Estimated taxes and under payment penalties
For 2022, I was not employed by a company and I did consulting work as a 1099 independent contractor. I did not receive my first payment until May 23, 2022. I made an error and did not make any estimated payments until December 2022. I did not make an estimate for the 1st quarter because I had not even decided to do consulting until end of April.
The question, Turbo tax is calculating penalties because I did not make estimated payments...which I understand. But what nearly half of the penalty is coming from the 1st quarter when I had no income and hadn't even decided to do consulting. Is there a way to calculate the penalty using actual income by quarter? It seems wrong to be penalized for not paying a quarter when I literally had not even considered self employment?
Thanks for any help!