it via direct debit from my bank account. I have confirmation that payment was received then on turbotax and also via email.  However, I just got a notice of an additional 78 dollars that I now owe that is labeled as a late estimated payment penalty with no explanation given.  Is this possibly because my income state tax owed was higher than a certain amount?  If so, why was I not notified of that via turbotax while filing?

[tmarsden99]

I filed my taxes electronically before April 15th

[DoninGA]

State taxes owed can only be calculated based on the information you entered on your tax return.  If the state changed your tax return for some reason, then they have to explain that change to you.
You will need to find out exactly why the state is sending you a late estimated tax penalty.  If you paid the taxes owed with the state tax return by direct debit from your bank account and your tax return was accepted by the state on or before April 18, 2017, then there should not be any late payment penalties for the taxes owed, regardless of when the state actually debited your account.

If there is a phone number on the notice you received, give them a call.  If not, then use this TurboTax support FAQ for contact links to the various state departments of revenue - <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901670-how-do-i-contact-my-state-department-of-revenue">https://t...>

[Critter · Accepted solution]

Ok ... there are 2 kinds of penalties ... late filing/payment   and late estimated payments.

Late filing is when you file or pay the balance due after the due date of the return.

Late estimated payment penalty is because you didn't pay the estimated payments timely throughout the tax year ... you cannot just make one payment at the end of the year to avoid that penalty ... you had to pay the estimates as you earned the income. So your state is telling you that even if you paid the entire balance due with your return on the last day of the filing season you can still be hit with an underpayment penalty.  You can even have a refund on the return and have this penalty applied.

Now if your income comes in unevenly thru the year and you paid the estimates according to that schedule then you can file an annualized penalty form ( in the feds it is a 2210-AI) ... check your state to see what form they have if any (and that would have been part of the state interview in the program as well). 

[SweetieJean]

As Don indcated above, most states do not allow a direct debit from a bank account using tax preparation software.