Payment voucher included but I do not owe taxes.

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 12, 2025
3 replies
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I am receiving a refund this year but after completing my taxes a payment voucher form was generated saying that I owe 4 payments by a certain date.

Hal_Al

Employee

You can ignore those. Don't even print them.

These are not payment vouchers for 2024 tax. They are 2025 estimated quarterly tax payments. If you owed no tax in 2024, you are likely to owe no tax for 2025, so quarterly estimated payments are not needed.

On the other hand, there must have been some reason why TurboTax generated those vouchers. It could just be an error, or do you expect some change in your tax situation for 2025. Increasing your withholding at work would be an option to making quarterly payments.

baldietax

To avoid underpayment penalty in 2025 you need to have paid via withholding or timely (quarterly) estimated taxes (ES) "as you go" thru the year, either: 100% of your 2024 tax (110% if your AGI > 150k), or 90% of your 2025 tax, whichever is smaller.

By default TT will generate ES vouchers based on the first option, paying 100/110% of your 2024 tax, and assumes your 2025 withholding will be the same as 2024.

One possibility if you had a refund in 2024 and don't normally pay ES, is your AGI is over 150k so by default TT is determining you need to pay 110% of that in 2025, and your withholding is not enough to meet that even tho you had a refund in 2024. But if your 2025 situation is the same as 2024 then you only need to pay 90% of that thru withholding by 12/31 (and the balance by filing deadline 4/15/26), which could be a big difference and the default estimates are too high. But that's just a guess, it depends on your situation. It's worth understanding why these were generated and any implications for your withholding or ES required for 2025.

Under "Other Tax Situations" / "Form W4 and Estimated Taxes" you can work through planning/estimates for 2025.

baldietax

P.S. if you are on TT desktop go to Forms mode, worksheet "Est Tax Options" will show you the calculation generating the vouchers, not sure equivalent for TT online but you should be able to see this worksheet in the PDF of your return with "all forms and worksheets" (search for "Estimated Tax Payment Options")