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Using the E-file Estimated Payment Wizard in Lacerte

by Intuit•11• Updated 3 days ago

For more estimated tax resources, check out our Tax topics page on Estimated Tax payments where you'll find answers to the most commonly asked questions.

This article will help you:

Determine which estimates can be e-filed separately from the tax return
Verify the electronic payment date
Transmit estimated tax payments

Disaster area tax relief available:

Filing deadlines and estimated tax due dates may be extended for taxpayers in parts of Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and IRS for taxpayers living abroad. See here for more details.

Follow these steps to e-file estimated tax payments:

Go to the Client list.
Highlight the client(s) whose estimates you want to send.
From the E-File menu, select Start e-file Estimated Payments Wizard.
- If you receive a message that the "Client has no estimated payments that can be e-filed", the client may be able to set up estimates with the filing of their return, but can't transmit them separately. See Which estimates can I e-file? below.
Under Quarterly Payments, select the payments you wish to transmit, and click Next.
Lacerte will check the payments for missing or incorrect information. If successful, the Summary will provide the details of the payment.
Click Send E-file Returns Now to transmit the estimates.

If the validation found errors, you will see Error: Diagnostics under Validation. Click on the link to see the errors. Once corrected, follow the steps again to validate again.

To see details of the transmission, you can click View Summary Report. This will only be available if the validation was successful.

Which estimates can I e-file?

The following state estimates can be filed separately through the e-file Estimated Payments Wizard in Lacerte:

Individual	Corporate	S Corporate	Partnership	Fiduciary
California	Connecticut	Florida	Maryland	California
Connecticut	Florida	Maryland	New Jersey CBT	Connecticut
Iowa	Iowa	New Jersey	New York City	New Jersey
Maryland	Maryland	New York	Pennsylvania	New York
New York	New Jersey	New York City	Tennessee Franchise	New York City
New York City UBT	New York	Pennsylvania	Minnesota	Minnesota
Tennessee Franchise	New York City	Tennessee Franchise
Wisconsin	Tennessee Franchise	California
New Jersey	California	Minnesota
Vermont	Illinois	District of Columbia
Colorado	Minnesota
District of Columbia	District of Columbia
Kentucky	Kansas
Virginia

Individual Federal, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Oregon estimates can be sent electronically but they must be sent with the initial filing of the tax return. They are not available to e-file separately.

How do I check if a client's estimate can be e-filed?

Beginning in 2020 Lacerte, we added a feature within the e-file tax return wizard that can quickly show you the status of estimates for any client's return:

Lacerte

The green check mark indicates that electronic payment of estimates can be transmitted with the tax return, and that this client's estimates will be e-filed when you click Send e-file Returns Now.
The yellow exclamation point indicates that electronic estimates can be transmitted with the tax return, but this client has not been set up to transmit them electronically. Click Don't Send if you intend to set up electronic estimates for your client. However, if your client doesn't want to pay electronically, no action is needed.
The red exclamation point warns that estimates can be e-filed, but they must transmitted separately using the Estimated Payments Wizard. You can e-file the tax return without making any changes; however, you must follow the steps above if you intend to pay the estimates electronically.
NA indicates that estimates don't apply to this return, or that estimates for this return can't be e-filed through Lacerte.
Dashes -- indicate the return is an LLC. To check if estimates for the LLC can be e-filed, go to the LLC's estimated payment input section.

How do I set or change the electronic withdrawal date of a payment?

For estimates e-filed separately, Lacerte uses either the payment due date or the payment date override entered for the quarter as the electronic payment date. This means that even if the estimated payment is transmitted today, the withdrawal date will be either the override date entered in the Miscellaneous Info screen or the due date of the quarterly estimated payment if no override has been entered.

For estimates e-filed with the tax return, like 1040-ES payments, the payment due date can't be overridden.

Lacerte Tax

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