California Estimated Tax

[TaxGuyBill]

Curiosity is getting the better of me:  Are California Estimated Tax payments really funky?

I only have one California client, and ProSeries is producing some Estimated Tax Vouchers.  Taxpayer owes $1678 and the program is producing ES-1 for $341, ES-2 for $455 and ES-4 for $341.  There is no ES-3.

That just seems really weird.

It doesn't really matter because they are increasing their withholding, but it just caught me as really bizarre Estimated Tax vouchers.

[Just-Lisa-Now- · Accepted solution]

YES, CA is weird! 

Their fiscal year ends June 30, they want extra income the first half of the year, so they spread their "quarterlies" out as  30%, 40%, skip a payment, 30%

[TaxGuyBill]

Thank you! 

It puzzled me that they call the third payment #4, rather than #3.   😂

[rbynaker]

Gotta love cash basis government accounting.  Let's raise revenue by accelerating the ES payments.  Look at all of the extra money we can spend!

They're really just taking the quirky federal ES timing one step further.  The 3Q-ES for federal is due 9/15 instead of 10/15 because the fiscal year ends 9/30.