Understand Quarterly Estimates

The Tax Center (/dashboard/tax) turns your income and expenses into a plain answer to one question: how much should I set aside for taxes, and when? It leads with the safe harbor — the penalty-proof floor — and it's honest about what it does and doesn't know. This guide explains what every number on the page means.

If you haven't set up your taxes yet, start with Set Up Your Taxes — until then, the estimates are placeholders.

The Top Summary

Four cards across the top show your year-to-date picture: Gross Income, Total Deductions (expenses plus home office), Net Profit (your Schedule C bottom line), and Est. Tax Rate (your blended income + self-employment rate). Until you've set up your taxes, the rate card reads "Not set up yet."

Quarterly Estimated Tax

This is the heart of the page: four quarter cards (Q1–Q4), each with an estimated amount, what you've paid, a due date, and a status badge.

Safe-harbor-led estimates

The recommended amount is the safe harbor — the floor that keeps you penalty-safe regardless of how the year turns out:

• 100% of last year's tax — the standard penalty-proof floor when you've filed before.
• 110% of last year's tax — when last year's AGI was over $150k.
• 90% of this year's projected tax — used in your first year of business, when there's no prior-year return to anchor to.

When you have a prior-year tax on file, that deterministic safe harbor leads the recommendation — it isn't capped by the noisier mid-year projection of this year's income.

Honest per-quarter statuses

The status badges never overstate what's happened. Each quarter shows exactly one of:

• not set up — you haven't finished the setup wizard, so there's no estimate yet. The amount shows as a dash.
• none due — set up and nothing is owed for that period.
• upcoming — an amount is due, the deadline hasn't passed, and it isn't fully paid yet.
• overdue — an amount is due, the deadline has passed, and it isn't fully paid.
• paid — only ever shows when you've actually recorded a payment that covers the quarter. The Tax Center never marks a quarter "paid" on its own.

A quarter is only "paid" because you recorded a real payment against it — there is no automatic paid status. Record payments on the Quarterly Estimates page with the Record Payment button (federal, state, and self-employment amounts, plus method and confirmation number).

Due dates

Each card shows that quarter's IRS deadline. Status is date-aware and timezone-correct: a quarter is never marked overdue on its actual due date, only after it passes.

Set Aside This Much

Below the quarter cards, a banner tells you plainly how much more to set aside this year to stay penalty-safe — your remaining safe-harbor target minus anything you've already recorded as paid. That's the single number to act on. The Quarterly Estimates page also breaks this into Total Estimated, Total Paid, Remaining, and the Safe Harbor Target.

The Confidence Signal

The engine grades its own confidence in each estimate, and that grade drives the honest notes you see rather than a glossy number:

• A prior-year safe harbor is the most confident case — deterministic math off your actual return.
• When your state isn't one we've encoded, the Tax Center labels the figure a federal estimate only and asks you to verify your state's quarterly requirements with your Department of Revenue.
• Other notes appear when the math has a caveat — for example, if a tax year's federal tables aren't updated yet (a simplified flat-rate placeholder), or if your income is above the 20% QBI-deduction threshold (left out to stay conservative; a tax pro can confirm you still qualify).

These notes are the point: the Tax Center would rather flag uncertainty than hide it.

Estimates Only

Everything here is an estimate — not tax, legal, or financial advice. ClientCasa never moves or holds your money; it tells you what to set aside so you can decide. Verify amounts with your state Department of Revenue or a tax professional.

Related

• Set Up Your Taxes — the wizard that turns these placeholders into real estimates.
• Export for Taxes — download CSV, QuickBooks, or a Tax Summary for your preparer.