Virginia Estimated Tax Payments: Due Dates and Safe Harbors

If you expect to owe more than $150 in Virginia income tax after withholding and credits, you have to make Virginia estimated tax payments four times a year using Form 760ES. Payments are due May 1, June 15, September 15, and January 15. You can avoid an underpayment charge by paying in either 90% of what you’ll owe this year or 100% of what you owed last year, whichever is easier to pin down. Fall short and Virginia adds interest at 8% (the rate as of the second quarter of 2026).

Do You Have to Pay?

Virginia requires a declaration of estimated tax from any resident or nonresident whose Virginia income tax liability, after subtracting withholding and allowable credits, is expected to top $150 for the year.¹ If you’re a W-2 employee and your employer withholds enough Virginia tax to keep you under that line, you don’t need to file separately. The obligation shows up when withholding runs short, which happens most often with self-employment income, rental properties, partnership distributions, and sizable investment gains.

Residents owe Virginia tax on income from all sources, no matter where it’s earned. Nonresidents only count income from Virginia sources or from business activity conducted in the state.¹ Part-year residents also use Form 760ES but adjust their exemptions and deductions following the Form 760PY instructions.

What You’ll Owe Each Quarter

Virginia’s income tax has four brackets:²

2% on the first $3,000 of taxable income
3% on income from $3,001 to $5,000
5% on income from $5,001 to $17,000
5.75% on all income above $17,000

For 2026, the standard deduction is $8,750 for single filers and $17,500 for married couples filing jointly, with married-filing-separately claiming half the joint amount.³ Each personal exemption shaves another $930 off taxable income.⁴

To size your quarterly check, start with your expected Virginia adjusted gross income for the year. Subtract your deductions and exemptions to get estimated taxable income. Apply the rates above, then subtract any credits you expect to claim. That’s your estimated annual liability. Subtract any Virginia tax your employer will withhold during the year. If what’s left exceeds $150, divide by four.¹ The Form 760ES worksheet walks through each step and is worth filling out even if you plan to pay electronically.

When Payments Are Due

Virginia’s schedule for calendar-year filers:⁵

1st quarter: May 1
2nd quarter: June 15
3rd quarter: September 15
4th quarter: January 15 of the following year

Notice that the first installment is May 1, not the mid-April federal date. If a deadline falls on a weekend or legal holiday, payment is timely as long as you make it the next business day. Fiscal-year filers pay on the 15th day of the 4th, 6th, and 9th months of the fiscal year, plus the 15th of the 1st month of the next fiscal year.

How to Pay

Both residents and nonresidents use Form 760ES.¹ The Virginia Department of Taxation offers two electronic options. eForms lets you submit a one-off payment without creating an account by entering your information and bank routing and account numbers.⁶ An Individual Online Account requires a one-time registration and lets you track payment history and schedule future installments.⁷ Save the confirmation number after any electronic payment.

If you’d rather mail a check, send the voucher and payment to the Virginia Department of Taxation, P.O. Box 1478, Richmond, VA 23218-1478. Nonresidents may instead file with the Virginia city or county where the principal portion of their Virginia-source income was received. Make checks payable to the Virginia Department of Taxation, write your SSN on the check, and mark each voucher with the correct payment period and tax year.

Safe Harbors That Protect You From Penalties

You won’t owe an underpayment charge if your payments and withholding meet either of these benchmarks:

90% of current-year liability. Your total payments equal at least 90% of the tax shown on your current-year return.⁵
100% of prior-year liability. Your total payments equal or exceed the tax liability shown on last year’s return, provided that return covered a full 12 months.⁸

The prior-year safe harbor is the easier one to work with when your income is unpredictable. Match last year’s number across four installments and you’re protected, even if your actual liability turns out much higher. The charge also doesn’t apply if your total underpayment across all quarters is $150 or less.⁹

If Your Income Changes Mid-Year

When your income shifts, recalculate and adjust the remaining vouchers. A freelancer who lands a large contract in August bumps the September and January payments up. Someone who loses a major client scales back. Enter the revised amount on the next Form 760ES voucher.⁹

Mid-year changes can also create an obligation that didn’t exist on May 1. Sell a rental property in July for a significant gain, and you’d need to start making estimated payments with the September installment.

If your income is seasonal or badly uneven, the annualized income method lets you avoid penalties on early quarters when income was low. It’s calculated on the Exception 3 worksheet of Form 760C using annualization factors tied to each period.¹⁰

What Underpayment Costs

Virginia calls the underpayment charge an “addition to tax” rather than a penalty, but it functions as interest. It’s computed on Form 760C and runs for the period you were underpaid.⁸ The rate sits 2 percentage points above the federal underpayment rate under IRC § 6621 and resets quarterly. For the second quarter of 2026, it’s 8%.¹¹

Under Virginia Code § 58.1-105, the Department of Taxation can reduce or waive penalties in specific situations. Published guidance lists grounds that generally support a waiver:¹²

Death or serious illness of the taxpayer, spouse, close family member, or tax preparer
Natural disasters where the Tax Commissioner or IRS has issued an extension for affected taxpayers
Loss of records from fire, theft, or disaster, if you make a reasonable effort to reconstruct them
Federal filing extensions for special circumstances like military service in a combat zone
Unanticipated income discovered after the final estimated payment deadline, but only if your prior payments already matched the prior year’s liability

Simple oversight, like forgetting to mail a voucher, generally won’t qualify, and errors by a professional preparer typically aren’t grounds either. A clean filing history helps but won’t carry a request on its own.

Special Rule for Farmers, Fishermen, and Merchant Seamen

If at least two-thirds of your estimated Virginia gross income comes from farming, fishing, or work as a merchant seaman, you can make a single estimated payment by January 15 of the following year instead of four installments. You can also skip estimated payments entirely by filing your annual return and paying everything owed by March 1.⁹ The underpayment threshold is lower too: 66⅔% of current-year liability instead of 90%.⁵ Any addition to tax for this group is calculated on Form 760F rather than 760C.

Nonresidents: One Thing to Watch

Virginia generally does not let nonresidents claim a credit on their Virginia nonresident return for income tax paid to another state. The exception is for residents of Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, and Oregon. If you live in one of those jurisdictions and your Virginia-source income is also taxed by your home state, you can claim a credit on Schedule OSC when you file your annual Virginia return.¹³ Factor that credit in when you size your estimated payments so you don’t overpay all year.

If You Overpay

If your payments and withholding end up exceeding your actual liability, you can take a refund or apply the overpayment as a credit toward next year’s estimated tax.¹⁴ You make the choice on your annual return. If you file separately from your spouse, either spouse’s overpayment can be credited to either spouse’s estimated tax or to a joint return for the following year. Rolling the overpayment forward effectively pre-funds your first installment, as long as you remember to count it when you figure the remaining three.

1
Virginia Department of Taxation. 2026 Form 760ES – Estimated Income Tax Payment Vouchers for Individuals
2
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 58.1, Chapter 3, Article 2 – Individual Income Tax
3
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 58.1-322.03 – Virginia Taxable Income; Deductions
4
Virginia Department of Taxation. Exemptions
5
Virginia Department of Taxation. Individual Estimated Tax Payments
6
Virginia Department of Taxation. eForms FAQs
7
Virginia Department of Taxation. Individual Online Account
8
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 58.1, Chapter 3, Article 19 – Estimated Tax – Section 58.1-492
9
Virginia Department of Taxation. 2025 Form 760ES – Estimated Income Tax Payment Vouchers for Individuals
10
Virginia Department of Taxation. Underpayment of Virginia Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts – Form 760C
11
Virginia Department of Taxation. Tax Bulletin 26-2 – Virginia’s Interest Rates Will Change for the Second Quarter of 2026
12
Virginia Department of Taxation. Guidance for Waiver of Penalty and Interest
13
Virginia Department of Taxation. 2024 Form 763 Nonresident Individual Income Tax Instructions
14
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 58.1-499 – Refunds to Individual Taxpayers; Crediting Overpayments Against Estimated Tax