Quarterly Tax Calculator

For calendar-year individuals, the 2026 federal instalments are generally due April 15, June 15 and September 15 of 2026, then January 15 of 2027. A due date falling on a weekend or legal holiday moves to the next business day. You can skip the January 15 payment if you file your 2026 return by January 31, 2027 and pay the balance then. Disaster relief and special rules can change a particular taxpayer's deadline.

Base it on expected total federal and state tax after deductions, credits, withholding and payments already made — not on gross payouts. Setting aside a consistent percentage of each payout is a cash-flow habit that works, but it is not the IRS payment formula, and a projected annual tax divided by four is not automatically your required instalment. If your income is uneven you may be able to use the annualised-income instalment method, and a safe-harbour amount based on last year's tax can differ from this year's projection. Recalculate during the year, and check your state's separate rules.

Both, applied to the right miles. This page asks for your business miles in two boxes — January 1 to June 30 and July 1 to December 31 — and values each at that period's published rate, 72.5 cents and 76 cents. Nothing here is blended, because a blended rate assumes your driving was spread evenly through the year and that is a planning shortcut rather than how a return is prepared. It matters more than it sounds: 28,000 miles driven entirely before July is a $20,300 deduction and driven entirely after it is $21,280.

You may owe a federal underpayment penalty if enough tax was not paid on time through withholding and estimated payments — even if you pay the whole balance when you file. Individuals generally avoid it by timely paying at least the smaller of 90% of this year's tax or 100% of last year's tax, rising to 110% of last year's if last year's AGI was over $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately). The $1,000 balance-due threshold, the annualised-income method, withholding, farmer and fisher rules and disaster relief can all change the answer, and states have their own rules.

Yes, the estimate includes federal self-employment tax. Net earnings from self-employment are generally 92.35% of net business profit, and the regular rate is 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare. The 12.4% stops at the 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500, after counting any W-2 Social Security wages you already have; Medicare has no cap. A separate 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax can apply depending on filing status and your combined wages and self-employment income. Self-employment tax generally applies once combined net earnings reach $400.