How to Complete Massachusetts Form M-2210: Underpayment of Estimated Income Tax

Massachusetts Form M-2210 is the Department of Revenue worksheet you attach to your Form 1 or Form 1-NR/PY to figure out whether you owe a penalty for underpaying estimated income tax during the year, and if so, how much. You only need it when the tax you still owe after withholding and credits is more than $400 and you missed both of the state’s safe harbors. If either safe harbor applies, or one of the listed exceptions fits your situation, the form takes just a few lines instead of the full penalty calculation.

Do You Actually Have to File It

Skip the form entirely if your tax due after credits and withholding is $400 or less. Above that, the penalty applies unless you met one of two safe harbors during the year: you paid at least 80 percent of your current-year tax liability through withholding and estimated payments, or your payments equaled or exceeded 100 percent of the total tax on your prior-year return, provided that return covered a full twelve months.¹

If you missed both safe harbors, complete M-2210 and attach it to your return. The form applies to individual filers, fiduciaries (estates and trusts), and pass-through entities that owe Massachusetts income tax.

Exceptions That Zero Out the Penalty

Even if your payments came in below 80 percent, you may fit an exception that eliminates the penalty without any calculation. You still file the form, but you check the exception box on M-2210 and fill in the “EX” oval on the back of your Form 1 or Form 1-NR/PY instead of running the numbers.¹

Your income tax due after credits and withholding is $400 or less.
You earn at least two-thirds of your gross income from farming or fishing and pay your full tax by March 1 following the tax year. Qualifying farmers and fishermen also use a 66.67 percent threshold in place of 80 percent.²
You were a Massachusetts resident for all twelve months of the prior tax year and had no tax liability that year.
Your estimated payments and withholding equaled or exceeded your prior-year total tax, and that prior year was a full twelve-month period covered by a Massachusetts return.

Waivers for Hardship, Retirement, or Disability

Two waivers can remove the penalty even when no exception fits. A waiver doesn’t erase the underpayment itself; it just removes or reduces the penalty:¹

Casualty, disaster, or unusual circumstances: a fire, flood, serious illness, or similar event prevented timely payment and enforcing the penalty would be inequitable.
Retirement or disability: you retired after reaching age 62 in the current or prior tax year, or you became disabled during the tax year, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause rather than willful neglect.

To ask for a waiver at filing, attach a signed cover letter to the front of your return explaining the facts, with supporting documentation such as medical records, insurance claims, or a disaster declaration.³ If the DOR has already assessed the penalty, request abatement through MassTaxConnect or by mailing paper Form ABT.

Working Through the Form

Download the current-year M-2210 from the DOR’s personal income tax forms page.⁴ Before you start, pull together your prior-year Massachusetts return, your current-year income figures, and a record of every estimated payment and withholding amount, with dates.

Step One: Required Annual Payment

The form first asks you to establish the required annual payment, meaning what you should have paid during the year to avoid a penalty. Compare 80 percent of your current-year tax liability with 100 percent of your prior-year tax. The smaller of the two figures is your required annual payment. If your withholding and timely estimated payments already met or exceeded that number, you owe no penalty and can stop here.

Step Two: Short Method or Regular Method

Use the Short Method if you either made all four estimated payments on time in equal amounts or made no estimated payments at all. It produces a single penalty figure without breaking the year into quarters.

Use the Regular Method if your payments were uneven, late for some quarters, or both. This section splits the year into its four installment periods and calculates the underpayment and penalty days separately for each. You enter withholding and estimated tax credited to each quarter, compare it to the required installment for that quarter, and the form computes the penalty based on how many days each shortfall stayed unpaid.

One detail worth knowing before you fill in the quarters: Massachusetts generally treats wage withholding as paid in four equal installments across the quarterly deadlines, even if the actual withholding was uneven. A large bonus withheld in December still gets spread evenly across all four quarters for penalty purposes.

Step Three (If Your Income Was Uneven): Annualized Income Installment Method

If your income arrived unevenly, say a freelance contract closed in October or you sold an investment late in the year, the equal-installment approach can penalize you for not prepaying tax on income you hadn’t earned yet. The annualized income installment worksheet recalculates each quarter’s required payment based on the income you actually received during that period.

You break your taxable income into four cumulative periods and apply an annualization factor and an applicable percentage to each:⁵

Period 1, through March 31: multiply by 4, applicable percentage 20%.
Period 2, through May 31: multiply by 2.4, applicable percentage 40%.
Period 3, through August 31: multiply by 1.5, applicable percentage 60%.
Period 4, through December 31: multiply by 1, applicable percentage 80%.

Calculate the tax on each annualized amount at the applicable Massachusetts rates (5 percent for most income, with higher rates for short-term capital gains and income subject to the surtax), subtract credits, and apply the applicable percentage to determine what you should have paid by each deadline. That adjusted installment amount replaces the standard equal-quarter figure. The method doesn’t change your total tax; it shifts when each portion was due, which can meaningfully reduce or eliminate the penalty when income was back-loaded.

The Interest Rate Driving the Penalty

The penalty is essentially interest on the amount you underpaid for the days it was late. Massachusetts sets the rate at the federal short-term rate (published quarterly by the IRS) plus four percentage points.⁶ Because the federal rate changes quarterly, the rate on your underpayment can shift partway through the year, and the form instructions list the applicable rate for each quarter.

Filing the Form With Your Return

Attach the completed M-2210 to your Massachusetts Form 1 or Form 1-NR/PY. If you file electronically, MassTaxConnect includes an estimated tax penalty calculator that handles the M-2210 computation, and most commercial tax software incorporates the form automatically when it detects an underpayment.⁷

If you file by mail, place the M-2210 behind your main return. Mail refund returns to Mass. DOR, PO Box 7000, Boston, MA 02204, and returns with a payment to PO Box 7003, Boston, MA 02204. Courier deliveries go to 200 Arlington Street, Chelsea, MA 02150.⁸

Pay the penalty amount from your completed M-2210 when you file. The DOR reviews the calculation after processing your return and will send a notice with an adjusted figure if it finds a discrepancy in your payment dates, amounts, or interest rate. Waiting for that notice lets additional interest accrue on the unpaid penalty balance.

1
Mass.gov. Massachusetts DOR Personal Income and Fiduciary Estimated Tax Payments
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Mass.gov. AP 241 Estimated Income Tax Payments
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Mass.gov. AP 633 Guidelines for the Waiver and Abatement of Penalties
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Mass.gov. 2025 Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Forms and Instructions
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Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Form M-2210 Underpayment of Massachusetts Estimated Income Tax
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Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Interest on Your Massachusetts Tax Underpayment or Overpayment
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Mass.gov. Massachusetts DOR Estimated Tax Payments
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Mass.gov. Mailing Addresses for Massachusetts Tax Forms