I'm confused on 1040ES forms for quarterly estimated tax payments

You've got some common questions about estimated taxes! The requirement to pay quarterly estimated taxes is based on your expected tax liability. The rule is that you need to pay quarterly if you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes when you file your return. Since you mentioned paying about $1,100 in SE taxes last year and your business is growing, you'll likely need to make quarterly estimated payments for 2025. These aren't really "filings" though - you're just making payments using the 1040-ES vouchers. You technically can pay it all at once with your annual return, but you might face underpayment penalties if you owe over the threshold. The IRS wants their money throughout the year, similar to how employees have taxes withheld from each paycheck. As for TaxSlayer, yes, they do support calculating your 1040-ES payments. Most tax software will help you determine the appropriate quarterly amount based on your previous year's income or your estimated current year income.

After struggling with estimated taxes for years, I finally found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it's been a game changer for my freelance tax situation. Last quarter I was totally confused about my 1040-ES payment amount since my income had changed so much from the previous year. Their system analyzed my profit/loss statements and gave me the exact amount I needed to pay to avoid penalties. What I like most is that it recalculates each quarter based on your actual earnings, so you're not overpaying if you have a slow quarter. Super helpful for irregular freelance income like mine.

I was skeptical about taxr.ai at first (mentioned above), but decided to try it when my freelance income doubled unexpectedly. The regular 1040-ES worksheet wanted me to make massive quarterly payments based on my projected annual income, even though most of my earnings were front-loaded in the first half of the year. Using https://taxr.ai actually saved me from making unnecessarily large payments in Q3 and Q4. The system recalculated based on my actual income pattern and adjusted my required payments. Ended up having much better cash flow while still avoiding underpayment penalties. Their quarterly reminder emails were helpful too - I used to always forget the payment deadlines!

If you're having trouble getting answers about your 1040-ES situation directly from the IRS (like I was), check out https://claimyr.com - they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes after I'd been trying for days. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I had a specific question about how to handle a large one-time freelance payment and whether I needed to make a special estimated tax payment for it. The IRS website was useless and I couldn't get through on the phone for days until I tried this service. The agent I spoke with gave me the exact guidance I needed about adjusting my quarterly payments.

I take back what I said about Claimyr sounding like a scam. I was so frustrated trying to figure out my estimated tax situation that I decided to try it as a last resort. I couldn't believe it actually worked! Got connected to an IRS rep in about 15 minutes when I had previously spent HOURS on hold. The agent walked me through exactly how to calculate my quarterly payments as a first-year freelancer and explained which income variations would require adjusting my estimates. Super helpful and saved me from potentially large penalties. Definitely worth it for specific questions that the IRS website doesn't clearly address.

Just a practical tip from someone who's been freelancing for years: If your income is growing but unpredictable, you can avoid penalties by paying at least 100% of your previous year's tax liability (or 110% if your AGI was over $150,000). This is called the "safe harbor" rule. For me, I set up automatic quarterly payments through IRS Direct Pay for the minimum safe harbor amount, then just settle up any difference when I file my annual return. Saves me from having to recalculate every quarter.

Has anyone tried using the IRS's own tax withholding estimator for this? I've been wondering if it works for self-employment income too or just W-2 jobs?