@lzzhang taxes due have nothing to due with whether you have a penalty. its your total taxes vs what was paid in through withholding and estimated tax payments. the rules to avoid penalties are:
There will be no federal penalties for not paying in enough taxes during the year if withholding
1) and timely estimated tax payments equal or exceed 90% of your 2022 tax or
2) and timely estimated tax payments equal or exceed 100% of your 2021 tax (110% if your 2021 adjusted gross income was more than $150K) or
3) the balance due after subtracting taxes withheld from 90% of your 2022 tax is less than $1,000 or
4) your total taxes are less than $1,000
the lower of 1 or 2 is your required annual income tax payments. 1 is difficult to know until the year end so generally option 2 is the safer option. under the simplified method 25% of the estimate taxes must be paid in each period by 4/15, 6/15, 9/15 and 1/15/23. unless you can show otherwise 25% of you annual withholding is assume to occur in each period.
failing this and being subject to penalties you can use the annualized installment income method.
this method requires knowing your income and deductions thru 3/31, then 5/31, then 8/31, and finally year end which should be the same as the tax return. the income is annualized. taxes are computed on the annualized income and then de- annualized. your tax payments for each period must equal or exceed these amounts to avoid penalties.
