Estimated tax payment due June 15

If your week has been as crazy as mine, then tomorrow's impending tax filing deadline might have sneaked up on you.

Don't freak out. You only have to worry about June 15 if you're making estimated tax payments.

This extra filing duty, which is this week's Weekly Tax Tip, is required of folks who get income on which there is no withholding, such as self-employment earnings, investment income or even gambling proceeds.

In those cases, the filing of Form 1040-ES four times a year is the Internal Revenue Service's answer to the regular pay-as-you-earn system that's generally covered by payroll withholding.

Estimated timetable: It's not that hard to figure your estimated tax payment, but you want to get your projected taxable income as accurate as possible, especially if self-employment taxes are part of the equation.

And you definitely want to meet the filing deadlines.

June 15 is the second estimated tax deadline of the year, covering nonwithholding money received in April and May.

Here's the full schedule so you can mark your calendar accordingly:

Payment #	Due Date	For income received in
1	April 15	Jan. 1 through March 31
2	June 15	April 1 through May 31
3	Sept. 15	June 1 through Aug. 31
4	Jan. 15 (of the next year)	Sept. 1 through Dec. 31

The estimated deadlines follow the same IRS rules when it comes to a due date on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday; that is, you have until the next business day to make the payment.

That will happen this year in September, when the 15th falls on a Saturday, pushing the third estimated tax payment to Monday, Sept. 17.

Ways to pay: Once you get your estimated tax amount calculated and know when it's due, you've got to actually get it to Uncle Sam.

As with your annual tax filing, 1040-ES forms sent via the U.S. Postal Service are considered timely filed if they're postmarked by the due date.

Make sure, though, that you send the payment to the proper IRS office. It's usually a different place than where you file your regular 1040 in April (or October). And because of IRS reorganizations to better utilize facilities and staff, the addresses tend to change each year.

The table below shows the 2012 estimated filing mailing addresses:

1040-ES Mailing Addresses

If you live in …	Then send your 1040-ES voucher to …
Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont	P.O. Box 37007 Hartford, CT 06176-0007
Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina	P.O. Box 105225 Atlanta, GA 30348-5225
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington	P.O. Box 510000 San Francisco, CA 94151-5100
Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia	P.O. Box 970006 St. Louis, MO 63197-0006
Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas	P.O. Box 1300 Charlotte, NC 28201-1300
Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming	P.O. Box 802502 Cincinnati, OH 45280-2502
Residents of a foreign country, U.S. possession or territory; dual-status aliens; non-bona fide residents of Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands; or taxpayers who use an APO or FPO address or file Forms 2555, 2555-EZ or 4563	P.O. Box 1300 Charlotte, NC 28201-1300 USA
Guam bona fide residents	Department of Revenue and Taxation  Government of Guam P.O. Box 23607 GMF, GU 96921
U.S. Virgin Islands bona fide residents	Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue 6115 Estate Smith Bay Suite 225 St. Thomas, VI 00802

Of course, since the IRS is barreling headlong into the digital world, it would love to get your money electronically.

To make things easier on the tax collector because you're so nice that way you can pay estimated taxes via credit or debit card, electronic funds withdrawal or using the IRS' Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), although an EFTPS payment is only possible if you've already set up an account.

How you choose to make June (and future) estimated tax payments isn't that important. But making them is.

If you do have income on which the taxes aren't paid when or close to when you earned it, then you'll end up owing that money when you do file next year.

And you'll probably owe some interest and late-payment penalty on the amount, too.

You also might find these items of interest:

• EFTPS = $#*%&!
• Don't forget your state taxes