What is Form 1040-ES?
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 calculate and pay tax on income that has no tax withheld, such as self-employment profit, investment income, or other untaxed earnings. Form 1040-ES is 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
- What is Form 1040-ES?
- Who needs to file Form 1040-ES?
- Do you have to file Form 1040-ES?
- What are the key sections of Form 1040-ES?
- Did the IRS change the 2026 Form 1040-ES?
- How to fill out the 2026 Estimated Tax Worksheet
- What are the Form 1040-ES due dates for 2026?
- How do you fill out a 1040-ES payment voucher?
- Frequently asked questions about Form 1040-ES
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 calculate and pay tax on income that has no tax withheld, such as self-employment profit, investment income, or other untaxed earnings. Form 1040-ES is 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.
Here's how to fill out Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, the IRS packet you use to calculate and pay tax on income that has no withholding, such as self-employment profit, investment income, or other untaxed income.1
What is Form 1040-ES?
Form 1040-ES is a worksheet and voucher packet for prepaying tax. You don't file it with your annual return, and you never mail the packet 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. The packet covers income that has no tax withheld: 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 Form 1040-ES, 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
The packet itself lists one exemption: 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 can lead to an underpayment penalty.
Can W-2 withholding replace Form 1040-ES entirely?
W-2 withholding can replace Form 1040-ES entirely if you increase your withholding enough to cover the shortfall. The packet lists this as the alternative to sending estimated payments. Adjust your withholding with a new Form W-4. The extra withholding counts as paid evenly across the year no matter when it 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. The penalty is calculated on Form 2210 and accrues 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 looking at.
| Part of the packet | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Purpose of This Package · Who Must Make Estimated Tax Payments · General Rule · Special Rules | Eligibility and the $1,000 test |
| Increase Your Withholding | The alternative to sending payments at all |
| What's New · Reminders | The year's changes, worth reading first |
| How To Figure Your Estimated Tax · Payment Due Dates · When a Penalty Is Applied | Instructions for the worksheet |
| How To Pay Estimated Tax · Where To File Your Estimated Tax Payment Voucher | Channels and mailing addresses |
| 2026 Self-Employment Tax and Deduction Worksheet | Feeds line 9 |
| 2026 Tax Rate Schedules (X, Y-1, Y-2, Z) | Feeds line 4 |
| 2026 Estimated Tax Worksheet | The main calculation, lines 1 through 15 |
| Record of Estimated Tax Payments | Your own tracking page, never sent to the IRS |
| Payment Vouchers 1 to 4 | One 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.
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
If you'd rather have software walk through these lines for you, see the TurboTax Premium review for what it automates.
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, 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). 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 how the 92.35% factor and the wage-base cap work. 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 apply the safe harbor rules to your own numbers. 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 paying that amount protects you from an underpayment penalty, Line 12c is often well below line 11c, because line 12c is the minimum you need to pay to avoid a penalty, not your full tax 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. The distinction matters: 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 Solvent's quarterly tax calculator and use the result to cross-check line 15 before you send it.
What are the Form 1040-ES due dates for 2026?
| Installment | Income period | Due date |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | January 1 to March 31, 2026 | April 15, 2026 |
| 2nd | April 1 to May 31, 2026 | June 15, 2026 |
| 3rd | June 1 to August 31, 2026 | September 15, 2026 |
| 4th | September 1 to December 31, 2026 | January 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. The packet also states that 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. The mailing address depends on your state. 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. The voucher exists only 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
The Record of Estimated Tax Payments page stays with you and is never mailed to the IRS. Your fourth installment is due in January of the following calendar year, so this page reconciles four payments spanning two calendar years with one tax year at filing time. Your IRS Online Account is the electronic equivalent, so check it 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 with 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 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
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 written about money for about ten years, including for the fintech companies NorthOne and Fundera. He files his own taxes as a freelancer. He isn't a CPA or an enrolled agent (EA).
More articles by Nicolas Straut →Sources
- https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040-es
- https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf
- https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2210
- https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf
- https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html
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