Quarterly Estimated Taxes, Explained

You generally have to pay quarterly estimated taxes if you expect to owe at least $1,000 in federal tax for the year after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits (IRS Form 1040-ES). That mostly means people with self-employment or side hustle income, which has no tax withheld. For the 2026 tax year, payments are due April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027. You work out the amount with the worksheet in Form 1040-ES, and you can pay online through your IRS Online Account or IRS Direct Pay.

Who has to pay estimated taxes

Estimated tax is how you pay tax on income that has no tax withheld. That includes earnings from self-employment and gig work, interest, dividends and rents (IRS Form 1040-ES). It covers self-employment tax as well as income tax (IRS Pub. 505).

For 2026, you generally must make estimated payments if both of these are true (IRS Form 1040-ES):

1. You expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for 2026 after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits.
2. You expect your withholding and refundable credits to come to less than the smaller of 90% of the tax on your 2026 return or 100% of the tax on your 2025 return. The 2025 return has to cover all 12 months.

You don’t have to pay estimated tax for 2026 at all if you were a U.S. citizen or resident alien for all of 2025 and had no tax liability for 2025 (same source). If you’re self-employed and not sure you even need to file, the IRS says you must file a return once your net earnings from self-employment reach $400 (IRS). Our guide on reporting side hustle income covers that rule.

If you also have a paycheck

If you also earn wages, you may be able to skip estimated payments by asking your employer to withhold more. You do that by giving your employer a new Form W-4, and the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator can help you choose the amount (IRS Form 1040-ES).

2026 due dates

The year has four payment periods, and they aren’t equal quarters (IRS Pub. 505):

Income received	Payment due
January 1 to March 31, 2026	April 15, 2026
April 1 to May 31, 2026	June 15, 2026
June 1 to August 31, 2026	September 15, 2026
September 1 to December 31, 2026	January 15, 2027

When a due date lands on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, a payment made on the next business day is on time (same source). All four 2026 dates fall on weekdays, so the rule doesn’t move any of them this year.

You don’t have to make the January 15, 2027 payment if you file your 2026 return early and pay the full balance with it. The IRS gives two different deadlines for this. Form 1040-ES says to file by February 1, 2027 (IRS Form 1040-ES). Publication 505 says January 31, 2027 (IRS Pub. 505). January 31, 2027 falls on a Sunday. Publication 505 is the newer of the two (its online version was last updated in April 2026; the form is dated February 2026), but filing and paying by January 31 meets both.

If you pay by mail, the U.S. postmark date counts as the payment date. Form 1040-ES warns that under recently clarified USPS rules, the postmark is the date a facility processes your mail. That may be later than the day you drop it in the mailbox (IRS Form 1040-ES). You can also pay more often than four times a year, such as monthly, as long as you’ve paid enough by the end of each period (IRS).

How to figure your payment

Form 1040-ES has a 2026 Estimated Tax Worksheet. The IRS suggests starting from your 2025 return and adjusting for anything that has changed, including new tax law (IRS Form 1040-ES). The main steps:

1. Estimate your 2026 income. For a side business, use your expected net profit (income minus deductible expenses), not your total sales. Our guides on gross vs. net profit and tracking business expenses can help you get a realistic figure.
2. Subtract deductions. The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and married people filing separately, $24,150 for heads of household, and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly (IRS Form 1040-ES).
3. Add self-employment tax. The form’s self-employment tax worksheet takes 92.35% of your net profit and applies 2.9% for Medicare, plus 12.4% for Social Security. For 2026, the 12.4% applies only to the first $184,500 of combined wages and self-employment earnings. Half of the self-employment tax is then deducted when figuring your adjusted gross income (same source).
4. Subtract credits and any withholding. If what’s left is under $1,000, you don’t need to make estimated payments (same source).
5. Divide the total into payments. If your first required payment is due April 15, 2026, each payment is one-quarter of your required annual payment minus the withholding you expect (same source).

For example, $10,000 of net profit works out to about $1,413 of self-employment tax ($10,000 × 92.35% × 15.3%), before any income tax.

If your income is uneven, for instance from a seasonal business, the annualized income installment method can lower or remove the payment for some periods. You figure it in chapter 2 of Publication 505 and file Form 2210 with Schedule AI (IRS Form 1040-ES). If your income estimate turns out wrong partway through the year, refigure it for the remaining payments (IRS). A tax professional can help when your income is hard to predict.

Safe harbor rules

You generally avoid the underpayment penalty if any of these is true (IRS Pub. 505; IRS):

• You owe less than $1,000 after withholding and credits.
• You paid at least 90% of your 2026 tax on time.
• You paid at least 100% of the tax shown on your 2025 return on time.

The prior-year rule goes up to 110% if your 2025 adjusted gross income was more than $150,000, or $75,000 if your 2026 filing status is married filing separately (IRS Pub. 505). Farmers and fishermen have different rules. If at least two-thirds of their gross income comes from farming or fishing, 66⅔% replaces 90%, and they have only one payment date, January 15, 2027 (same source).

The prior-year option has one advantage: you already know the number. Meeting a safe harbor only protects you from the penalty, and you may still owe tax when you file (IRS Form 1040-ES).

The underpayment penalty

If you don’t pay enough by a due date, or you pay late, you may owe a penalty. It’s charged on each underpayment for the number of days it stays unpaid (IRS Form 1040-ES). The amount depends on how much you underpaid, how long it went unpaid and the IRS’s quarterly underpayment interest rate (IRS). For individuals in 2026, that rate is 7% for January through March, 6% for April through June, and 7% for July through December. It’s the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points (IRS).

• You can owe the penalty even if you end up getting a refund (IRS).
• The IRS can generally figure the penalty for you (IRS Pub. 505).
• The penalty generally can’t be waived for reasonable cause. It may be removed or reduced if the underpayment came from a casualty, disaster or other unusual circumstance, or in certain cases of retirement or disability (IRS). The IRS lists retiring after age 62 or becoming disabled, with reasonable cause and no willful neglect (IRS).

How to pay

• Your IRS Online Account handles estimated tax payments (IRS Form 1040-ES). You can pay the same day or schedule payments up to 365 days ahead from your bank account, and see up to 5 years of payment history, including estimated payments. New users should have photo ID ready (IRS).
• IRS Direct Pay is a free transfer from your checking or savings account. It covers estimated tax and needs no sign-in (IRS).
• EFTPS, the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, is free, but individuals can no longer create new accounts. The IRS sends individuals to their Online Account instead and says current users can keep using EFTPS for now (IRS). Treasury’s EFTPS site says new individual enrollments ended October 17, 2025, and that all individuals will have to move off EFTPS later in 2026 (EFTPS.gov).
• Debit card, credit card and digital wallet payments go through third-party processors that charge a fee, and no part of the fee goes to the IRS (IRS).
• A check or money order goes in the mail with the 2026 Form 1040-ES voucher for that due date. Make it payable to “United States Treasury” and write “2026 Form 1040-ES” and your Social Security number on it (IRS Form 1040-ES).

This guide covers federal estimated tax. If your state has an income tax, check its tax agency’s website for its own payment rules.