How to Fill Out Form PA-40 ES: Amounts, Deadlines, and Filing

To fill out Form PA-40 ES, use the pre-labeled voucher for the quarter you’re paying, enter your Social Security number without hyphens, add your phone number, name, and mailing address, write the date filed in MMDDYYYY format, and enter both the quarterly payment amount and your full-year estimated tax as dollars and cents with no decimal point (so $230.50 becomes 23050). Fiscal-year filers add their year dates; everyone else leaves those fields blank. Then mail it with a check to the Department of Revenue or pay electronically through myPATH.¹

First, Confirm You Actually Need to File

Pennsylvania requires a declaration of estimated tax from any resident or nonresident individual, estate, or trust whose non-withheld income can reasonably be expected to exceed $14,000 for the 2026 tax year.² At the 3.07% flat rate, that works out to roughly $430 in expected tax after withholding and credits. The threshold was $11,000 in prior years and rose for 2026.³

Interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, business profits, and retirement distributions without withholding are the common triggers. If your only Pennsylvania income is wages with tax properly withheld, this form isn’t yours to file.

Filling In Each Field on the Voucher

The 2026 PA-40 ES prints four identical vouchers, each labeled for one quarter. Detach the one for the installment period you’re paying and complete it as follows:¹

Social Security Number. Nine digits, no hyphens. Filing jointly? Put your spouse’s SSN in the second field.
Daytime telephone number. Where the department can reach you about the payment.
Name and address. Last name, first name, and middle initial for the taxpayer (and spouse, if applicable), then your current mailing address.
Date filed. The date you’re making the payment, formatted MMDDYYYY.
Payment amount. Enter dollars and cents with no decimal point. $230.50 goes in as 23050.
Declaration of estimated tax. Your total expected tax for the entire year, again as dollars and cents with no decimal.
Fiscal year fields. Leave blank for calendar-year filers. Fiscal-year filers enter the beginning and ending dates.

Use black ink and keep the form clean. Scanning equipment reads these vouchers, so stray marks or off-center handwriting slow processing.

Figuring the Payment Amount

Before you can fill in the two dollar fields on the voucher, you need a number. Start with your total expected Pennsylvania taxable income for 2026 from sources not subject to employer withholding. Multiply by 3.07%, the flat personal income tax rate.⁴ Subtract any withholding and credits you expect. What’s left is your estimated tax for the year — the figure that goes in the “Declaration of Estimated Tax” field on every voucher you file.

Divide that annual figure by four to get each quarterly installment. If you expect $30,000 in non-withheld income, your estimated tax is $921, and each quarterly payment lands around $230.

Last year’s PA-40 return is the most useful starting point. If your income shifts during the year, recalculate and adjust — you’re not locked into a fixed installment amount, and you can enter a different payment on any quarter’s voucher. What the department cares about is that enough total tax reaches it by the right dates.

Payment Deadlines

The four installments for the 2026 tax year are due:⁵

1st quarter: April 15, 2026
2nd quarter: June 15, 2026
3rd quarter: September 15, 2026
4th quarter: January 15, 2027

The gap between the first and second deadlines is only two months, which trips up filers who put off the April voucher. If you start estimated payments mid-year, begin with the next upcoming installment, but your payment needs to cover what earlier installments should have carried.

Submitting the Voucher

By Mail

Make the check or money order payable to “PA Department of Revenue.” On the check, write the last four digits of your SSN, “2026 PA-40 ES,” and the quarter number.¹ Mail the voucher and payment to:⁶

PA Department of Revenue
PO Box 280403
Harrisburg, PA 17128-0403

Certified mail or a trackable service gives you proof of the mailing date if the payment arrives after the deadline.

Online Through myPATH

The Department of Revenue accepts estimated tax payments directly from the myPATH homepage without requiring an account.⁷ You can pay by ACH withdrawal from a bank account or by credit or debit card. ACI Payments, Inc. charges a convenience fee on card payments: 2.85% for credit (with a $1 minimum) and 1.85% for debit. Bank account payments don’t carry that surcharge, which usually makes ACH the cheaper choice.

Save the confirmation number you receive after submitting. That’s your proof of payment.

When Electronic Payment Is Mandatory

Any single estimated payment of $15,000 or more must be submitted electronically. Mailing a payment at or above that threshold can trigger a penalty of 3% of the payment amount, up to $500.¹

Filing Jointly With a Spouse

Spouses can file one PA-40 ES voucher per quarter listing both SSNs and send a single combined payment. Joint declarations aren’t allowed if you and your spouse are separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree, use different tax years, or if one spouse is liable for child support or otherwise required by the department to file separately.²

Stay consistent across the year. Joint quarterly payments should be followed by a joint annual PA-40; separate estimated payments should be followed by separate annual returns. If you need to switch, Form REV-459B (Consent to Transfer, Adjust, or Correct PA Estimated Personal Income Tax Account) tells the department how to split or combine the credited amounts.⁸ Both spouses must sign it.

Paying the Right Amount to Avoid a Penalty

The department won’t charge an underpayment penalty if your payments meet either safe harbor:²

Prior-year safe harbor. Your timely estimated payments and credits equal or exceed the prior year’s net taxable income multiplied by 3.07%. Available only if you filed a full-year PA-40 the prior year and were a full-year Pennsylvania resident.
Current-year safe harbor. Your timely payments and credits for each installment period cover at least 90% of the actual tax on income earned during that period.

Miss a deadline or underpay an installment, and interest accrues on that installment from its due date until you catch up. For 2026 the daily interest rate is 0.000192, roughly 7% annually.⁹ Each quarter is evaluated on its own: an overpayment later in the year offsets a shortfall in the next period but won’t erase interest already accrued from an earlier one.¹⁰ If you owe interest, Form REV-1630 is where it’s computed, and you can attach a completed REV-1630 with your PA-40 to claim a safe-harbor exception before the department assesses a penalty.

1
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. 2026 PA-40 ES Declaration of Estimated Personal Income Tax
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. 2026 Instructions for Estimating PA Personal Income Tax
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Who Should Make Estimated Payments for Personal Income Tax
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Department of Revenue. Tax Rates
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 72 P.S. 7326 – Payments of Estimated Tax
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Mailing Addresses
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Make a Personal Income Tax Payment
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. REV-459B Consent to Transfer, Adjust, or Correct PA Estimated Personal Income Tax Account
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals (REV-1630)
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Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. How Does the Department Calculate the Estimated Underpayment Penalty