Tax Prep — Estimated-Tax Safe-Harbor Buffer

Industry front door for margin-of-safety. Adds domain triggers, example, packs only. Parent Process unchanged. Not legal or tax advice. Confirm safe-harbor percentages against current IRC §6654/§6655.

Activate when: self-employed / K-1 / variable-income client planning quarterly 1040-ES; "how much should I set aside?", "will I owe a penalty?", volatile income year. Do NOT activate when: W-2 withholding fully covers liability.

Why this variant

The parent margin-of-safety sizes a buffer against estimation error. Estimated taxes are exactly that: pay enough to clear a safe harbor so a bad income estimate never triggers an underpayment penalty. The safe harbor is the margin of safety.

Domain inputs → parent's Process

• Floor = safe harbor: generally 90% of current-year tax or 100% of prior-year (110% if prior AGI > $150k).
• Buffer sizing: pay to the higher-certainty harbor (prior-year is known; current-year is a guess).
• Volatility: for lumpy income, use annualized-income installment method rather than flat quarters.

Worked example

Consultant, prior-year tax $40k, this year wildly up. → Safe harbor = 110% × $40k = $44k across 4 quarters removes penalty risk regardless of how high this year lands. That is the margin of safety; anything above is optional smoothing.