IRS Form 1040-ES
I have work tax the flying farkle out of me, and it usually works out good enough to cover my usual income dividends and capital gains from my mutuals and few stocks. But I'm looking at ramping up my raw stock exposure and start taking a lot more short term capital gains. That's gunna mean more taxes than my usual system will handle.
In the past I made a large(ish) sale of mutuals to build an addition on the house. When tax time rolled around, I had plenty of extra cash to cover any extra taxes only to have my tax people tell me I owed A PENALTY for not paying the Vultures the tax well before April 15; and that I should have filed form 1040-es.
They set me up with a ES account and when I made my fed tax payment for the year, my payment somehow got funneled into my ES account for the next year, instead of going to last year and created further IRS difficulty.
Anyway, after all that, my tax situation settled into my normal pattern and I never made a real 1040-ES payment. Now I'm looking to wading into this mess again and am wondering about this "equal payment" fantasy they seem to be so enamoured with.
The taxes I need to pay will be from market opportunity. One quarter I could generate large tax liabilities, the next quarter I could take a loss. Quarter to quarter I will have no idea what my liabilities will be. Is it alright to just send them taxes on each quarter in full and, in this way, keep the vultures off my back?
In the past I made a large(ish) sale of mutuals to build an addition on the house. When tax time rolled around, I had plenty of extra cash to cover any extra taxes only to have my tax people tell me I owed A PENALTY for not paying the Vultures the tax well before April 15; and that I should have filed form 1040-es.
They set me up with a ES account and when I made my fed tax payment for the year, my payment somehow got funneled into my ES account for the next year, instead of going to last year and created further IRS difficulty.
Anyway, after all that, my tax situation settled into my normal pattern and I never made a real 1040-ES payment. Now I'm looking to wading into this mess again and am wondering about this "equal payment" fantasy they seem to be so enamoured with.
The taxes I need to pay will be from market opportunity. One quarter I could generate large tax liabilities, the next quarter I could take a loss. Quarter to quarter I will have no idea what my liabilities will be. Is it alright to just send them taxes on each quarter in full and, in this way, keep the vultures off my back?
