Quarterly Estimated Taxes for Solopreneurs and LLCs

No employer takes tax out of a client payment. The IRS expects the tax during the year.

Quarterly estimated taxes are that payment. IRS Form 1040-ES for 2026 says estimated tax is how you pay tax on income that is not subject to withholding. The examples on the form include self-employment and gig work and interest and dividends and rents. Xero describes the same idea. Employees have withholding. A freelancer or an owner pays the IRS directly in installments.

Who has to pay

Solopreneur estimated taxes follow the 2026 Form 1040-ES general rule. Both parts have to apply.

1. You expect to owe at least one thousand dollars in tax for 2026 after you subtract withholding and refundable credits.
2. You expect withholding and refundable credits to be less than the smaller of 90 percent of the tax on your 2026 return or 100 percent of the tax on your 2025 return. The 2025 return has to cover all 12 months.

You do not have to pay 2026 estimated tax if you were a U.S. citizen or resident alien for all of 2025 and you had no tax liability for that full year. The form says that means your total tax was zero or you did not have to file.

Xero says a first year of self-employment may not require estimates because last year’s self-employment tax was small or zero. The form’s exception is narrower. If you had a tax liability in 2025 from wages or any other income, the no-liability exception does not apply. Read the form before you skip a year.

Self-employment estimated taxes cover income tax and self-employment tax. Xero says self-employment tax funds Social Security and Medicare and states the rate in its example as 15.3 percent. The 2026 Form 1040-ES worksheet tells you to figure self-employment tax on expected net earnings and to subtract half of that tax when you figure expected adjusted gross income. The same form says the 2026 maximum earned income subject to the Social Security tax is one hundred eighty-four thousand five hundred dollars. A flat 15.3 percent on every dollar past that line is not what the form describes. Use the worksheet.

The IRS estimated-tax page says sole proprietors and partners and S corporation shareholders generally use Form 1040-ES. Nonresident aliens use Form 1040-ES (NR).

Estimated tax payments for an LLC depend on how the LLC is taxed. These pages do not give one form to every LLC.

• Profit taxed to you as a sole proprietor or a partner or an S corporation shareholder goes through the individual rules and Form 1040-ES.
• An LLC taxed as a C corporation follows the corporate rule. The Taxpayer Advocate Service says corporations generally must pay estimated tax if they expect to owe five hundred dollars or more when the return is filed. The IRS estimated-tax page points a corporation to Form 2220 to see if a penalty is due.

If you are unsure which return your LLC uses, ask the preparer before you pick a voucher. A payment on the wrong account is hard to move before the year ends.

The 2026 form limits joint estimates. You cannot make joint estimated payments in these cases.

• You or your spouse is a nonresident alien.
• You are separated under a divorce or separate-maintenance decree.
• You and your spouse have different tax years.

People in a registered domestic partnership or a civil union that is not a marriage under state law cannot make joint estimated payments. Each person claims only the payments that person made.

The due dates

Quarterly tax due dates on the IRS calendar are not four identical three-month blocks. The IRS estimated-tax page divides the year this way.

The 2026 Form 1040-ES prints April 15 of 2026 and June 15 of 2026 and September 15 of 2026 and January 15 of 2027. You can pay the whole estimate by April 15 of 2026. Or you can pay in four amounts by those dates.

If the due date is a Saturday or a Sunday or a legal holiday, the IRS says the payment is on time on the next day that is not one of those. Publication 509 lists the holidays. Do not assume the printed 15th is the last day without that check.

You do not have to make the January 15 of 2027 payment if you file your 2026 return by February 1 of 2027 and pay the entire balance with that return. That date is on the 2026 form. AccountingTitan’s May 2026 guide uses the same four periods and the same one thousand dollar test. It names January 31 as the filing date that skips the January payment. Follow the form for the year you are paying.

A fiscal year ends on a day other than December 31. The 2026 form says those payments fall on the 15th day of the 4th month and the 6th month and the 9th month of the fiscal year, and the 15th day of the first month of the next fiscal year.

Farming and fishing have a different path when at least two-thirds of gross income for 2025 or 2026 is from that work. The form lets you pay all the estimated tax by January 15 of 2027. Or you can file the 2026 return by March 1 of 2027 and pay the tax then. In that second case the form says 2026 estimated payments are not required to avoid a penalty. The 90 percent test changes. The form says to use 66 and two-thirds percent instead of 90 percent.

How to calculate the payment

Calculate quarterly taxes on the Form 1040-ES worksheet. The IRS estimated-tax page says you figure expected adjusted gross income and taxable income and taxes and deductions and credits. Last year’s return is a starting point. You adjust for changes in your life and for changes in the tax law. If the estimate was high or low, complete the worksheet again for the next quarter.

Two IRS paths avoid the underpayment penalty for most people. The estimated-tax page says you generally avoid it if you owe less than one thousand dollars after withholdings and credits. You avoid it if you paid at least 90 percent of the current year’s tax or 100 percent of the prior year’s tax. Use the smaller of those two. Higher-income taxpayers use a different prior-year percent. The 2026 form says to substitute 110 percent for 100 percent if your 2025 adjusted gross income was more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars. The married-filing-separately figure on that form is seventy-five thousand dollars of 2025 adjusted gross income, using your 2026 filing status. The 110 percent rule does not apply if at least two-thirds of gross income is from farming or fishing.

Xero shows the prior-year path with an illustration. Last year’s tax is twelve thousand dollars. One quarter is three thousand dollars. If the 110 percent rule applies, Xero’s same illustration becomes thirteen thousand two hundred dollars for the year. That is three thousand three hundred dollars a quarter. Those dollars are Xero’s example. They are not your tax.

Xero shows a second sketch that starts with eighty thousand dollars of net self-employment income. It multiplies by 92.35 percent and then by 15.3 percent for self-employment tax. Then it subtracts half of that tax before income tax. Treat that as Xero’s classroom math. The Form 1040-ES worksheet is the version that matches the form you file. The worksheet includes the self-employment deduction line.

Income that arrives in a lump can change the quarters. The 2026 form says a seasonal business or a large gain late in the year may use the annualized income installment method in Publication 505. If you use it, file Form 2210 with Schedule AI with the 2026 return even when no penalty is owed. Xero describes the same form. Slower quarters can take a smaller payment. The paperwork is heavier.

If you have a job, the 2026 form says you may skip estimates on the side income by raising withholding. File a new Form W-4 with the employer. The Tax Withholding Estimator is at IRS.gov/W4App. Withholding is paid through the year. It can cover the same safe harbor as the vouchers.

What to set aside

Xero’s cash habit is separate from the worksheet. It says many owners set aside 25 to 30 percent of net self-employment income so the quarterly payment does not empty the account. Xero’s bands are a guide, not a bracket from the IRS.

• Under fifty thousand dollars of net income, Xero says 20 to 25 percent can cover the bill.
• From fifty thousand to one hundred fifty thousand, Xero says 25 to 30 percent.
• Above one hundred fifty thousand, Xero says 30 to 35 percent or more may be needed.

Your percent moves with filing status and deductions and credits. Move the percent of each client payment into a savings account you do not spend. The account is not a tax payment. The payment is the transfer to the IRS on the due date.

Freelancers’ quarterly taxes miss the mark when the books mix personal spending with client income. Xero says separate accounts make the profit you are taxing easier to see. Reconcile before you fill the worksheet. A fee the bank took and you never recorded will make the profit look higher than it is.

How to pay

The IRS estimated-tax page lists these ways to pay.

• An IRS online account
• Direct Pay from a bank account
• Phone
• The IRS app

Xero’s 2026 guide adds these practical notes.

• Direct Pay is a free bank payment. Choose estimated tax. An individual verifies with a prior-year adjusted gross income. A business payment uses the business name and the EIN.
• A card or a digital wallet goes through a private processor. Xero says those processors charge fees that differ by provider. The IRS site lists the processors.
• Some processors offer cash at a retailer. Xero names 7-Eleven and Walgreens and CVS. The barcode can take days. Send it before the week of the deadline.
• EFTPS can take business payments, including corporate estimates. Xero’s 2026 guide says EFTPS is no longer the path for an individual’s quarterly estimated tax. Use Direct Pay or the online account or a card processor.
• A check or money order can go with a Form 1040-ES voucher. Xero says to write the tax ID and the quarter and the year and the words estimated tax payment on the memo line. The form instructions have the mailing address for your state.

The 2026 form says a mailed payment postmarked by the due date counts as paid on the postmark date. The form warns that the postmark date is the date a postal facility processes the piece. That date can differ from the day you drop it in a box. An online payment avoids that gap.

You can pay more than four times. The form says to copy a voucher if you mail an extra payment. To avoid a penalty, the total you pay during a period has to be at least the amount due by that period’s date.

State income tax is a second bill. Xero says federal estimates do not cover the state. Most states with an income tax have their own estimates and their own dates. Xero names Texas and Florida and Wyoming as states with no state income tax and no state estimated payment of that kind. Income in more than one state can mean more than one state payment. Check each state’s revenue department. This article does not list those dates.

The penalty

Avoid an estimated tax penalty by meeting the safe harbor. A refund at filing does not erase a short quarter. The IRS says the penalty can apply even when the return shows a refund.

The IRS may waive the penalty in two cases on its estimated-tax page. The underpayment came from a casualty or a disaster or another unusual event and the penalty would be unfair. Or you retired after reaching age 62 or you became disabled. That can be in the tax year or the year before. The underpayment had reasonable cause and was not willful neglect. The request steps are in the Form 2210 instructions.

Xero says the underpayment penalty uses the federal short-term interest rate plus 3 percentage points, and the IRS resets that rate each quarter. Xero says it runs from the due date until you pay or until the annual return is due, whichever comes first. Xero describes a failure-to-pay penalty of one half of 1 percent per month on unpaid tax. The cap is 25 percent. Interest is added. Those rates are Xero’s description of the IRS charges. Confirm the current rate on IRS.gov before you budget a penalty. Pay the late quarter as soon as you can. Xero says that shortens the charge.

A quarter you can repeat

1. Total business income and deductible costs for the period. Leave personal spending out.
2. Open Form 1040-ES for the year. Use last year’s tax as the safe-harbor check. Use the worksheet if income moved.
3. If you are over the one hundred fifty thousand dollar line on the form, use 110 percent of last year’s tax. If you are under it, 100 percent is the prior-year test on the 2026 form.
4. Subtract withholding you expect from a W-2 or a pension.
5. Pay by the date on the form, or the next business day if the date is a weekend or a holiday.
6. If a quarter was thin and the next one is heavy, read the annualized method in Publication 505 before you cut the payment to zero.

The books are what make step 1 real. QuickBooks Online is one place to keep the income and the costs in categories you can total. It does not decide the safe harbor and it does not file the voucher. You do, with the form.

Put the four dates on the calendar now. If the totals come from QuickBooks Online, reconcile before you copy them onto the worksheet. LLC estimated taxes and a freelancer’s estimates are the same kind of habit. Pay the period you are in. The April bill is what you left unpaid on purpose.