Page 36 - IRS - Owning a Business

Estimated Taxes (5/5)

Penalty for underpayment of estimated tax

If you didn’t pay enough tax throughout the year, either through withholding or by
making estimated tax payments, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of
estimated tax.

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
10 for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year,
whichever is smaller.

There are special rules for farmers and fishermen. Please refer to Publication 505, Tax
Withholding and Estimated Tax, for additional information.

However, if your income is received unevenly during the year, you may be able to
avoid or lower the penalty by annualizing your income and making unequal payments.
• Use Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and
Trusts (or Form 2220, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Corporations), to see if
you owe a penalty for underpaying your estimated tax.
• Please refer to the Form 1040 and 1040-SR Instructions or Form 1120 Instructions
(PDF) PDF, for where to report the estimated tax penalty on your return.

The penalty may also be waived if:
• The failure to make estimated payments was caused by a casualty, disaster, or
other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty,
or
• You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled during the tax year for
which estimated payments were required to be made or in the preceding tax
https://lentcpa.com year, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful
neglect.