FREELANCE QUARTERLY TAX CHECKLIST ==================================== From SoloStack — solostack.madethis.app Free download. No email required. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE 4 QUARTERLY DUE DATES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Q1 (January – March) → Due April 15 Q2 (April – June) → Due June 15 Q3 (July – September) → Due September 15 Q4 (October – December) → Due January 15 (following year) If a due date falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Q1 CHECKLIST (January 1 – March 31) | Due: April 15 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ INCOME CALCULATION ☐ Pull all invoices paid in Q1 (Jan–Mar) ☐ Include all payment sources: wire, ACH, PayPal, Stripe, check, Venmo ☐ Include platform payments: Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal, etc. ☐ Total Q1 gross income: $________________ DEDUCTION REVIEW ☐ Pull Q1 expense log from bookkeeping tracker ☐ Verify every expense has a receipt (digital or paper) ☐ Confirm home office calculation is current ☐ Verify equipment deductions are categorized correctly ☐ Total Q1 deductible expenses: $________________ NET PROFIT CALCULATION ☐ Q1 Gross Income: $________________ ☐ Q1 Total Expenses: -$________________ ☐ Q1 Net Profit: $________________ TAX PAYMENT CALCULATION Method 1 — Current Year Estimate: Net Profit × 15.3% (SE tax) = $________________ Net Profit × income tax rate = $________________ Total estimated payment: $________________ Method 2 — Prior Year Safe Harbor (safer, no penalty): Prior year total tax ÷ 4 = $________________ per quarter (If prior year AGI > $150K: prior year tax × 110% ÷ 4) PAYMENT STEPS ☐ Go to irs.gov/payments → IRS Direct Pay ☐ Select: "Estimated Tax" → Form 1040-ES → current tax year ☐ Enter bank account details ☐ Confirm and save confirmation number: ________________ ☐ Record payment in your bookkeeping tracker ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Q2 CHECKLIST (April 1 – June 30) | Due: June 15 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☐ Total Q2 income from all clients ☐ Total Q2 deductible expenses ☐ Q2 Net Profit: $________________ YTD REVIEW (Q1 + Q2) ☐ YTD Gross Income: $________________ ☐ YTD Expenses: $________________ ☐ YTD Net Profit: $________________ Income trend vs. last year at this point: UP / FLAT / DOWN ☐ Adjust Q2 estimated payment based on YTD trend ☐ Q2 estimated payment: $________________ ☐ Confirm IRS Direct Pay receipt ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Q3 CHECKLIST (July 1 – September 30) | Due: September 15 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☐ Total Q3 income from all clients ☐ Total Q3 deductible expenses ☐ Q3 Net Profit: $________________ MID-YEAR REVIEW ☐ YTD Gross Income (Q1+Q2+Q3): $________________ ☐ On track for annual income goal? YES / NO / CLOSE Income goal check: Annual goal: $________________ YTD actual: $________________ Q4 needed to hit: $________________ Deductions review: ☐ Any categories you've missed tracking? ☐ Any large purchases coming up before year-end to plan? ☐ Retirement contribution on track? (SEP IRA deadline = tax filing) ☐ Q3 estimated payment: $________________ ☐ Confirm IRS Direct Pay receipt ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Q4 CHECKLIST (October 1 – December 31) | Due: January 15 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YEAR-END PLANNING (do before December 31) ☐ Final push on deductible purchases before year-end ☐ Prepay any Q1 expenses that can be moved to this year ☐ Equipment purchases: Section 179 allows full deduction this year ☐ Make retirement contributions (SEP IRA deadline = April filing) ☐ Review subscriptions — cancel unused ones before renewal 1099 PREP ☐ Review all subcontractors/VAs paid this year ☐ Identify anyone paid $600+ (you must issue a 1099-NEC) ☐ Collect W-9 forms from contractors if you don't have them ☐ 1099-NECs due to contractors: January 31 ☐ 1099s filed with IRS: January 31 YEAR-END INCOME & EXPENSE TOTALS ☐ Q4 income: $________________ ☐ Full year gross: $________________ ☐ Full year expenses: $________________ ☐ Full year net profit: $________________ ☐ Q4 estimated payment: $________________ ☐ Confirm IRS Direct Pay receipt ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1099 TRACKING LOG ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Track 1099s you need to ISSUE (subcontractors paid $600+): | Contractor Name | Amount Paid | W-9 on File? | 1099 Sent? | Date Sent | |------------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Track 1099s you expect to RECEIVE (from clients paying you $600+): | Client Name | Amount Paid | 1099 Received? | Date Received | |------------------|-------------|----------------|---------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Note: You owe taxes on ALL freelance income — even if you don't receive a 1099. The form is the client's obligation, not the IRS's record of your income. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IRS DIRECT PAY — STEP-BY-STEP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. Go to irs.gov/payments 2. Click "Pay Now with Direct Pay" 3. Reason for Payment: "Estimated Tax" 4. Apply Payment To: "1040ES" 5. Tax Period: current tax year 6. Verify identity (use last year's return info) 7. Enter bank account and routing number 8. Review and submit 9. SAVE the confirmation number Free. Takes 5 minutes. No account needed. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ GET THE FULL TEMPLATE LIBRARY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SoloStack members get 50+ done-for-you business templates: invoices, proposals, SOPs, contracts, social calendars, and more. $19/month — solostack.madethis.app/products