Form 2210: The Estimated Tax Penalty Explained
Published November 5, 2026
If too little tax was taken out of your pay or paid during the year, the IRS may add a penalty. It is called the underpayment penalty. Form 2210 helps you check whether you owe it. It also helps you figure the amount, if you choose to do that yourself.
This guide is general information. It is not advice about your own tax. Read the form and its instructions before you act on your numbers.
The two tests
You may owe the penalty if your withholding and timely estimated tax payments added up to less than the smaller of these two amounts:
- 90% of your 2025 tax.
- 100% of your 2024 tax, if your 2024 return covered a full 12 months.
The second percentage becomes 110% if your 2024 adjusted gross income was more than $150,000. For a 2025 return, the limit is $75,000 if you are married filing separately. Farmers and fishers have their own rules, and they use a different form in some cases.
When you do not owe the penalty
The instructions say you do not owe the penalty, and you do not have to file the form, if either of these applies:
- You had no tax liability for 2024, you were a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the whole year, and your 2024 return covered a full 12 months.
- The total tax on your 2025 return, minus the tax you paid through withholding, is less than $1,000.
Do you have to file Form 2210?
Often you do not. The IRS usually figures the penalty and sends you a bill for any amount due. You must file Form 2210 and figure the penalty yourself only when box B, C, or D in Part II applies. Those boxes cover a partial waiver request, the annualized income installment method, and withholding treated as paid on the day it was taken out.
Box A asks for a full waiver. If only box A or box E applies, you file page 1 only. Box E covers some couples who filed a joint return for one of the two years but not both.
How the form is organized
Part I works out your required annual payment. Part III splits the year into four due dates for 2025: April 15, June 15, and September 15, 2025, and January 15, 2026. The penalty is figured for each date. You can owe for an early date even if you paid enough later in the year. That is true even when your return shows that you are owed money back.
Unless box D applies, the form treats withholding as paid in equal amounts on the due dates. Box D lets you use the dates when the tax was actually withheld, but only when that gives a lower penalty. Check the instructions before you choose it.
Ways the instructions describe to lower the penalty
The annualized income installment method, explained on a separate schedule in the instructions, may reduce the penalty if your income was uneven during the year. The instructions also describe waiver requests for a casualty, a disaster, retirement, or disability. A waiver request needs a statement attached to the return that explains the reasons and the time period. The IRS decides whether to grant it.
Withholding and estimated payments are not the same
Withholding comes out of your pay or other income. Estimated payments are the amounts you send in yourself. The form counts both, but it treats them differently. That is why planning by date matters, not only the total for the year.
Next steps
Gather your 2024 and 2025 tax figures and your withholding records. Then work through Part I on page 1 of Form 2210. For planning future payments, read our guide to the estimated tax safe harbor rules. If you received an IRS notice about a balance due, see the CP14 balance due notice basics.
Sources: Sources: IRS, Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts (2025) (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2210.pdf); Instructions for Form 2210 (2025) (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2210.pdf) This is general information, not advice about your specific return.
