New Jersey Estimated Tax Forms: Quarterly Due Dates and Filing

If you expect to owe New Jersey more than $400 in income tax after withholdings and credits, you’re required to make New Jersey estimated tax payments in four quarterly installments using Form NJ-1040-ES. The payments go to the Division of Taxation on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. Miss the threshold or the schedule and the state charges interest at 3% above the prime rate on each underpaid quarter.¹

Who Has to Pay

The rule catches you if your New Jersey income tax liability for the year will run more than $400 after employer withholdings and credits are applied.² Most wage earners with steady paycheck withholding never cross that line. The people who do are those receiving income the state doesn’t see in advance: self-employment earnings, interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, and sizable prize winnings.

You can skip estimated payments if you had no New Jersey liability last year and expect to owe under $400 this year. If a mid-year change pushes you over the threshold, you pick up the schedule at the next quarterly deadline.

The Four Quarterly Due Dates

Payments are split into equal installments on a calendar-year schedule:²

First quarter: April 15
Second quarter: June 15
Third quarter: September 15
Fourth quarter: January 15 of the following year

When a due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it rolls to the next business day.² There’s one useful shortcut on the last installment: you can skip the January 15 payment entirely if you file your annual return by February 15 and pay the full balance with it.³

Fiscal year filers use the same structure shifted to their year: the 15th day of the fourth, sixth, and ninth months of the fiscal year, plus the 15th day of the first month of the following year.⁴

Figuring the Quarterly Amount

Form NJ-1040-ES and its instruction packet (NJ-1040-ESI) are posted on the Division of Taxation’s website.⁵ The instructions include a worksheet that walks you through projected taxable income, applies the correct rate table for your filing status, and subtracts credits and expected withholdings. New Jersey’s rates run from 1.4% on the first $20,000 of taxable income up to 10.75% on income above $1 million.³ Divide the resulting annual liability by four and that’s your quarterly figure. Transfer it to the voucher portion of Form NJ-1040-ES. Joint filers should list the Social Security number that will appear first on the annual return first on the voucher too.⁶

Most people don’t want to project the current year that carefully, and they don’t have to. The state offers a safe harbor: you avoid interest if your total payments during the year hit the lesser of 80% of the current year’s tax or 100% of the prior year’s tax, provided the prior year covered a full 12 months.⁷ The prior-year route is popular because the math is simple: take last year’s tax, divide by four, pay that. The current-year (80%) route works better when you expect a lower-income year.

Higher earners face a stiffer prior-year target. If your taxable gross income exceeded $150,000 last year ($75,000 if married filing separately), the prior-year safe harbor rises to 110% of that year’s tax.⁷ This is where taxpayers get caught after a strong income year followed by lighter estimated payments.

How to Submit

The Division of Taxation’s online portal accepts e-check (a free direct bank withdrawal) or credit card, with the credit card vendor charging roughly 2%.⁸ The system issues a confirmation number for each transaction, and that’s your proof of payment. One limitation: if you have never filed a New Jersey income tax return before, the online portal won’t accept you and your first payment has to go by mail.

For paper filing, mail the voucher with a check or money order made payable to “State of New Jersey” to:

State of New Jersey
Division of Taxation
Revenue Processing Center
PO Box 222
Trenton, NJ 08646-0222⁶

Write your full Social Security number on the check so the payment credits correctly.⁶ Joint filers use the same number that appears first on the voucher. Certified mail gives you a delivery record if the state later flags the payment as late.

Adjusting Payments When Your Income Changes

If your income jumps or drops after you’ve set your quarterly figure, recalculate the remaining installments instead of waiting until filing season. The NJ-1040-ES instructions include an Amended Calculation Schedule for this.³ Recompute the annual estimate, subtract what you’ve already paid and any prior-year overpayment you applied as a credit, then divide the remainder by the installments still ahead.

If the change happens after a quarterly deadline has passed, the instructions tell you when to pick up:³

Change between April 2 and June 1: begin by June 15
Change between June 2 and September 1: begin by September 15
Change after September 1: begin by January 15

This matters most when you sell property, take a large bonus, or start freelance work partway through the year. Waiting for the annual return lets interest accrue on each shortfall.

If You Underpay

If your balance due at filing exceeds $400 and your estimated payments came up short, interest runs at 3% above the prime rate on each underpaid quarter, compounded annually from the original due date to the date paid.¹ Each quarter accrues separately, so a shortfall in Q1 costs more than an identical shortfall in Q4.

Form NJ-2210 is where you calculate whether you actually owe that interest.⁹ It provides four exceptions that can wipe out interest for a given quarter regardless of what you paid:

Cumulative payments through each due date reached the corresponding share of prior-year tax (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
Tax computed using prior-year income with current-year exemptions and rates.
Actual income annualized for each period, useful when income is bunched later in the year.
Tax on actual New Jersey taxable income for each installment period, multiplied by 90%.

The annualization exceptions are what save people whose income arrives unevenly, such as those with a large late-year capital gain or seasonal business income.⁹

Farmers

If at least two-thirds of your estimated gross income comes from farming, including oyster farming, you can skip the quarterly schedule and make one estimated payment by January 15 of the following year. Fiscal year farmers pay by the 15th day of the first month after their fiscal year ends. The safe harbor is also lower: 66⅔% of the current year’s tax instead of the standard 80%.⁹

Nonresidents

Nonresidents with New Jersey source income file the same Form NJ-1040-ES on the same quarterly schedule, with the same $400 threshold and safe harbor rules.² At filing, nonresidents use Form NJ-2210NR rather than NJ-2210 to calculate any underpayment interest.

One boundary to flag, because a nonresident might reasonably assume the quarterly rules cover it: a nonresident sale of New Jersey real property carries a separate obligation. Under N.J.S.A. 54A:8-8 through 8-10, the seller pays an estimated gross income tax equal to 2% of the sale price at or before closing, whether or not the sale produced a gain.¹⁰ Exemptions and waivers for qualifying transactions run through Forms GIT/REP-3 and GIT/REP-4.

1
Legal Information Institute. NJ Admin Code 18-35-3.2 – Failure to File Declaration or Underpayment of Estimated Tax
2
New Jersey Division of Taxation. NJ Division of Taxation – Income Tax – Estimated Payments
3
New Jersey Division of Taxation. 2026 Form NJ-1040-ES Estimated Income Tax Payment Instructions
4
Legal Information Institute. NJ Admin Code 18-35-3.1 – Estimated Tax
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Division of Taxation. 2025 Income Tax Forms
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State of New Jersey. 2026 NJ-1040-ES Declaration of Estimated Tax
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New Jersey Division of Taxation. NJ Division of Taxation – Notice on Estimated Tax Payments
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New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Individual Income Tax Payment and Filing
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New Jersey Division of Taxation. Estimating Income Taxes (GIT-8)
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New Jersey Division of Taxation. NJ Division of Taxation – Tax Professionals