Annualized Income

Annualized income is an estimate of the sum of money that an individual or a business generates during a year's time. Annualized income is calculated with less than one year's worth of data, so it is only an approximation of total income for the year, and annualized income figures can be helpful for creating budgets and making estimated income tax payments.

Annualized income can be calculated by multiplying the earned income figure by the ratio of (number of months in a year) divided by (number of months of income data available). If, for example, a consultant earned $10,000 in January, $12,000 in February, $9,000 in March and $13,000 in April, the earned income figure for those four months totals $44,000. To annualize the consultant's income, multiply $44,000 by 12/4 to equal $132,000.

Taxpayers pay annual tax liabilities through tax withholdings and by making estimated tax payments each quarter, and many sources of income are not subject to tax withholding. Income from self-employment, interest and dividend income and capital gains are not subject to tax withholdings, along with alimony and some other sources of income that may be reported to a taxpayer on Form 1099. To avoid a penalty for tax underpayment, the total tax withholdings and estimated tax payments must equal the lesser of 90% of the tax owed for the current year or the full tax owed the previous year.

Computing estimated tax payments is difficult if the taxpayer’s income sources fluctuate during the year, and many self-employed people generate income that varies greatly from one month to the next. Assume, for example, that a self-employed salesperson earns $25,000 during the first quarter and $50,000 in the second quarter of the year. The higher income in the second quarter indicates a higher total level of income for the year, and the first quarter’s estimated tax payment is based on a lower level of income. As a result, the salesperson may be assessed an underpayment penalty for the first quarter.

To avoid the underpayment penalties due to fluctuating income, the IRS Form 2210 allows the taxpayer to annualize income for a particular quarter and compute the estimated tax payments based on that amount. Schedule AI of Form 2210 provides a column for each quarterly period, and the taxpayer annualizes the income for that period and computes an estimated tax payment based on that estimate. Using the salesperson example, Form 2210 allows the taxpayer to annualize the $25,000 first quarter income separately from the $50,000 second quarter income.