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Set Up Quarterly Tax Estimates and Your Set-Aside Account

3 min read

Table of Contents

📋 Tax Planning Module

Set up your Tax Business Profile #

Before the Tax Planner can generate a Profit & Loss PDF with your business header, it needs your business details. Open Tax & Profit from the home screen, then navigate to your Tax Business Profile settings. Fill in your legal business name, EIN, business structure, and address — these appear on your P&L export and are used by your quarterly tax calculations. You’ll only need to do this once.

The Tax & Profit calculator #

Open Tax & Profit from the home screen. At the top, select your entity type (Sole Proprietor, LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp). For most contractors and freelancers this is Sole Proprietor. Select the tax year you’re planning for.

In the Annual Income & Expenses section, enter two numbers: Annual Gross Revenue and Annual Business Expenses. Net SE Income calculates automatically. In the Filing Status section, select your filing status. In Advanced Options, set your state tax rate or pick your state from the state picker. The QBI Deduction (Sec. 199A) toggle is available on Standard plan — see Part 3 for details on when to use it.

Tap Calculate Profit. The result appears immediately below.

Reading your tax result #

The result card shows You Keep — the large dollar amount in the top-left — alongside a health label (Healthy, Thin, or Below Cost) and the percentage of revenue you’re keeping. A stacked color bar below visualizes how your revenue is divided between Expenses (orange), SE Tax (red), Federal Tax (red), State Tax (purple, when applicable), and what you keep (green or amber).

The line item breakdown below the bar walks through the math:

  • Gross Revenue → minus Business Expenses → Net SE Income
  • Self-Employment Tax (15.3%) → SE Tax Deduction (50%) → Federal Income Tax → State Income Tax (when applicable)
  • 💰 You Actually Keep — the final number after all taxes
  • Three rate chips: Effective Rate, Marginal Rate, and Tax Year

On Standard plan, a Federal Bracket Breakdown section shows exactly how much income falls into each federal tax bracket and the resulting tax per bracket. When taxable income is below the standard deduction, it reads: “No federal income tax owed — taxable income is below the standard deduction.”

To save a scenario for comparison later, tap Saved in the toolbar. Name the projection (e.g., “2026 Forecast”) and tap Save. “Projection saved!” confirms it’s stored.

Quarterly Tax Estimator #

Open the Tax Estimator from the Tax Planning section. Unlike the Tax & Profit calculator (which uses projections you type in), the Tax Estimator pulls your actual year-to-date data directly — your logged revenue, expenses, mileage, and any home office deduction you’ve applied. It recalculates live from what’s actually in your account.

Seven cards scroll in order:

Year-to-Date card #

The first card shows your actual YTD numbers for the current tax year: Gross Income, Business Expenses (−), Mileage Deduction (−), Home Office Deduction (−, when applied), and Net Profit in bold.

Self-Employment Tax card #

Shows Social Security (12.4%), Medicare (2.9%), Additional Medicare (0.9%) when applicable, and Total SE Tax. Tap Show how SE tax is calculated to expand a breakdown explaining how the 92.35% SE multiplier works and what your deductible half amounts to. An orange note reinforces: “This is IN ADDITION to your income tax below.”

Income Tax Estimate card #

Shows your taxable income, federal income tax at your effective rate, and state income tax when a state is set. If QBI is enabled, the 20% deduction appears here first.

Total tax and quarterly payments #

A standalone card shows your Estimated Tax for [year] — the large total of SE Tax + Federal + State. Below it, the Quarterly Payments card highlights your next payment: “Your Next Payment (QN)” with the due date and a countdown (“Due today” / “Due tomorrow” / “N days until due”). The suggested payment amount appears in accent color — this is what to put aside and send to the IRS.

A Q1–Q4 timeline below the highlight shows all four quarters: Q1 Jan–Mar, Q2 Apr–May, Q3 Jun–Aug, Q4 Sep–Dec, each with its IRS due date and your estimated payment amount. The current quarter is highlighted.

Payments Made This Year #

If you’ve already made estimated payments to the IRS this year, enter the total in the Amount already paid to IRS field. The card then shows Still Owed This Year — red when you owe more, green when you’re paid up or ahead.

Year-over-year comparison #

The vs. Last Year card appears once a second year of data exists. It shows Revenue YTD compared to the same period last year, with a percentage change. Expand it to see Expenses, Net Profit, and a Projected Year-End revenue figure (“At current pace”). In your first year, the card reads: “First year — start tracking now to compare next year.”

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