Set Up Your Taxes

Until you set up your taxes, the Tax Center shows placeholders, not numbers. The setup wizard collects a handful of basics — your filing status, state, and (if you've filed before) last year's tax — and saving them switches the Tax Center over to real, safe-harbor-led estimates of what to set aside each quarter. It takes a minute, and you can change anything later.

This is a starting point, not tax advice. Every estimate is clearly labeled as such.

Open the Wizard

1. Click Tax in the sidebar (/dashboard/tax).
2. Click Set up your taxes (or go straight to (/dashboard/tax/setup)).
3. The wizard opens to its four steps — Profile → Estimate → Review → Done — shown in the stepper at the top. It always reopens on the step you left off at.

Step 1 — Profile

This is the only step where you enter anything; it's what powers everything else.

1. Filing status — pick Single, Married filing jointly, Married filing separately, or Head of household.
2. State of residence — enter your two-letter state code (e.g. CA, NY, TX). States with no income tax are flagged automatically.
3. This is my first year in business — check this if you have no prior-year return to base a safe harbor on.
4. If it's not your first year, two more fields appear:
   • Last year's total tax — the total tax from your last return. This powers the safe-harbor estimate, the penalty-proof floor.
   • Last year's AGI — your adjusted gross income from that return. Above $150k, the wizard uses the 110% safe-harbor rule instead of 100%.
5. Estimated federal income tax rate (%) — used for the current-year projection (common range 22–32%). Your state is estimated separately.
6. Click Continue. Filing status and a valid US state are required to proceed.

Saving this step is the moment everything turns on. It stamps your profile as configured, so the Tax Center stops showing "not set up" placeholders and starts showing real estimates. You only get stamped once — re-saving later updates your numbers without resetting that.

Step 2 — Estimate

A read-only preview of what the engine calculated from your profile and your income so far.

1. The headline shows what to set aside for the year, with roughly how much per quarter and which safe-harbor method applies (e.g. 100% of last year's tax, or 90% of this year's projected tax for first-year filers).
2. Four quarter cards show each quarter's amount and due date.
3. Honest notes appear when relevant — for example, if you're above the QBI-deduction threshold, or if your state requires you to verify quarterly payments yourself.
4. Click Looks good — continue.

These numbers come straight from the tax engine. The wizard never makes them up, and they improve as more of your year's income and expenses come in.

Step 3 — Review

A recap of what the Tax Center will use: your filing status, state, first-year flag, and the amount to set aside this year. Click Continue. You can change any of it later from the Tax Center.

Step 4 — Done

Confirms you're set up. Click Finish & go to Tax Center to land back on the Tax Center, now showing real estimates.

Let Coach Set It Up With You

The Profile step includes an optional Coach copilot. Tell it your situation in plain English — "I'm single, in California, and paid about $9,000 in tax last year" — and it fills in the matching fields for you to review. The inputs update live as Coach types into them.

Two things to know:

• You always commit. Coach only fills the form; nothing saves until you click Continue yourself.
• Coach never invents your prior-year tax or AGI. Those are facts that live only on your actual return. Coach will relay a figure you state out loud, but it won't guess one — if you don't know it, it leaves the field blank.

Estimates Only

Everything the wizard and Tax Center produce is an estimate — not tax, legal, or financial advice. Verify amounts with your state Department of Revenue or a tax professional before relying on them.

Related

• Understand Quarterly Estimates — read the Tax Center dashboard, per-quarter statuses, and "set aside this much."
• Export for Taxes — download CSV, QuickBooks, or a Tax Summary for your preparer.