Estimated Tax for Individuals

[Elena]

Hi everyone!
I'm not a US-resident and unfamiliar with your tax laws.
I would appreciate if someone could explain to me estimated tax filing rules.

If a person signed a contract with a non-US employer who does not pay taxes for him to IRS, he must file Estimated Tax for Individual, right?
What if this person is a Sales Manager and apart from base salary he earns bonuses. The amount of bonuses may be different each year.
For instance, previous year was good for him and he earned 100K in bonuses. But since then sales have been dropping down and he can’t be sure that he will earn anything at all next year.
How shall he estimate his taxes in this case?

Thank you very much.

 

[kirby]

You file and pay estimated tax each quarter based on what income you received that quarter, if you are a cash basis taxpayer which most individuals are. So nothing to file or pay until you receive the bonus payment.

 

[Accountancy]

It's a "pay as you go" system. At the end of each quarter, you pay taxes on the amount of money you made that quarter. You can calculate that yourself by running through the annual calculations, using the current data to project. Do that each quarter and you'll have pretty accurate taxes. It's a pain, but it works.

 

[bruceingram1958]

That's right. You simply pay based on the amount that you have earned.