Yep, been doing it for years. And it often means paying less in estimated taxes by Jan 15 as you only have to meet the 90% of current taxes owed safe harbor, and the balance on April 15.
Agree. Income is assumed to come in evenly throughout the year. That’s why when you take a large withdrawal at the end of the year and you don’t have enough paid in in the first 3 quarters, you fill out form 2210 to show that the income did not come in evenly.
There is an announcement on the EFTPS site, but it's at the bottom of the page. I don't know about you, but I had a routine process of logging in and going to the payment pages. I never took the time to scroll down to read the "what you need to know" news at the bottom. There should be an obvious banner at the top of the page, or some kind of intermediate screen, notifying of the change.
I’m thinking this will happen later this year when we’ll be given a clearer deadline.
If you schedule a payment via EFTPS, then yes, you can’t modify it via irs.gov.
Just to clarify: if I met the safe harbor of 100% (or 110%) of 2024 tax with my 4 equal payments, I am free to send in the rest of what I owe by April 15, right? Even if the higher 2025 income was due to a big payment that came in during January 2025?
Yes.
That’s right. You never have to pay any more than the prior year taxes (or 110%) in 4 equal payments in estimated taxes to avoid penalty. The remainder won’t be due April 15 no matter how large. As long as you meet that prior taxes safe harbor each quarter, actual income timing doesn’t matter. One year we had a massive cap gain due divesting of company stock, and paid the bulk of our taxes owed on April 15 no problem. Regular tax return showed no penalty, no form 2210 needed filing, etc.
