Oregon Estimated Tax Payments: Due Dates, Amounts, and Interest

If you expect to owe Oregon $1,000 or more after subtracting withholding and refundable credits, you’re required to make Oregon estimated tax payments in four quarterly installments due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. Miss those deadlines or underpay them, and the Oregon Department of Revenue (DOR) charges interest on the shortfall, calculated separately for each quarter you fell behind.¹

Who Has to Pay

The test is simple. Estimate your Oregon tax for the year, subtract wage withholding and any refundable credits, and if what’s left is $1,000 or more, quarterly payments are required.² If the gap is under $1,000, you can settle it when you file without owing underpayment interest.

The people who typically trip this threshold are self-employed workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and small business owners whose payers don’t withhold state tax. It also catches retirees drawing pension or IRA distributions without adequate withholding, investors with meaningful capital gains or dividends, and landlords collecting rental income. Any Oregon-taxable income arriving without state tax already removed can build up to an estimated payment obligation.

Two narrower situations work differently. Part-year residents owe estimated tax on all income earned while living in Oregon plus any Oregon-source income earned while living elsewhere; nonresidents owe only on Oregon-source income, still measured against the same $1,000 threshold.¹ Taxpayers with at least two-thirds of gross income from farming or fishing can either make a single estimated payment by January 15 or skip estimated payments entirely by filing and paying in full by March 1.³

Quarterly Due Dates

Oregon uses the same quarterly calendar as the IRS. For the 2026 tax year, the four installment deadlines are:⁴

First quarter: April 15, 2026
Second quarter: June 15, 2026
Third quarter: September 15, 2026
Fourth quarter: January 15, 2027

When a due date lands on a weekend or legal holiday, it shifts to the next business day. Each installment is generally one-quarter of your required annual payment. If your obligation begins after the first deadline has passed (a new client midyear, an investment sale in the fall), you start at the next available due date and spread the remaining balance across the installments left in the year.¹

How Much to Pay Each Quarter

Oregon lets you satisfy the payment requirement by paying the lesser of two amounts:²

The prior-year safe harbor is the easier route for most people because the figure is already fixed. If your income is growing, the 90% method may produce a smaller required payment. The estimated tax worksheet in Publication OR-ESTIMATE walks through both.

One point worth flagging for anyone used to federal rules: the IRS pushes the safe harbor to 110% of prior-year tax for taxpayers with adjusted gross income above $150,000. Oregon does not. The state safe harbor stays at a flat 100% of last year’s tax regardless of income, which is a meaningful advantage for high earners.²

When you build your projection, remember Oregon’s standard deduction is much smaller than the federal one. For 2026, it’s $2,910 for single filers and $5,820 for married couples filing jointly, against federal amounts of $16,100 and $32,200.⁶ Oregon also has its own additions and subtractions to federal income. If a surplus “kicker” credit applies, it reduces the tax shown on your return and therefore feeds into next year’s required payment calculation. For the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the kicker is 9.863% of your 2024 tax liability.

If your income arrives unevenly (a seasonal business, a property sale in November, a lump-sum contract in the third quarter), the annualized income method lets you base each quarter’s payment on income actually earned by that point rather than assuming even quarters.¹ The trade-off is extra paperwork: you file Form OR-10 with your return to show that the lower early-quarter payments were justified.

How to Send Payments

The DOR encourages electronic payment through RevenueOnline. Bank-account payments post immediately, produce a confirmation, and carry no fee. Credit and debit card payments are also accepted, with a third-party convenience fee. Check RevenueOnline for the current fee before choosing card payment.

To pay by mail, use Form OR-40-V (the same voucher used for other individual income tax payments) and mark the “Estimated payment” box.¹ Make the check or money order payable to the Oregon Department of Revenue, write the tax year and “Form OR-40-V” on the payment, and mail it to PO Box 14950, Salem, OR 97309-0950.⁷

If last year’s return produced a refund, you can apply part or all of it toward this year’s estimated tax. The overpayment credit is typically applied to the first installment due April 15.¹

Adjusting Mid-Year

Estimates written in January often don’t survive the year. A new contract, a bonus, or a property sale can push your projection well past what you planned for. When that happens, recalculate your full-year tax, then use the amended installment worksheet in Publication OR-ESTIMATE to redistribute what remains.¹

The arithmetic: take the new annual estimate, subtract what you’ve already paid, and divide by the number of remaining installments. How many are left depends on timing:

Change between April 1 and June 1: three remaining installments (June, September, January)
Change between June 1 and September 1: two remaining installments (September, January)
Change after September 1: one remaining installment (January)

Overpaying carries no penalty (the excess comes back as a refund or applies to next year), so if income jumps, raise your remaining payments promptly rather than waiting until you file.

Underpayment Interest

Oregon labels the charge for missing an installment “interest” rather than a penalty, but it works the same way. If withholding plus estimated payments fell short during the year, the DOR charges interest on the shortfall for each installment period you underpaid.

For 2026, the Tier One interest rate is 8% per year, roughly 0.022% per day.⁸ A balance still unpaid more than 60 days after assessment moves to 12% per year (Tier One plus an additional 4%). A separate 5% late-payment penalty applies to any Oregon tax not paid by the original return due date.⁹

Interest runs from the due date of each missed or underpaid installment through the date the payment is received, calculated on Form OR-10.² Because the charge compounds across quarters, missing the April installment costs more than missing the January one.

One filing quirk catches people. You file Form OR-10 with your return only if you’re claiming an exception to underpayment interest and your tax after credits and withholding is $1,000 or more. If you owe interest and don’t qualify for an exception, don’t file the form; the DOR will calculate the interest and bill you. If your remaining balance is under $1,000, no interest applies and no form is needed.²

Exceptions That Can Waive Interest

Three exceptions can reduce or eliminate underpayment interest:

The annualized income method, if uneven timing means your early-quarter payments were adequate relative to income earned by that point.
Retirement after age 62 or disability, when the underpayment was due to reasonable cause rather than neglect.
Circumstances beyond your control, where the DOR has discretionary authority to waive penalties for events such as natural disasters or serious illness.¹⁰

To claim any of these, complete the relevant section of Form OR-10 and file it with your return. Without the form, the DOR has no way to know you qualify.

Local Taxes Don’t Go on Your State Estimates

Some Oregon taxes look like they’d travel with your state estimated payments but don’t. Self-employed people in the TriMet Transportation District (Portland metro) or the Lane Transit District (Eugene) owe a transit self-employment tax, but no estimated payments are required; the full amount is due when the return is filed by the April deadline.¹¹

The Metro Supportive Housing Services (SHS) tax in the Portland area is more separate still. It doesn’t appear on your Oregon return at all; you file and pay it directly through the City of Portland’s Revenue Division, which collects it on Metro’s behalf. Starting in tax year 2026, quarterly estimated payments are not required if your total SHS personal income tax liability is under $5,000, but above that threshold, quarterly payments go to the City of Portland, not the state DOR.¹² Sending SHS money to the state, or state estimates to Portland, is a common mistake worth avoiding.

1
Oregon.gov. 2025 Publication OR-ESTIMATE, Oregon Estimated Income Tax Instructions
2
Oregon.gov. 2025 Form OR-10 Instructions, Underpayment of Oregon Estimated Tax
3
Internal Revenue Service. Farming and Fishing Income
4
Oregon Department of Revenue. Tax Calendar
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 316.587 – Effect of Underpayment of Estimated Tax
6
Oregon.gov. Oregon Withholding Tax Formulas, Effective January 1, 2026
7
Oregon Department of Revenue. Form OR-40-V, Oregon Individual Income Tax Payment Voucher
8
Oregon.gov. Annual Interest Rate Update for 2026
9
Oregon Department of Revenue. Penalties and Interest for Personal Income Tax
10
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Administrative Code 150-305-0068 – Discretionary Penalty Waivers
11
Oregon.gov. Publication OR-TRAN-SE Transit District Taxes
12
Metro. Supportive Housing Services Taxes Frequently Asked Questions