<prompt> Human: Last year was my first year freelancing. It happened in May and wasnt planned. My W-2 job became a smaller contract job and then I picked up some clients on the side. I only made 23,000.I did my taxes a few days before they were due and found out I owed 2,500. Living in an expensive city, that was everything I had saved.Now Im trying to figure out if I need to pay quarterly taxes because I didnt know those existed until last week and the first deadline has already passed. Im currently job searching and am feeling really overwhelmed. I used Turbo Tax and it looks like they tell you if you need to based on your return and they didnt tell me, but I want to be sure.Edit:To avoid penalties, its essential that you determine whether or not you must pay estimated taxes each quarter. In general, individuals who expect to owe less than 1,000 in taxes, after subtracting federal income tax, are exempt from making quarterly payments. How do I make these calculations?  <response>: If you, as a taxpayer, owe more then 1000.00 at tax time and do not meet a safe harbor like having paid in at least as much as you owed last year then you pay penalties.So its owe year, nor per quarter. If you will owe more then 1k for the year, not covered by withholdings, then you need to up your regular job withholdings or pay in quarterly. 