DC Estimated Tax Payments 2026: D-40ES Due Dates, the $100 Trigger, and the 110% Safe Harbor

District of Columbia estimated tax payments for 2026 are due April 15, June 15, September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027, and you must make them with Form D-40ES if you expect to owe $100 or more of DC income tax after withholding and credits. Only the January 15, 2027 voucher is still ahead. The amount that keeps the Office of Tax and Revenue's 10% underpayment interest off your return is the smaller of 90% of your 2026 DC tax or 110% of your 2025 DC tax, and DC applies that 110% figure at every income level.

Key takeaways:

• 2026 D-40ES dates: April 15, June 15, September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027; the first three have passed
• The trigger is $100 of expected DC tax after withholding and credits
• Safe harbor: 90% of 2026 tax or 110% of 2025 tax, and the 110% route requires that you lived in DC for all of 2025
• Short installments accrue interest at 10% a year, compounded daily, figured on Form D-2210
• DC's basic standard deduction starts from $15,000 single ($30,000 joint) under D.C. Law 26-189, below the $16,100 printed on the 2026 D-40ES worksheet

Save this cheat sheet — DC's 2026 numbers in one image.

When Are DC Estimated Tax Payments Due in 2026?

DC collects individual estimated tax on the federal calendar, in four equal vouchers, per the 2026 D-40ES booklet:

A due date that lands on a weekend or legal holiday moves to the next business day. Because the dates match federal Form 1040-ES, one calendar entry covers both payments, and the estimated tax due-dates tool lists them side by side.

The booklet has one shortcut for the last voucher: if you file your 2026 D-40 on or before January 15, 2027 and pay the balance with it, you skip voucher 4. The federal version of that rule runs to the end of January, so DC's window closes about two weeks earlier. A 2026 overpayment, once you file next spring, can be applied to the first 2027 voucher.

The 2027 schedule

The same next-business-day rule produces April 15, June 15, September 15, 2027, and January 18, 2028 for next year: January 15, 2028 is a Saturday and January 17 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. OTR has not published the 2027 D-40ES yet. No 2027 rate change has been enacted; the FY 2027 Budget Support Act, effective October 2, 2026 as D.C. Law 26-189, left the seven brackets alone and changed the standard deduction and the treatment of business income instead.

Who Has to Pay DC Estimated Taxes?

You must file D-40ES vouchers if you are required to file a DC income tax return and expect to owe $100 or more after withholding and credits. OTR's underpayment interest page frames the same test in plain terms: you live in DC, your income isn't fully covered by withholding, and your DC liability will be greater than $100. That catches almost every self-employed resident of the District, plus:

• Freelancers and consultants paid on 1099s
• Partners and LLC members with distributive shares
• Landlords and investors with rent, dividends, or capital gains
• Retirees drawing pension or IRA money with nothing withheld for DC

Residence is the whole test. The Home Rule Act, at D.C. Code § 1-206.02(a)(5), forbids DC from taxing the personal income of nonresidents, so a Maryland or Virginia resident who works downtown sends estimates to the home state. Our Virginia estimated tax guide covers the commuters who live across the river.

W-2 employees with a side gig often have a simpler fix than vouchers: raising DC withholding on Form D-4 at work can pull the expected balance under $100.

DC Safe Harbor Rules: 90% of 2026 or 110% of 2025

OTR charges no underpayment interest when your withholding, credits, and timely estimated payments reach the smaller of two targets, per the D-40ES and the 2025 Form D-2210 instructions:

The 110% figure is the District's quirk. The IRS asks for 110% of last year's tax only once prior-year AGI tops $150,000 under IRC § 6654(d); DC asks it of everyone. Building Jupid, I keep meeting freelancers who copy the federal 100% into their state plan, and in DC that leaves every installment about 9% short.

Femi, a single freelance grant writer in Petworth, expects $4,235 of 2026 DC tax (the math is in the rates section below). Her 2025 D-40 showed $3,200 of tax, and she lived in DC all of 2025. 110% × $3,200 = $3,520, which is less than 90% × $4,235 = $3,811, so her target is $3,520: four payments of $880. The remaining $715 is due with her return on April 15, 2027, interest-free, because the prior-year anchor holds however 2026 ends.

When the safe harbor does NOT protect you

• You paid the right total on the wrong dates. D-2210 tests each period, so one large January payment still leaves April, June, and September short
• Your income arrived in one lump. A big fall contract can lower the early installments only through the annualized income method, which you claim by checking that box on D-2210 and showing the period math
• You built your 90% estimate on the printed $16,100. The D-40ES worksheet's deduction is higher than DC law now allows, so a current-year estimate made with it runs low

Check What DC Needs From You by January 15

DC Income Tax Rates for 2026 and the Standard Deduction Change

DC taxes 2026 income at seven graduated rates, per the rate table in the 2026 D-40ES:

The worksheet starts from federal adjusted gross income, so the deductible half of self-employment tax, self-employed health insurance, and SEP or solo 401(k) contributions all shrink DC income too. The standard deduction is where the printed form and the law part ways. The D-40ES, revised in March 2026, tells you to subtract the federal amounts: $16,100 single, $24,150 head of household, $32,200 joint. D.C. Law 26-189 instead sets DC's own basic standard deduction at $15,000 single, $22,500 head of household, and $30,000 joint, the amounts the 2025 D-40 booklet already uses, with inflation indexing measured from a 2025 base year. None of OTR's 2026 forms showed an indexed DC figure as of October 29, 2026, so $15,000 is the safe planning number.

Worked example. Femi expects $90,000 of 2026 net self-employment profit and has no DC withholding:

Running the worksheet as printed, with $16,100, gives $4,141, about $94 short. The DC quarterly tax calculator adds her federal income tax and the 15.3% self-employment tax.

How to Pay DC Estimated Taxes Online or by Mail

MyTax.DC.gov is the District's tax portal, and OTR's payment options page lists two ways to pay a D-40ES there:

1. ACH debit: log in to MyTax.DC.gov and enter your bank account on the payment screen; there is no fee
2. Credit or debit card: a 2.25% convenience fee goes to the card processor

You can also send an ACH credit from your own bank in the NACHA format laid out in OTR's EFT guide; foreign bank accounts are not accepted. To pay by mail, make the check or money order payable to "DC Treasurer", write your taxpayer identification number, "D-40ES", and the tax year on it, and mail it with the voucher to Office of Tax and Revenue, PO Box 96018, Washington, DC 20090-6018.

Two payment rules carry consequences. Once a single period's payment exceeds $5,000, the D-40 instructions require you to pay electronically through MyTax.DC.gov or Modernized e-File. And a check or electronic payment that your bank refuses costs a $65 dishonored-payment fee on top of any interest.

What Happens If You Underpay? Form D-2210 and 10% Interest

DC has no separate flat penalty for short estimates. It charges underpayment interest at 10% a year, compounded daily, and OTR assesses it automatically. You can figure it yourself on Form D-2210 and enter it on line 40 of the D-40, or leave the form off and let OTR compute the charge and send a notice. The 2025 D-2210 turns the rate into period factors of 0.0175, 0.0265, 0.0351, and 0.0259, applied to each period's cumulative shortfall.

That 10% is flat, while the IRS rate floats and stands at 7% for October through December 2026 under IR-2026-98. Suppose Femi paid April and June but skipped her $880 September installment when a client paid late:

If she also skipped the federal September payment, the federal estimated tax penalty runs over the same months at 7%. Sending the missed $880 with the January voucher is the cheapest fix still on the table.

When DC Estimated Payments Don't Apply

• Withholding covers it. If DC withholding and credits leave less than $100 owed, you need no vouchers and file no D-2210
• You live in Maryland or Virginia. DC cannot tax a nonresident's wages, even for a job on K Street
• You owed no DC tax for 2025 as a full-year resident. D-2210 waives 2026 interest entirely
• You moved to DC in 2026. You still owe vouchers once the $100 test is met, but neither the 110% route nor the no-prior-liability waiver is open to you, because both need a full year of DC residence in 2025; aim for 90% of this year's tax
• Farm income gets no special schedule. The IRS lets qualifying farmers and fishermen make a single January payment; the D-40ES booklet has no such option, so agricultural income follows the same four dates

DC-Specific Traps: Franchise Tax, Business Income, Retirement Income

DC is a state and a city at once, so no county or municipal income tax sits on top of the D-40. The District's business taxes are the second layer instead.

Unincorporated business franchise tax. A DC business with more than $12,000 of gross receipts files Form D-30 and pays 8.25% on net income after a 30% salary allowance for owners and a $5,000 exemption, with a $250 minimum, per OTR's franchise tax rates page. Many solo consultants are outside it: the D-30 instructions exempt a business that earns more than 80% of gross income from the owners' personal services when capital is not a material income-producing factor. An online shop with inventory or a studio with equipment and staff usually does not qualify. The business makes its own estimates on Form D-30ES once it expects more than $1,000 of franchise tax, due April 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15, a month before the individual voucher.

The 2026 change for franchise-taxed income. Through 2025, a resident excluded from the D-40 the business income already taxed by the unincorporated business or corporate franchise tax. For tax years beginning in 2026, D.C. Law 26-189 repeals that exclusion and replaces it with a nonrefundable credit for your share of the franchise tax the business actually paid, under new D.C. Code § 47-1806.18, allowed only if the business filed and paid in full. Owners of franchise-paying LLCs and S corporations should now include that income in the D-40ES worksheet and subtract the expected credit. The OCFO fiscal impact statement expects the extra tax to come from residents with total income above $250,000, where DC's 9.25% to 10.75% rates exceed the 8.25% franchise rate.

Retirement income. The D-40 subtracts taxable Social Security in full, but pensions, annuities, and IRA withdrawals are taxed at the regular rates. The retirement-specific subtraction on the return covers DC and federal government survivor benefits for survivors 62 or older. A retiree with a $60,000 pension and no DC withholding is well past the $100 trigger.

The smaller earned income credit. The same law cuts the DC earned income tax credit to 85% of the federal credit for 2026 through 2028, down from 100% for 2025. A filer who counted on the credit to wipe out the DC bill can end up owing more than $100.

How Jupid Helps

DC's 110% rule takes one multiplication; knowing whether 2026 profit is running above or below your estimate before January 15 takes current books. Jupid connects to your business bank account and categorizes every transaction automatically with 95.9% accuracy, so the year-to-date profit behind your D-40ES worksheet is ready when the last voucher comes due. Ask the AI accountant in WhatsApp or iMessage how much you have netted since January, or which client payments landed after September, and the answer comes back in the chat in real time. Try Jupid.

Sources

• 2026 D-40ES, Estimated Payment for Individual Income Tax: $100 requirement, due dates, 90%/110% rule, 10% interest, worksheet, rate table, mailing address
• 2025 Form D-2210, Underpayment of Estimated Income Tax by Individuals: exceptions, full-year residency condition, period factors, line 40
• OTR: Underpayment of Estimated Tax Interest: individual and business safe harbors, D-30ES dates
• OTR: Payment Options: ACH debit, card fee, check payee
• 2025 D-40 booklet: $15,000/$22,500/$30,000 basic standard deduction, $5,000 electronic payment rule, Schedule I subtractions
• D.C. Act 26-416, Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2026, Title VII, Subtitle I, made permanent as D.C. Law 26-189: basic standard deduction and indexing
• OCFO Fiscal Impact Statement, FY 2027 Budget Support Act of 2026: franchise-tax credit, 85% earned income credit
• OTR: DC Business Franchise Tax Rates and the 2025 D-30 booklet: unincorporated business franchise tax and D-30ES
• D.C. Code § 1-206.02: no tax on nonresidents' personal income
• IRS IR-2026-98 and IRC § 6654: the federal rate and safe harbor that run alongside DC's

Reviewed 2026-10-29. This guide is for general educational purposes and does not constitute tax, legal, or accounting advice. It reflects the 2026 D-40ES, the 2025 D-2210, and D.C. Law 26-189; OTR had not yet published a 2026 standard deduction figure or 2026 D-2210 interest factors. For advice specific to your situation, consult a qualified tax professional or the DC Office of Tax and Revenue at otr.cfo.dc.gov.