what happens if i didn't pay estimated tax?

It depends on your total tax liability for the year. If you expect to owe less than $1,000 (self-employment tax and income tax combined) then you don't have to pay estimated taxes. Other safe harbors are:

1. 90% of your current year tax liability

2. 100% of your tax liability for the previous year (How much did you owe for 2009?) If your income is more than $150,000, the percentage is 110%.

3. Your current liability less $1,000 (this is what I mentioned above.)

If your income is earned evenly through the year, you should pay 1/4 of your estimated liability with each quarterly estimated tax payment (these due dates are 4/15, 6/15, 9/15, 1/15 of next year). If your income is not earned evenly through the year, you can annualize your year-to-date income each quarter and base your payment on that.

The IRS Publication 505 goes over all of the rules. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p505.pdf It is long, but you should take a look at the flowchart on page 18.

I hope this helps.

Gary

Relax. It's not that bad!

If you file by January 15 and pay all that you owe, you won't be penalized. Or if you owe less than $1000, you won't be penalized. Or if you didn't have any tax liability last year, you won't be penalized, so sounds like you're off the hook on that basis.

Otherwise you'll be charged a penalty for not filing estimated taxes. The amount of the penalty would depend on how much you owe, but unless you owe thousands of dollars it won't be a lot.

You have a couple more quarterly deadlines for 2010 estimated taxes, in Sept and in January. You'd be wise to make payments then if you're going to owe much for the year, and make bigger estimated payments that you'd normally send quarterly to make up for the two you didn't send.

Don't be too worried, it is no big deal. At worst you may have to pay a small penalty and interest. The next quarterly payment is due in September or October (I don't do estimated tax anymore but I used to). You can download the estimated tax voucher form from the http://www.irs.gov/ website. Send a check with the completed voucher, make sure to write your SS# on the check. Pay as much as you can by the next due date and then pay some again on the January quarter and you will be fine.

If you file your tax return by the 31st of January and pay your tax due in full at that time there is no penalty for underpayment and yada. Something else that is important is never listen to this mysterious "they" who hands out the darndest advice and scares people for no reason. If you are self employed and so on please go to IRS.GOV and download a free Pub 17 which you can peruse to answer just about any question you come up with relating to taxes; if the answer isn't in it there will be directions to a publication where you can find your answer.

if you have an idea of what your tax liability will be for 2010, you can file 1040ES on Sept, and Jan 15, the last two vouchers

if you fail to do this, when you file your return next year, you can possibly have an underpayment penalty

what was your 2009 liability? pay at least that much in your next two vouchers

Don't worry, failure to pay *estimated* tax is not a crime. They'll just charge you interest because you didn't pay early. The deal is that when when you work for a company, that company pays taxes monthly or quarterly. So when you work for yourself, IRS thinks you should pay taxes quarterly also.

IRS's interest and penalties are similar to what you would pay if you charged your tax to a credit card. And if you can't pay, you can call them up and they'll work with you.

The important thing is to file a truthful return on time. You can't go to jail for owing money, you can only go to jail for lying about owing money.

for one element considering it particularly is in simple terms Feb. sixteen, 2011, you at the instant are not waiting to report 2011 taxes, 2010 perchance yet 2011 hasn't been lived yet failure to report your anticipated? in case you have a tax legal accountability you would be penalized 10% of that quantity and probable interest on the less than fee you failed April, June, Sept, 15 and the Jan 2011 fee

It's the same as not paying the tax. Penalty and interest and eventually prison.