I am an independent contractor and my income varies from month to month, how should I do estimated taxes?

[OCrawford]

@alex350771 

Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when their return is filed.

Corporations generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $500 or more when their return is filed.

You may have to pay estimated tax for the current year if your tax was more than zero in the prior year. See the worksheet in Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals for more details on who must pay estimated tax.

Or you can pay tax base on you prior year taxes divide by 4  payment .

Thank you,

[rjs]

Your estimated tax for each payment period is due 15 days after the end of the period. For example, for income that you received from June 1 to August 31, the estimated tax is due September 15. So when you know how much income you received in the period, you have 15 days to make an estimated tax payment based on that amount of income.

To keep it simple, you could just pay a fixed percentage of the income you received. You could calculate the percentage based on your total tax as a percentage of your total income for the previous year. Don't forget to include self-employment tax.