Can I just file a 1040-ES?
I got married last year, and made some reasonable estimates of what my taxes would look like in 2012, the first full year of being married.
However, a few things have changed and some of the deductions I had last year, I don't get this year. So, I claimed one more exemption (maybe two) than I should have on my W-4.
As of mid-December, that's enough that my wife and I seem to have underwithheld our taxes by about 00.
Unfortunately, we don't qualify for the safe harbor - we've paid less than 90% of what we owe (around 000), and less than 100% of what we owed last year.
We're not self-employed, and don't have any meaningful income outside of our jobs. The deficiency is caused entirely by my extra exemption.
To avoid the penalty, can we still just send the IRS a 1040-ES and a check for about 00 or so? The calculations behind it seem to be for small business people, but the actual form you send in just seems to be an SSN and a check.
This is in the United States.
(1)1 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
Yes, you can send in a 2012 1040-ES form with a check to cover your tax liability.
However, you will likely have to pay penalties for not paying tax in timely
fashion as well as interest on the late payment. You can have the IRS figure the
penalty and bill you for it, or you can complete Form 2210 (on which these
matters are figured out) yourself and file it with your Form 1040. The long
version of Form 2210 often results in the smallest extra amount due but is
considerably more time-consuming to complete correctly.
Alternatively, if you or your wife have one or more paychecks coming before the
end of 2012, it might be possible to file a new W-4 form with the HR Department
with a request to withhold additional amounts as Federal income tax. I say
might
because if the last paycheck of the year will be issued in just a few days' time,
it might already have been sent for processing, and HR might tell you it is too
late. But, depending on the take-home pay, it might be possible to have the
entire 00 withheld as additional income tax instead of sending in a 1040-ES.
The advantage of doing it through withholding is that you are allowed to
treat the entire withholding for 2012 as satisfying the timely
filing requirements. So, no penalty for late payment even though you
had a much bigger chunk withheld in December, and no interest due
either. If you do use this approach,
remember that Form W-4 applies until it is replaced with another, and so
HR will continue to withhold the extra amount on your January paychecks
as well. So, file a new W-4 in January to get back to normal withholding.
(Fix the extra exemption too so the problem does not recur in 2013).
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2026 All Rights reserved.