Guides

Form 2210: Who Must File, Boxes A-E and Waivers

Checked October 17, 2026 · Educational summary

General information, not tax, legal or financial advice. We are not the IRS. Check IRS.gov or a qualified tax professional. Sources read on October 17, 2026. Dates for 2027 and later are expected. Examples use made-up numbers. This page contains no affiliate links.

The IRS has posted a draft of the 2026 Form 2210 (marked “DRAFT — DO NOT FILE”); the 2026 instructions are not published. The 2025 Instructions for Form 2210 say the IRS will generally figure your underpayment penalty and send you a bill, and you should not file the form unless a situation applies. If box B, C or D in Part II is checked, you must figure the penalty yourself and attach Form 2210 to your return. The instructions are for 2025 returns; the 2026 instructions are expected to be similar.

When you do not file

If you did not check box B, C or D, you do not need to figure the penalty: complete your return as usual, leave the penalty line blank and do not file Form 2210. The IRS says that for the 2025 return, if you filed by April 15, 2026 and paid the penalty by the date on the bill, no interest was charged on the penalty.

When you must file (from the instructions)

• Box B: you are asking for a waiver of part of the penalty. Complete Form 2210 through line 18 without regard to the waiver, enter the amount to be waived in parentheses next to line 19, and subtract it.
• Box C: you use the annualized income installment method. Complete Schedule AI before Part III. If you use Schedule AI for any payment due date you must use it for all due dates (see annualized method).
• Box D: you treat withholding as paid on the dates it was actually withheld rather than evenly (see withholding timing).
• Box A: you ask for a waiver of your entire penalty: you file page 1 only and the IRS figures any penalty.
• Box E: applies if you filed a joint return for 2024 or 2025 but not for both years, and line 8 is smaller than line 5; you must then file page 1 of Form 2210, but you do not have to figure the penalty unless box B, C or D also applies (Form 2210 (2025) and instructions).

The two waiver reasons

The IRS says all or part of the penalty is waived if it determines that either:

1. in 2024 or 2025 you retired after reaching age 62 or became disabled, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect; or
2. the underpayment was due to a casualty, disaster or other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty. To request a waiver, check box A or B, attach a statement explaining the reason and period, and for retirement or disability attach documentation showing the retirement date and your age or the date you became disabled. For federally declared disasters the instructions describe special relief and an IRS hotline.

Notice 2026-3

The instructions mention Notice 2026-3, which gives limited relief from part of the estimated tax addition to tax for a qualified sale of qualified farmland property to a qualified farmer when an election under section 1062(a) is made; it does not apply to most readers.

Other points

• Payments are applied first to any earlier underpayment even if you designate them for a later period.

Related

Underpayment penalty and Form 2210 · Annualized method · Safe harbor · Skip the January payment

FAQ

Do I have to file Form 2210 every year I owe a penalty?

Not by the instructions, unless a box requires it; the IRS can figure and bill the penalty.

Is the retirement waiver automatic?

No: you request it with a statement and documents.

What we could not verify