Taxed at a Different Rate?

Others answered the other questions. But as to penalties, you will avoid them even if you underpay through withholding and estimated tax if:

  1. You underpay by less than $1,000.
  2. You underpay by 10% or less.
  3. You paid at least what your total tax was last year. If you made a lot of money last year (over $150,000), you’ll need to have paid at least 110%.

So you could owe tens of thousands of dollars at tax time but not get penalized so long as you make sure you covered last year’s tax bill.