The first-quarter estimated tax deadline for 2025 is April 15

If you’re scrambling to file your taxes, you could miss another key due date on April 15: the first-quarter estimated tax deadline for 2025. 

Typically, quarterly payments apply to income without tax withholdings, such as self-employment earnings, rental income, interest, dividends or gig economy work. Similarly, retirees and investors “frequently need to make these payments,” the IRS said in a news release last week. 

The first-quarter deadline for 2025 “could be a surprise” if you’re newly self-employed or recently started contract work, said Misty Erickson, tax content manager at the National Association of Tax Professionals. 

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Those individuals could experience “sticker shock” when it’s time to file 2025 taxes or be subject to future penalties, Erickson said.

Generally, you must make quarterly payments if you expect to owe at least $1,000 for the current tax year, according to the IRS.

The April 15 deadline applies to earnings from Jan. 1 through March 31. The other 2025 quarterly due dates are June 16, Sept. 15 and Jan. 15, 2026.

If you skip one of the payments, you could trigger an interest-based penalty calculated with the current interest rate. The fee compounds daily.

Generally, you can avoid IRS penalties by following the “safe harbor” guidelines, certified public accountant Brian Long, also a senior tax advisor at Wealth Enhancement in Minneapolis, previously told CNBC. 

To satisfy the safe harbor rule, you must pay at least 90% of your 2025 tax liability or 100% of your 2024 taxes, whichever is smaller.

The threshold jumps to 110% if your 2024 adjusted gross income was $150,000 or more, which you can find on line 11 of Form 1040 from your 2024 tax return.

However, the safe harbor only protects an individual from an IRS underpayment penalty. If you don’t pay enough, you could still owe a balance for 2025, experts say.

There are “several options” for estimated tax payments, according to the IRS.

You can pay by mail, online via IRS Direct Pay or the Treasury Department’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. You can also use a debit card, credit card or digital wallet.  

Your IRS online account “streamlines the payment process” because you can monitor pending transactions, see history and other key tax filing information, according to the agency.

The online account makes it easier to correct mistakes “sooner rather than later,” Erickson said. “I have heard stories of payments being misapplied, so this is a way to double-check.” 

If you mail the payment, experts recommend sending it via certified mail with a return receipt for proof.