2026 estimated tax due dates
The IRS splits the year into four uneven periods. Each payment covers income you received in one of them:
| Income received | Payment due |
|---|---|
| January 1 to March 31, 2026 | April 15, 2026 |
| April 1 to May 31, 2026 | June 15, 2026 |
| June 1 to August 31, 2026 | September 15, 2026 |
| September 1 to December 31, 2026 | January 15, 2027 |
The first three dates have passed. The one left is January 15, 2027. You can skip that one if you file your full 2026 return and pay everything you owe by February 1, 2027 (January 31 falls on a Sunday). When a due date lands on a weekend or federal holiday, the payment is on time on the next business day.
For tax year 2027 the schedule repeats: April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2027, and January 18, 2028, because January 15 is a Saturday that year and the following Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Who has to make estimated payments
You need to pay estimated tax if you expect to owe at least $1,000 when you file, after subtracting withholding and refundable credits. Employees rarely hit that, because tax comes out of every paycheck. The people who do are usually:
- Self-employed people, freelancers and gig workers
- Landlords, including anyone renting out a room or a short-term rental
- Retirees whose pension or IRA withdrawals don't have enough withheld
- Investors with large dividends, interest or capital gains
- Anyone who sold a house, a rental or land at a taxable gain
If you had no tax liability at all last year and were a U.S. citizen or resident for the whole year, you don't owe a penalty this year no matter how much you end up owing.
The safe harbor: how much is enough
You don't have to guess your exact tax. You avoid the underpayment penalty if your withholding plus estimated payments, paid on time, add up to the smaller of:
- 90% of your 2026 tax, or
- 100% of your 2025 tax (the total on your 2025 return). This rises to 110% if your 2025 adjusted gross income was over $150,000, or $75,000 if you're married filing separately.
The prior-year option is the one most people should use, because you already know the number. If your 2025 tax was $14,000 and you have $14,000 withheld and paid in 2026, you're covered even if a big one-time gain pushes your 2026 tax to $25,000. You'll owe the $11,000 difference when you file, but there's no penalty.
Farmers and commercial fishermen get a lower bar: two-thirds of this year's tax or 100% of last year's. They can also make a single payment by January 15, or skip it entirely by filing and paying by March 1.
If you sold a house or a rental in 2026
Most people who sell their main home don't need to do anything, because the $250,000 exclusion ($500,000 for couples) covers the whole gain. Estimated tax becomes an issue when it doesn't:
- Your gain was above the exclusion
- You sold a rental or a second home, which get no exclusion. Any depreciation you took is taxed at up to 25%
- You sold an inherited house for more than its value at the date of death. Thanks to the stepped-up basis, that's often a small amount
- You sold land or a property you'd owned less than two years
An example
A married couple sells the house they've lived in for 15 years in July 2026, at a $560,000 gain. The first $500,000 is excluded, which leaves $60,000 taxed at 15%, or $9,000 of extra tax. Their paychecks cover the rest of their tax.
Their 2025 tax was $14,000 and their AGI was under $150,000. If they have at least $14,000 withheld in 2026, they meet the prior-year safe harbor. They can pay the $9,000 in April 2027 with no penalty. If their withholding will fall short of $14,000, the January 15 payment is the place to top it up.
If they don't qualify for any safe harbor and leave the $9,000 unpaid from September 15 until April 15, the penalty works out to roughly $370. It's interest at the IRS underpayment rate (7% for the last quarter of 2026) on each late installment, figured on Form 2210. It isn't huge, but you can avoid it.
A late-year sale: the annualized method
The penalty assumes you received your income evenly through the year. If the sale closed in October, you couldn't have paid tax on it in April or June. Schedule AI of Form 2210 (the annualized income method) lets you match each installment to when the income arrived, so a fall sale only needs to be covered by the January 15 payment. It's more paperwork, but it can wipe out a penalty the standard calculation would charge.
The withholding shortcut
The IRS treats tax withheld from wages, pensions or IRA distributions as if it had been paid evenly through the year, no matter when it actually came out. Estimated payments count on the day you make them. So if you're behind in December, raising your withholding on the last few paychecks (with a new W-4 to your employer) or taking an IRA distribution with tax withheld can fix the whole year retroactively. A late estimated payment can't do that.
How to make an estimated payment
- IRS Direct Pay at irs.gov/payments: free, straight from a bank account, no registration. Choose "Estimated Tax," Form 1040-ES and tax year 2026.
- Your IRS Online Account, which also shows the payments you've already made. That helps at filing time.
- EFTPS, the Treasury's free system, which lets you schedule all four payments in advance. Enrollment takes about a week.
- Debit or credit card through an IRS-approved processor. They charge a fee.
- Check payable to "U.S. Treasury" with the Form 1040-ES voucher. Write your SSN, "2026 Form 1040-ES" and the tax year on it.
Keep a record of each payment's date and amount. Payments made under the wrong year or wrong form are a common reason for IRS notices.
State estimated taxes
Most states with an income tax have their own estimated payments, usually on the same dates as the federal ones and with a similar safe harbor. A home or rental sale can trigger state estimated tax even when the federal safe harbor covers you, so check your state's rules. Property tax is a separate bill from your county. It doesn't go through estimated tax, and it doesn't count toward these payments. It's due on your county's own schedule. See property tax due dates by state.
Related 2026 numbers
To estimate what you'll owe, you need the 2026 tax brackets, the 2026 standard deduction and, for a sale, the 2026 capital gains rates. Landlords should also read our guide to property taxes on rental properties, which covers how to deduct the property tax on a rental.
Sources
Due dates, the $1,000 threshold, the safe harbor percentages, the farmer and fisherman rules and the January filing exception are from IRS Publication 505 (Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax), the Form 1040-ES instructions and the IRS estimated tax FAQs. The annualized method and penalty computation are from the Form 2210 instructions. The underpayment rate is from the IRS quarterly interest rate table. The home sale exclusion is from IRS Publication 523. This is general information, not tax advice.