My quarter by quarter income varies significantly. I have paid estimated taxes and will be getting a small refund, however, I am being charged a penalty as my first and second quarter estimated payments were about 50% of my third and fourth quarter payments.
The form 2210 for a penalty on 1040 line 38? If you do not pay in enough tax from withholding and estimates, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax. Even if you are getting a refund you can still owe a penalty for not paying in evenly during the year. Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholdings and credits, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. It is included in your tax due or reduces your refund.
You might be able to eliminate it or at least reduce it. You can go to Federal Taxes tab or Personal tab, under Other Tax Situations and select Start by the Underpayment Penalties. You will answer a series of questions that may reduce or eliminate the penalty. Or you can elect to have the IRS figure the penalty for you. It's form 2210.
It's under
Federal or Personal (for Home & Business Desktop)
Other Tax Situations
Additional Tax Payments
Underpayment Penalties - Click the Start or update button
The form 2210 for a penalty on 1040 line 38? If you do not pay in enough tax from withholding and estimates, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax. Even if you are getting a refund you can still owe a penalty for not paying in evenly during the year. Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholdings and credits, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. It is included in your tax due or reduces your refund.
You might be able to eliminate it or at least reduce it. You can go to Federal Taxes tab or Personal tab, under Other Tax Situations and select Start by the Underpayment Penalties. You will answer a series of questions that may reduce or eliminate the penalty. Or you can elect to have the IRS figure the penalty for you. It's form 2210.
It's under
Federal or Personal (for Home & Business Desktop)
Other Tax Situations
Additional Tax Payments
Underpayment Penalties - Click the Start or update button
I do not believe this is universally correct. IRS Publication 505 has a worksheet (Worksheet 2-7) that is used to calculate annualized estimated quarterly tax payments for self employment situations that have variability throughout the tax year (e.g. seasonal employment). I have manually (6sjng Excel not in Turbotax) compared it to a constant quarterly estimated tax payment (Worksheet 2-1 frim the exact same publication, and they generate the same total yearly estimated tax payments to the dollar. The example I used had estimated tax payments that were a factor of 5 different from one quarter to the other.