Form 1041-ES: Estimated Tax for Estates and Trusts, 2026 Deadlines

Fiduciaries use Form 1041-ES to calculate and pay quarterly estimated federal income tax for an estate or trust. You generally have to file if the entity expects to owe at least $1,000 for the year after withholding and credits.¹ The payment schedule for a 2026 calendar-year filer runs April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15, 2027, and the amount owed each quarter depends on which safe harbor you choose.

Who Has to File

Two things both need to be true before the filing requirement applies: the estate or trust expects to owe $1,000 or more in tax for the year after subtracting withholding and credits, and those withholding amounts and credits are expected to fall below the required annual payment described below.¹

Complex trusts that retain income at the entity level are the typical filers. A simple trust distributes all its income each year and usually passes its tax liability to beneficiaries, so the entity itself rarely owes enough to trigger the rule. The classification is not about administrative difficulty: if a nominally simple trust retains income or has undistributed capital gains, it’s taxed as a complex trust on those amounts.

Grantor trusts are different. The IRS treats the grantor as the owner for income tax, so the trust itself does not file Form 1041-ES. The grantor reports the income personally and pays estimated tax through Form 1040-ES.

The Two-Year Grace Period for New Estates

A domestic decedent’s estate owes no estimated tax for any tax year ending within two years of the date of death. The same exemption extends to a trust that was fully owned by the decedent as a grantor trust during life, as long as the residue of the estate passes to that trust under the will, or (where there is no will) the trust is primarily responsible for paying the estate’s debts and expenses.²

Once the two years run, the $1,000 threshold applies normally. Put the end of the grace period on the calendar; the transition catches many fiduciaries by surprise.

How Much to Pay: The Required Annual Payment

The amount you owe for the year, called the required annual payment, is the smaller of two figures:¹

90% of the tax the estate or trust will owe on its 2026 Form 1041, or
100% of the tax shown on the entity’s 2025 return.

You only need to meet the lower one. The prior-year method is the true safe harbor because it rests on a number you already know rather than a projection. Pay 100% of last year’s tax in equal installments and you won’t owe a penalty even if this year’s tax turns out much higher.

One catch: if adjusted gross income on last year’s return exceeded $150,000, the prior-year safe harbor rises to 110% of the prior year’s tax.¹ Trusts with investment portfolios often clear $150,000 in AGI and must use the higher figure. If 2025 was a big capital gains year, the 110% number can be substantial, but it is still the safest path when you can’t reliably project 2026.

Why the Tax Bill Is Bigger Than You Expect

Estates and trusts hit the top federal bracket quickly. For 2026:

10% on taxable income up to $3,300
24% on $3,301 to $11,700
35% on $11,701 to $16,000
37% on income over $16,000

An individual doesn’t reach 37% until well over $600,000 of taxable income. A trust gets there at $16,000. Modest retained income produces a real tax bill, and that bill is what triggers the estimated tax requirement.

Add the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. Estates and trusts owe NIIT when adjusted gross income exceeds the dollar amount where the top bracket starts, which is $16,000 for 2026.³ It applies to the lesser of undistributed net investment income or the amount by which AGI exceeds that threshold.¹ Build the NIIT into your projection; forgetting it is one of the most common ways fiduciaries underpay.

Uneven Income: The Annualized Installment Method

Equal quarterly payments assume steady income. For many trusts that’s wrong. A large capital gain in November or a retirement account distribution in the third quarter can throw the schedule off entirely. Equal installments against an annual projection would overpay early and underpay late.

The annualized income installment method recalculates each quarterly payment based on income actually received through that point. Each installment uses a progressively larger slice of the year, and the applicable percentages are 22.5%, 45%, 67.5%, and 90% of the annualized tax for the first through fourth installments.² Any reduction in an early installment is recaptured in later ones, so the total tax doesn’t change. You simply avoid being penalized for not paying before the income arrived.

2026 Payment Deadlines

Calendar-Year Entities

Most trusts are required to use a calendar tax year.⁴ The four 2026 installments for a calendar-year filer are due:¹

April 15, 2026
June 15, 2026
September 15, 2026
January 15, 2027

If any date lands on a weekend or federal holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day. Each installment is one-fourth of the required annual payment unless you’re using the annualized method.

Fiscal-Year Estates

Estates may elect a fiscal year, and tax-exempt trusts such as charitable remainder trusts can also use one.⁴ Fiscal-year installments are due on the 15th day of the 4th, 6th, and 9th months of the fiscal year, and the 1st month of the following fiscal year. Fiscal-year estates within the two-year grace period after the decedent’s death don’t owe estimated tax at all.

How to Submit a Payment

For 2026, mailed Form 1041-ES vouchers go to a single address:¹

Internal Revenue Service
P.O. Box 932400
Louisville, KY 40293-2400

This is not the address where Form 1041 itself is filed. Only the U.S. Postal Service delivers to this P.O. Box, so private carriers like FedEx and UPS won’t work. Enclose a check or money order payable to “United States Treasury” with the completed voucher.

Each voucher needs the legal name of the estate or trust, the fiduciary’s name and title, the entity’s EIN, and the payment amount. First-time filers use the blank vouchers in the Form 1041-ES package. The IRS typically mails preprinted vouchers in later years.

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) is the main electronic option. Enrollment can take up to five business days, so sign up well before your first deadline.⁵ If you had a 2025 overpayment and elected to credit it toward 2026, subtract that credit when figuring the first installment.

Allocating Payments to Beneficiaries

A fiduciary can elect to treat some or all of a trust’s estimated tax payments as if a beneficiary made them, by filing Form 1041-T.⁶ Where a trust distributes most of its income, this lets the beneficiaries claim the payments on their personal returns and keeps the trust from overpaying at the entity level.

The election must be made by the 65th day after the close of the trust’s tax year, which for a calendar-year trust falls in early March.⁷ Allocated amounts are treated as fourth-quarter estimated payments made by the beneficiary on January 15 following the tax year.

Estates can only use this election in what is reasonably expected to be the final tax year.⁷ If there’s another year of administration ahead, the fiduciary cannot allocate estimated payments to beneficiaries.

If You Underpay

Miss a quarterly amount and the IRS charges a penalty based on the shortfall, how long it stayed unpaid, and the underpayment interest rate published each quarter.² For the first quarter of 2026 that rate is 7%, compounded daily.⁸ The rate can change each quarter based on the federal short-term rate plus three percentage points.

Penalty runs from each missed installment date until the earlier of the payment date or the 15th day of the 4th month after the close of the tax year (April 15 for a calendar-year filer). You usually don’t compute the penalty yourself; the IRS calculates it and sends a bill. File Form 2210 only to request a waiver or to use the annualized income method to reduce the penalty.⁹

The IRS will waive all or part of the penalty if the underpayment was caused by a casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstance where imposing the penalty would be unfair. A waiver is also available where the fiduciary retired after age 62 or became disabled during the relevant period and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause.¹⁰ To request a waiver, attach Form 2210 and a written explanation to the return.

State Estimated Tax

Federal is only part of the picture. Most states with an income tax impose their own estimated tax requirements on estates and trusts, with minimum liability thresholds that vary — some as low as $500, others matching the federal $1,000 floor, and a few states have no income tax at all. Check the rules of the state where the trust is administered or the estate is being probated; deadlines and triggers don’t always mirror the federal ones.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1041-ES – Estimated Income Tax for Estates and Trusts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6654 – Failure by Individual To Pay Estimated Income Tax
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1411 – Imposition of Tax
4
GovInfo. 26 USC 644 – Taxable Year of Trusts
5
Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
6
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1041-T – Allocation of Estimated Tax Payments to Beneficiaries
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 643 – Definitions Applicable to Subparts A, B, C, and D
8
Internal Revenue Service. Interest Rates Remain the Same for the First Quarter of 2026
9
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2210
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2210