Cash flow
Quarterly estimated taxes for resellers
eBay doesn't withhold tax from your payouts once it has your taxpayer ID. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for 2026, the IRS generally expects you to pay during the year, on four set dates, using Form 1040-ES.
When are 2026 estimated tax payments due (Form 1040-ES)?
Estimated tax payments for 2026 are due April 15, 2026, June 15, 2026, September 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027 (2026 Form 1040-ES). The dates aren't evenly spaced. If a date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the next business day counts.
| Payment | Due date |
|---|---|
| 1st | April 15, 2026 |
| 2nd | June 15, 2026 |
| 3rd | September 15, 2026 |
| 4th | January 15, 2027 |
You can skip the January 15, 2027 payment if you file your 2026 return by February 1, 2027 and pay the whole balance with it. Put the dates in a calendar with a reminder a week ahead.
Do resellers have to pay estimated taxes?
You generally must pay 2026 estimated tax if you expect to owe at least $1,000 after withholding and refundable credits, and those will cover less than the smaller of 90% of your 2026 tax or 100% of your 2025 tax (2026 Form 1040-ES). If your 2025 adjusted gross income was over $150,000, or $75,000 married filing separately, use 110% instead of 100%.
Two ways out. If you had no tax liability for all of 2025 and were a US citizen or resident all year, you don't have to pay 2026 estimated tax. And if you have a job, raising your W-4 withholding can cover the tax on your reselling profit instead.
What happens if you underpay?
The estimated tax penalty is a charge for paying too little, or too late, during the year. The 2026 Form 1040-ES says that if your payments are late or you didn't pay enough, "you may be charged a penalty for underpaying your tax." Paying at least the smaller of 90% of this year's tax or 100% of last year's, on time, is the general rule that sets what you must pay; the IRS estimated taxes page covers the details.
How much should a self-employed reseller set aside for taxes?
Set aside a share of profit, not of payouts, sized from your own rates. Self-employment tax alone is about 14.1% of profit (15.3% of 92.35%). Add income tax at your bracket on the profit minus half the self-employment tax. The combined federal shares for 2026, before state tax, look like this:
| Federal bracket | Self-employment + income tax | With a full 20% QBI deduction |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 23.4% of profit | 21.6% |
| 12% | 25.3% of profit | 23.1% |
| 22% | 34.6% of profit | 30.5% |
| 24% | 36.4% of profit | 32.0% |
The 2026 self-employment tax calculator runs the same math on your own year, with the Social Security wage base and your W-2 wages taken into account.
How do you make the set-aside stick?
A tax set-aside sticks when the money moves the day it arrives. Pick a percentage from the table above and move that share of every payout to a separate account you never spend from, by rule rather than by intention. Doing it weekly works too. Leaving it until the end of the year is where it fails.
Move it on arrival, by rule. Anyone who plans to set money aside at the end of the month eventually has a month where they don't.
Moving money on arrival turns one large yearly decision into a small automatic one, and the savings balance shows your real position, which the business account no longer blurs.
How do you work out profit during the year?
Profit during the year is gross receipts minus refunds, fees, postage, the cost of what sold and your other costs, for the period so far. You don't need formal accounts each quarter, but you do need an estimate that isn't a guess, built from platform reports in this order:
- Gross receipts for the period, from platform reports
- Less refunds
- Less marketplace and payment fees
- Less postage and packaging
- Less the cost of the items that sold
- Less other business expenses, including mileage
If you record purchases when you make them and run spending through one account, this is a short job. If you don't, that's the reason to start.
Do states have estimated taxes too?
Many states have their own income tax and their own estimated payment rules, with different dates and thresholds. This site covers federal tax only, so check your state's revenue department alongside the federal figures. The calculator on this site takes your state's rate as an input, so you can add state tax to the federal estimate.
When are 2026 quarterly taxes due?
Do resellers have to pay quarterly taxes?
How much should I set aside for taxes as a reseller?
What happens if I don't pay estimated taxes?
Disclosure We build FlowLister and publish Reseller Taxes. FlowLister writes eBay listings from item photos, with a price taken from sold listings, and for a reseller that listing becomes part of the record of what sold. It's AI, so it misses things. It doesn't prepare taxes or keep books, and nothing on this site is tax advice.
Keep reading
Schedule C for resellers, section by section
Gross receipts, cost of goods sold, the expense lines that apply, and where postage goes.
Cost of goods sold for resellers
Why unsold stock isn't a deduction yet, and how to track cost without drowning.