Estimated tax payments for 2026

Who has to pay estimated tax

Anyone who expects to owe $1,000 or more when they file, after withholding and credits. That's most people with self-employment income, business owners whose company doesn't withhold for them, and anyone with large investment income. The tax you're paying ahead is both income tax and self-employment tax.

2026 due dates

You can skip the January payment if you file your 2026 return and pay the rest of the tax by February 1,2027.

The safe harbor: how much is enough

There's no penalty if your payments and withholding for the year add up to at least the smaller of:

• 90% of this year's tax, or
• 100% of last year's tax — or 110% if last year's adjusted gross income was over $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately).

The last-year rule is the easy one: you know the number already, from last year's return. If your income is rising, it's usually the smaller amount — you'll owe the rest when you file, but no penalty. That's the "110% rule" you'll see mentioned.

If you're short: the penalty

The penalty is interest, not a flat fine: the IRS underpayment rate on each installment that was short, for as long as it was short. It's figured quarter by quarter on Form 2210, so paying late in the year doesn't erase an early shortfall. If your income is uneven — most of it at year-end — the annualized income method on Form 2210 can lower or remove the penalty for the early quarters.

A tip for S corporation owners

Withholding counts as paid evenly across the year, no matter when it happened. So if you're behind in the fall, you can have more withheld from your own salary in the last payrolls of the year, and it covers all four quarters. Your S corporation's profit reaches your personal return, so its tax is yours to pay ahead — through estimates or through that withholding.

How to pay

• IRS Direct Pay or your IRS online account, from a bank account, free.
• EFTPS, the Treasury's payment system, free, and handy if you already use it for payroll.
• Debit or credit card, through the IRS's payment processors, for a fee.

Most states with an income tax have their own estimated payments too, often on the same dates.

What the calculator doesn't count

It estimates federal tax from self-employment profit, wages and other income, with the 2026 brackets, the standard deduction and the QBI deduction. It doesn't include credits, itemized deductions, retirement contributions, or capital gains rates — so if those apply to you, your real tax will differ. Using last year's tax for the safe harbor avoids the guesswork entirely. The self-employment tax calculatorshows that part alone. What to pay is a question for your CPA if your situation is more involved.