Quarterly Payments

Granny_DA7
Granny_DA7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer
in Filing my taxes

I have done our family's taxes thru FreeTaxUSA for years. It's always been very easy and effective. It has always been free, except we have to pay for the State Tax to be filed. We just received a Notice of Tax Due from the Illinois Dept of Revenue. On our 2025 IL Taxes, we had to pay them $1,068.00 by April 15. They are stating that once you have to pay over $1,000.00, then we have to make 4 installments (quarterly) to the state with our estimated taxes. They are also penalizing us $69.50 since we have not done this. Can anyone shed any light on this? Can we do this thru FreeTaxUSA?

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  • JLFTUFreeForum
    JLFTUFreeForum Member, Star Posts: 92 image
    Answer ✓

    Here is a link to the Illinois publication about estimated taxes.

    https://tax.illinois.gov/research/publications/pubs/illinois-estimated-payments-requirements-for-individuals-and-businesses.html

    From what I understand anything over $1000.00 on the IL-1040 line 24 is or might be subject to estimated taxes. (I might wrong. Not a tax expert)

    I normally take my line 24 and divide it by 4 to figure out my estimated taxes for both Federal and State.

    Link to payment options for Illinois taxes.

    https://tax.illinois.gov/individuals/pay.html

    If you do not have a MyTax Illinois account you should setup a log in for it.
    It is not the easiest site to navigate but you can make your payments online there.
    I use this to make my payments.

    PDF download link to IL 1040-ES with voucher and address if want to mail it in.
    If you do mail it in I would suggest a Certified & Return Receipt.

    https://tax.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/tax/forms/incometax/documents/currentyear/individual/il-1040-es.pdf

    Hopefully someone here will also make a comment here.

  • Granny_DA7
    Granny_DA7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer
    Answer ✓

    Thank you so much.

  • BillA
    BillA Member Posts: 10 Level 3
    Answer ✓

    Yeah, not an expert and all, but IL seems to follow other states. You need to read up on the "safe harbor" rules which spell out what you must do to avoid penalties. From the web:

    Illinois state estimated tax safe harbor rules allow you to avoid underpayment penalties by paying a designated percentage of your prior-year or current-year tax liability. You can meet the safe harbor threshold by paying 100% of the prior year's tax liability, 110% of the prior year's tax liability for high-income earners, or 90% of the current year's liability.

    Most people find the first two (pick one according to your income) the easiest since it's a known.

    There are other rules for when to send it in, equal amounts, etc.

    My state (CA) has a web site that makes it super easy to send in the money. FreeTaxUSA handles the reporting of paid amounts easily, and will assist in the planning for the next year.

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