{"id":3209,"date":"2018-01-11T19:12:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T00:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/?p=3209"},"modified":"2022-04-20T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T00:16:10","slug":"why-make-estimated-tax-payments-when-theyre-not-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/estimated-taxes\/why-make-estimated-tax-payments-when-theyre-not-required\/","title":{"rendered":"Why make estimated tax payments when they\u2019re not required?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why make estimated tax payments when they\u2019re not required?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not worried about IRS penalties<\/a> for underestimating your taxes, it\u2019s often a good idea to make estimated tax payments<\/a> when they\u2019re not required.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Avoiding penalties is a good thing (!) which will save you both stress and money. But there\u2019s no guarantee that you won\u2019t get hit with a big tax bill when you file your return<\/b>. Especially if your situation this year is significantly different from last year (e.g. you started your business, got married, got divorced, have fewer dependents).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Another reason for making estimated tax payments is that it\u2019s usually easier on your budget and cash flow<\/b> (and therefore less stressful) to \u201cpay as you go!\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Changes in tax laws from one year to another can significantly affect your  Federal income taxes and influence your decision about whether to make estimated tax payments. A recent example of this is the Tax Cuts & Job Act of 2017 (TCJA), a long and complex piece of legislation which made the most massive changes to the US tax laws in about 30 years.<\/span>The IRS revised the payroll tax withholding tables on January 11, 2018 and employers and payroll services were expected to implement them by February 15th. No guarantee that they did<\/span><\/strong>, no penalties if they didn’t.  Later, IRS revised Form W-4<\/a> and updated their withholding tax calculator<\/a>. <\/span>Remember (or review here)<\/a> that your withholding amounts are critical to the calculation of whether you\u2019ll be subject to estimated tax penalties.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For a free cheat sheet on estimated taxes, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why make estimated tax payments when they\u2019re not required?<\/p>\n

    Even if you\u2019re not worried about IRS penalties for underestimating your taxes, it\u2019s often a good idea to make estimated tax payments when they\u2019re not required.<\/p>\n

    Why?<\/p>\n

    Avoiding penalties is a good thing (!) which will save you both stress and money. But there\u2019s no guarantee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"

    ___TVE_SHORTCODE_RAW__<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Why make estimated tax payments when they\u2019re not required?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Even if you\u2019re not worried about <a href=\"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/estimated-taxes\/what-are-the-penalties-for-not-paying-estimated-taxes\/\">IRS penalties<\/a> for underestimating your taxes, it\u2019s often a good idea to make <a href=\"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/estimated-taxes\/what-are-estimated-taxes-and-who-has-to-pay-them\/\">estimated tax payments<\/a> when they\u2019re not required.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Why?<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Avoiding penalties is a good thing (!) which will save you both stress and money. But there\u2019s <b>no guarantee that you won\u2019t get hit with a big tax bill when you file your return<\/b>. Especially if your situation this year is significantly different from last year (e.g. you started your business, got married, got divorced, have fewer dependents).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Another reason for making estimated tax payments is that it\u2019s usually <b>easier on your budget and cash flow<\/b> (and therefore less stressful) to \u201cpay as you go!\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Changes in tax laws from one year to another can significantly affect your  Federal income taxes and influence your decision about whether to make estimated tax payments. A recent example of this is the Tax Cuts &amp; Job Act of 2017 (TCJA), a long and complex piece of legislation which made the most massive changes to the US tax laws in about 30 years.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The IRS revised the payroll tax withholding tables on January 11, 2018 and employers and payroll services were expected to implement them by February 15th. <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">No guarantee that they did<\/span><\/strong>, no penalties if they didn't.  Later, IRS revised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/pub\/irs-pdf\/fw4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Form W-4<\/a> and updated their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/individuals\/irs-withholding-calculator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">withholding tax calculator<\/a>. <\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Remember (or review <a href=\"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/estimated-taxes\/what-are-the-penalties-for-not-paying-estimated-taxes\/\">here)<\/a> <strong>that your withholding amounts are critical to the calculation of whether you\u2019ll be subject to estimated tax penalties.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>For a free cheat sheet on estimated taxes, click<span style=\"color: #0289e2;\"><a style=\"color: #0289e2;\" href=\"http:\/\/SherylSchuff.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> here<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n__TVE_SHORTCODE_RAW___<\/div><\/div>","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{"e":"1","font_cls":[]},"tcb2_ready":1,"tcb_editor_enabled":1,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"0","_tve_footer":"0"},"categories":[297],"tags":[334,73,331,333,332,335],"class_list":["post-3209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estimated-taxes","tag-business-mentor","tag-business-taxes","tag-estimated-taxes","tag-help-with-taxes","tag-quarterly-taxes","tag-small-business-taxes","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3209"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4590,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209\/revisions\/4590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}