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What is Form 1040-ES?

Nicolas StrautBy Nicolas StrautPublished 8 min read

Key takeaways

  • Form 1040-ES contains a 15-line Estimated Tax Worksheet for 2026, running from your expected income on line 1 to your first quarterly installment on line 15.
  • Form 1040-ES is the IRS packet you use to figure and pay tax on income nobody withholds from, whether that's self-employment profit, investment income, or other untaxed earnings. It's a worksheet and voucher packet, not a return, and you never file it with your Form 1040.
  • Form 1040-ES asks you to project your income and deductions through line 15, compare that figure to 100% of last year's tax, and send the smaller quarterly amount four times a year.
In this article

Verified against the 2026 revision of Form 1040-ES, August 2026.

Here's how to fill out Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, the IRS packet you use to figure and pay tax on income that has no withholding, whether that's self-employment profit, investment income, or other income nobody withholds against.1

What is Form 1040-ES?

It's a worksheet and voucher packet for prepaying tax, not a form you file with your annual return and never something you mail to the IRS on its own.2 The full packet contains an instruction section, a self-employment tax worksheet, the 2026 tax rate schedules, the Estimated Tax Worksheet itself, a payment record page, and four payment vouchers.

Its full name is Estimated Tax for Individuals, and it exists for income nobody withholds against: self-employment profit, 1099 contract work, gig earnings, interest, dividends, capital gains, rents, pre-2019 alimony, and taxable unemployment or Social Security.

Is Form 1040-ES the same as Form 1040?

Form 1040-ES isn't the same as Form 1040. The 1040 is your annual income tax return, filed once after the year ends, while the 1040-ES is a planning worksheet and voucher packet used during the year to prepay tax, never filed as a return itself.

Who needs to file Form 1040-ES?

Sole proprietors, partners, S corp shareholders, landlords, and investors all need to file it, along with W-2 employees whose paycheck withholding doesn't cover a second income stream. Broadly, you owe a payment if you expect to be short $1,000 or more after withholding and credits, and your withholding falls under both 90% of this year's tax and 100% of last year's (110% above $150,000 of prior-year AGI).3

One exemption is worth naming here because it's printed in the packet itself: no penalty applies if your total tax was zero for a full 12-month prior year and you were a US citizen or resident throughout that year.

Do you have to file Form 1040-ES?

Filing isn't the only way to satisfy this requirement, and skipping it without an alternative in place carries a real cost.

Can W-2 withholding replace Form 1040-ES entirely?

W-2 withholding can replace Form 1040-ES entirely if you increase it enough to cover the shortfall, which the packet itself lists as the alternative to sending payments at all. Adjust it through a new Form W-4, since the extra withholding counts as paid evenly across the year no matter when it actually happens.

What happens if you skip it and fall short?

Skipping Form 1040-ES without an alternative risks an underpayment penalty once you fall short of the safe harbor tax rules above, calculated on Form 2210 and accruing from each missed installment's own due date, not just at filing.

What are the key sections of Form 1040-ES?

Here are the key sections of Form 1040-ES, in the order they're printed, so you can find the page you're staring at.

Scroll horizontally to see more columns.
Part of the packetWhat it's for
Purpose of This Package · Who Must Make Estimated Tax Payments · General Rule · Special RulesEligibility and the $1,000 test
Increase Your WithholdingThe alternative to sending payments at all
What's New · RemindersThe year's changes, worth reading first
How To Figure Your Estimated Tax · Payment Due Dates · When a Penalty Is AppliedInstructions for the worksheet
How To Pay Estimated Tax · Where To File Your Estimated Tax Payment VoucherChannels and mailing addresses
2026 Self-Employment Tax and Deduction WorksheetFeeds line 9
2026 Tax Rate Schedules (X, Y-1, Y-2, Z)Feeds line 4
2026 Estimated Tax WorksheetThe main calculation, lines 1 through 15
Record of Estimated Tax PaymentsYour own tracking page, never sent to the IRS
Payment Vouchers 1 to 4One per installment, only needed if you pay by mail

The packet also contains a separate 2026 Estimated Tax Worksheet for filers of Form 1040-SS, a detail most guides on this topic skip entirely.

Did the IRS change the 2026 Form 1040-ES?

Yes, the IRS changed the 2026 Form 1040-ES twice, both listed under Recent Developments on the IRS About page for the form. On February 25, 2026, the IRS corrected the state and local income tax deduction amount printed in the 2026 packet. On February 23, 2026, it corrected the mailing addresses.

If you printed the packet before late February, your itemized-deduction figure and your mailing address may both be wrong. Download the current PDF from IRS.gov before you compute or mail anything.

How to fill out the 2026 Estimated Tax Worksheet

Fill the worksheet faster: run your figures through the Solvent quarterly tax estimator, then transfer the result to line 15 and the vouchers. For a walkthrough of the underlying math, see how to calculate quarterly taxes. Here's what each line does, grouped into four blocks.

Lines 1 to 3

Line 1 is your expected 2026 adjusted gross income, and line 2a is your standard deduction: $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household, or $16,100 single and married filing separately for 2026, plus up to $1,000 ($2,000 married filing jointly) of charitable contributions if you don't itemize.4 Line 2b is your qualified business income deduction, and line 2c, new for 2026 and the most-missed line on the whole form, covers additional deductions from Schedule 1-A: qualified tips up to $25,000, qualified overtime up to $12,500 ($25,000 married filing jointly), car loan interest up to $10,000, and the enhanced senior deduction of $6,000 ($12,000 for two qualifying spouses). No page ranking on this topic currently mentions line 2c; line 2d totals 2a through 2c, and line 3 is taxable income.

Lines 4 to 11c

Line 4 comes from the 2026 Tax Rate Schedules printed in the packet, line 5 is alternative minimum tax from Form 6251, line 6 totals both, line 7 is your nonrefundable credits, and line 8 subtracts them. Line 9 is self-employment tax, computed on the packet's own 2026 Self-Employment Tax and Deduction Worksheet, which applies the 92.35% factor and caps the Social Security portion at $184,500 of net earnings for 2026;5 see what is self-employment tax for the mechanics rather than re-deriving them here. If you would rather not work the 92.35% step and the wage-base cap by hand, the self-employment tax calculator runs the same worksheet on your net profit and gives you the line 9 figure directly. Line 10 is other taxes, line 11a totals everything, line 11b is refundable credits, and line 11c is your total 2026 estimated tax.

Lines 12a to 12c

Lines 12a to 12c are where the safe harbor rules stop being abstract and become three boxes on a page. Line 12a is 90% of line 11c (66⅔% for farmers and fishers), and line 12b is your required annual payment based on last year's tax: 100% of it, or 110% if your 2025 AGI was above $150,000 ($75,000 married filing separately). Line 12c is the smaller of the two, and that smaller figure is what actually protects you from an underpayment penalty, since most filers miss that it often sits well below line 11c, meaning the form is telling you the minimum, not the full bill.

Lines 13 to 15

Line 13 is 2026 income tax you expect withheld, including from a W-2 job or a spouse's; line 14a is line 12c minus line 13, and line 14b is line 11c minus line 13. Almost no competing guide explains the distinction: 14a is what keeps you penalty-free, and 14b is what avoids a balance due at filing. Line 15 is your first installment, one quarter of line 14a, adjusted for any 2025 overpayment you applied forward; run your figures through the estimator above and use the result to cross-check line 15 before you send it.

What are the Form 1040-ES due dates for 2026?

Scroll horizontally to see more columns.
InstallmentIncome periodDue date
1stJanuary 1 to March 31, 2026April 15, 2026
2ndApril 1 to May 31, 2026June 15, 2026
3rdJune 1 to August 31, 2026September 15, 2026
4thSeptember 1 to December 31, 2026January 15, 2027

These periods run 3, 2, 3, and 4 months long rather than four even calendar quarters, and none of the 2026 dates shifts for a weekend or holiday. The fourth payment is due in January 2027 but belongs to tax year 2026; see the quarterly tax due dates guide for the shift rules and the 2027 calendar in full. One more thing the packet states plainly: you can pay all of your estimated tax by April 15, 2026, or in four equal amounts, and how to calculate quarterly taxes covers whether you should.

How do you fill out a 1040-ES payment voucher?

To fill out a 1040-ES payment voucher, list your name, address, and Social Security number, plus your spouse's if you're filing jointly, and the amount from line 15. Use the voucher number matching the installment you're paying.

Make the check or money order payable to "United States Treasury," and write your SSN and "2026 Form 1040-ES" on it rather than stapling anything to the voucher. Where you mail it depends on your state, and the address table was one of the two February 2026 corrections, so use the current PDF rather than a saved copy.

Do you still mail a voucher if you pay online?

No, a voucher isn't required when you pay electronically. It exists purely to route a paper check to the right place, and IRS Direct Pay, EFTPS, and your IRS Online Account all record the payment against your Social Security number and the correct tax year without any paper involved.

The Record of Estimated Tax Payments page

It stays with you and is never mailed to the IRS, but it matters more than it looks: your fourth installment lands in January of the following calendar year, so this page is what reconciles four payments spanning two calendar years against one tax year at filing time. Your IRS Online Account is the electronic equivalent, and it's worth checking before you file.

Frequently asked questions about Form 1040-ES

Do you need to file Form 1040-ES if this is your first year in business?

You may not need to file Form 1040-ES in your first year if your total tax was zero for the full prior 12-month year and you were a US citizen or resident throughout it, an exemption the packet states directly. Outside that narrow case, a first-year business with any tax owed still follows the standard $1,000 threshold.

Can my spouse and I use one 1040-ES voucher if we file jointly?

A married couple filing jointly uses one voucher carrying both names and both Social Security numbers, in the same order they'll appear on the return. If you expect to file separately instead, each spouse sends their own vouchers under their own number, and payments can't be split across returns later.

Can I send more than four payments using 1040-ES vouchers?

Yes, you can pay more often than four times a year. The IRS treats each installment as satisfied once the cumulative amount paid by that due date is enough, so monthly payments work fine. Use the voucher for whichever installment period the payment falls in.

Which voucher do I use if I skipped an earlier quarter?

Use the voucher for the current installment period, not the one you missed. Payments apply first to the oldest unpaid installment regardless of which voucher accompanies them, so the voucher number doesn't redirect the money or erase the earlier shortfall.

Do I need a new Form 1040-ES packet every year?

Yes, a new packet is required every year, because the worksheet, rate schedules, standard deduction amounts, and due dates all change annually. Reusing last year's packet is the most common way people end up computing an estimate against the wrong brackets.

What if my name or address changed since last year's return?

Report a name change to the Social Security Administration before you file, so IRS records match. For an address change, file Form 8822 or simply use your new address on your next return; the packet's own name-change section covers the mismatch problem either one creates.

About the author

Nicolas Straut

Nicolas Straut

Personal and business finance writer, former Forbes contributor

Nicolas Straut writes about self-employment and quarterly tax, LLC formation and costs, and tax software for Solvent. He has spent eight years writing about money and building content for fintech companies.

More articles by Nicolas Straut →
Line numbers and dollar amounts on this page refer to the 2026 revision of Form 1040-ES. The IRS reissues the packet each year and corrected the 2026 version twice in February 2026, so check the line numbers against the packet in front of you. Solvent provides educational estimates, not tax advice. Confirm your specific situation with a qualified tax professional.

Sources

  1. https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040-es
  2. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf
  3. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2210
  4. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf
  5. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html