Virginia · reference

Virginia calendar and forms

Every Virginia date that matters for the 2026 return, from the last estimated payment in January 2027 to the extended due date in November, and a plain-English guide to the forms and schedules an ordinary Virginia filer will meet: Form 760 and its schedules, the part-year and nonresident returns, the estimated and extension vouchers, and the withholding certificate. Where to file free, where to check a refund, and how to reach the Department of Taxation.

By Charles Trautman, EA, editor

Need to Know Tax · written from Virginia Department of Taxation (Virginia Tax) sources, November 3, 2026; updated November 12, 2026 after the election · not yet reviewed by a Virginia practitioner

Virginia runs two weeks behind the federal calendar. Form 760 is due May 1, not April 15, and because May 1, 2027 is a Saturday, the Department of Taxation’s standing rule moves the deadline to the next business day, Monday, May 3, 2027 (verify the Department’s announcement). The first estimated payment of the year is also May 1. The automatic extension runs six months, to November 1, 2027, and needs no form, but it is an extension to file and not to pay: at least 90% of the tax must be in by the May deadline or a 2%-per-month extension penalty runs, and whatever is unpaid draws interest from May 1 no matter what.

The form side is more involved than in a state with a flat tax and no itemizing, but most people touch only two pages: Form 760 and Schedule ADJ, where the additions, subtractions, deductions and the low-income and earned income credits live. Virginia Schedule A appears only for those who itemized federally. The rest of the list below is for people who moved, who work across the state line, who owe estimated tax, or who need to pay before the return is ready.

The 2027 filing season, dated

Virginia dates for the 2026 return and 2027 payments
Date	What happens	Form
Friday, January 15, 2027	Fourth and final 2026 estimated payment due.	760ES
Late January 2027; the IRS announces the date in January	The Department begins accepting e-filed 2026 returns, generally the day the IRS opens.	760
Monday, February 1, 2027	Employers’ W-2s due to employees and to the Department; January 31 is a Sunday.	W-2, VA-6
Thursday, April 1, 2027 (verify locally)	Typical deadline for the annual senior or disabled real estate tax relief affidavit with the local commissioner of the revenue. Each locality sets its own date; many use April 1.	Local affidavit
Saturday, May 1, 2027 → Monday, May 3	Form 760 and all 2026 tax due. Automatic six-month extension to file begins. At least 90% of the tax must be paid by today to avoid the extension penalty; pay with Form 760IP or online. First 2027 estimated payment due.	760, 760IP, 760ES
Tuesday, June 15, 2027	Second 2027 estimated payment.	760ES
Thursday, July 1, 2027	Due date for filers living or stationed outside the United States and Puerto Rico on May 1 (“Overseas Rule”). Tax was still due May 1 for civilians abroad.	760
Wednesday, September 15, 2027	Third 2027 estimated payment.	760ES
Monday, November 1, 2027	Extended due date for the 2026 Form 760. The balance must be paid with the return or a 6%-per-month late-payment penalty applies.	760
Tuesday, January 18, 2028	Fourth 2027 estimated payment. January 15 is a Saturday and the 17th a holiday.	760ES
May 1, 2030	Last day to amend the 2026 return for a refund on a Virginia-only change: three years from the due date, including a valid extension. A federal change must be reported within one year of the final IRS determination.	760, marked Amended
Local taxes run on their own calendars. Real estate tax is billed by each county and city, usually in two installments; personal property (car) tax is billed locally too, with the state’s Personal Property Tax Relief Act share already applied on the bill. Neither appears on Form 760 except as an itemized deduction on Virginia Schedule A.

How the extension really works

The Department grants every individual an automatic six-month extension of time to file, to November 1 for calendar-year filers, with no request and no form. Two conditions attach. First, at least 90% of the final tax must have been paid by the original due date, through withholding, estimated payments or a payment with Form 760IP; miss that and an extension penalty of 2% a month, or part of a month, runs on the balance due with the return, up to 12%. Second, the full balance must be paid when the return is filed; if not, a late-payment penalty of 6% a month, up to 30%, replaces the extension penalty. File after November 1 and the late-filing penalty of 6% a month, up to 30%, applies instead. Interest at the federal underpayment rate plus 2% runs on any unpaid tax from May 1 in every case.

Form 760IP is a payment voucher, not an extension request. Send it, or pay through the Department’s online services or the 760IP eForm without logging in, when you expect to owe and the return will not be ready. An overpayment comes back as a refund or rolls into 2027 estimates.

Estimated payments

Estimated payments are required when the Virginia tax expected for the year, after withholding and credits, is more than $1,000. That threshold is new for 2026; it was $150 before. The installments are due May 1, June 15, September 15 and January 15, on Form 760ES or online. The safe harbor: pay at least 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s in timely installments and there is no addition to tax, and an underpayment totaling $1,000 or less for the year is excused outright. There is no 110% tier for higher incomes. Farmers, fishermen and merchant seamen may pay two-thirds, or skip estimates by filing and paying by March 1. The addition to tax is figured on Form 760C (760F for farmers and fishermen).

Payments must be made electronically once any single estimated or extension payment exceeds $1,500 or the year’s total tax exceeds $6,000, and from then on. Bank-account payments through online services or the eForms are free; card payments go through Paymentus and carry a fee. The people most often caught short are retirees taking IRA withdrawals or doing Roth conversions with no state withholding, the self-employed, and anyone with a large capital gain, since Virginia taxes all of those at up to 5.75%.

The forms, in the order a filer meets them

Virginia individual income tax forms, tax year 2026
Form	What it does	Who needs it
Form 760	The resident return. Starts from federal AGI, adds and subtracts via Schedule ADJ, takes the standard deduction ($8,750 / $17,500) or Virginia itemized deductions, the $930 exemptions and the age and blind exemptions, applies the rate schedule, then credits, withholding and payments.	Every full-year resident who must file
Schedule ADJ	Additions (out-of-state municipal bond interest, the fixed-date conformity depreciation items), subtractions (Social Security, the $12,000 age deduction, the $40,000 Military Benefits Subtraction, unemployment, the $15,000 basic pay subtraction), deductions (Virginia529, child and dependent care, educator expenses) and the Credit for Low Income Individuals or Virginia EITC.	Almost everyone; any retiree with Social Security
Virginia Schedule A	Virginia itemized deductions. Starts from the federal Schedule A, removes state and local income taxes, keeps real estate, personal property and sales taxes, and applies Virginia’s limited itemized deduction worksheet at higher incomes. The 2026 instructions on the SALT cap are to come.	Only those who itemized federally; then it is mandatory
Schedule OSC	Credit for income tax paid to another state on income Virginia also taxes, with special rules for Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia. Not for wages covered by reciprocity.	Residents with income taxed elsewhere
Form 760PY	Part-year resident return. Prorates the standard deduction and exemptions by months of residence and subtracts income from the other state before the move; no Virginia credit is allowed for the other state’s tax on that pre-move income.	Anyone who moved into or out of Virginia during 2026
Form 763	Nonresident return, for Virginia-source income only.	Nonresidents with Virginia wages, rentals or business income not covered by reciprocity
Form 763-S	Claim for a refund of Virginia tax withheld in error from a resident of a reciprocal state.	DC, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia residents whose Virginia employer withheld anyway
Form 760ES	Estimated payment vouchers and worksheet. The eForm version needs no login; online services can schedule all four at once.	Anyone expecting to owe more than $1,000 after withholding
Form 760IP	Payment voucher for tax paid by May 1 when the return will be filed later under the automatic extension. Not an extension request.	Anyone filing after May 1 who expects to owe
Form 760C	Underpayment of estimated tax: figures the addition to tax when installments were late or short. Form 760F for farmers, fishermen and merchant seamen.	Anyone who owed more than $1,000 and did not meet a safe harbor
Form VA-4	Employee’s withholding exemption certificate. Sets Virginia withholding; also the form a reciprocal-state resident gives a Virginia employer to stop withholding, recertified every year.	Every employee; not filed with the return
There is no separate amended-return form. To amend, file the same return again marked “Amended Return,” with the corrected figures and a copy of the federal amended return if there is one. Current-year forms and the 2026 early-release drafts are on the Department’s forms search page.

Filing, paying and checking a refund

Nearly every Virginia return is e-filed with the federal return through commercial software. The Department says an e-filed return is typically processed within four weeks during filing season, a paper return within ten, with three more weeks for anything sent certified mail. Direct deposit is fastest; a refund reduced to pay a debt comes as a paper check regardless. Status is on the Department’s Where’s My Refund page or the automated line at 804-367-2486.

Virginia has no state-run filing program yet. The General Assembly ordered one for tax year 2028 returns, repealing a 2010 law that had forbidden it. Until then the free options are the Free File vendors listed on the Department’s site, each with its own income and age limits (for the 2025 season, mostly AGI up to $41,000 to $89,000 depending on the vendor, higher for active-duty military (verify 2026 offers)). Virginia was not an IRS Direct File state. The Department’s own online services do everything except file the return: payments, scheduled estimates, refund status, secure messages. Those systems moved to a new platform over Labor Day weekend 2026, so anyone with an old log-in should expect to re-register (verify).

Paper returns go to the Department of Taxation: P.O. Box 1498, Richmond, VA 23218-1498 for a refund or no payment, P.O. Box 760, Richmond, VA 23218-0760 with a payment. Or, a Virginia peculiarity, file the paper return with the city or county where you lived on January 1; the Where to File page lists each locality’s address. Customer service for individuals is 804-367-8031, Monday through Friday 8:30 to 5; the Department asks callers to avoid 10 to 2 and Mondays.

Worked example: filing in October with $3,200 due

A self-employed filer expects to owe $3,200 of Virginia tax for 2026, had no withholding, and will not have the books closed by May 1. Three paths.

	Pays $3,000 with 760IP by May 1	Pays nothing until the return	Files November 15 having paid nothing
Paid by May 1, 2027	$3,000 (94%)	$0	$0
Return filed	October 1, 2027	October 1, 2027	November 15, 2027
Extension penalty, 2% a month on the balance due with the return	$0; 90% test met	$320 (5 months × 2% × $3,200) (verify month count)	Not applicable; filed after the extension
Late-filing penalty, 6% a month up to 30%	$0	$0	$960 (30% cap reached)
Interest from May 1	On $200 for 5 months	On $3,200 for 5 months	On $3,200 for 6½ months
Paid in total	$3,200 plus a few dollars of interest	$3,520 plus interest	$4,160 plus interest

The extension is identical in the first two columns; the only variable is whether 90% of the money moved by May 1. A payment of $2,880 would have been enough. In the third column the extension is lost altogether, and the late-filing penalty hits its cap in the fifth month.

Behind the scenes: why May 1, and why no extension form

Virginia’s May 1 due date is written into the Code of Virginia as a date of its own rather than a reference to the federal one, so a federal postponement does not reach Virginia on its own; the Department decides separately. The two-week gap is practical: the Virginia return cannot be finished until the federal one is.

The automatic extension works without a form because the Department already has the one thing it wants, the money. The 90% rule turns the extension from a promise to file into a promise to pay, and the extension penalty is the price of breaking it. The Department does not need to know in advance who is filing late; it finds out in November and measures what was paid in May.

What to bring

Every W-2 and 1099 showing Virginia withholding
The 2026 estimated payments made, with dates and amounts; the Department’s online services list them
Last year’s Form 760, for the 100%-of-last-year safe harbor and carryforwards such as unused Virginia529 deductions
Form 1099-G for a 2025 Virginia refund if you itemized federally for 2025
If you moved: the move date and income by period, for Form 760PY
If you worked in another state: that state’s return, for Schedule OSC, or proof of residence in a reciprocal state
Your log-in for the Department’s new online system, or the details to create one
Any letter from the Department of Taxation

Questions people ask

When is the Virginia return due for 2026?

May 1, 2027. Because that is a Saturday, the Department’s rule moves the deadline to Monday, May 3; watch for the Department’s announcement to confirm. Paper returns count as timely if postmarked by the due date.

Do I have to file anything to get the Virginia extension?

No. Every individual gets six months automatically, to November 1. What you must do is pay at least 90% of the tax by May 1, with Form 760IP or online, or the 2%-a-month extension penalty applies, and pay the rest with the return.

I filed a federal extension. Does Virginia know?

It does not need to. The Virginia extension is automatic whether or not you extended federally. The federal extension does not extend Virginia’s payment date either.

Do I need to make estimated payments if I only owe a few hundred dollars?

No. From 2026 the requirement starts at more than $1,000 of expected tax after withholding and credits, and an underpayment of $1,000 or less for the year carries no addition to tax. The old $150 threshold is gone.

How long does a Virginia refund take?

Up to four weeks for an e-filed return and up to ten for paper, during filing season. Check Where’s My Refund online or call 804-367-2486. A refund that was reduced to pay a debt or had a bad bank account number comes by check and takes longer.

How do I amend a Virginia return?

File the same form again, Form 760 for a resident, marked “Amended Return,” with the corrected figures as if it were the original and a copy of the federal amended return if there is one. You have three years from the due date, including extensions, to claim a refund, and one year from the final IRS determination to report a federal change.

May 1, 90% paid, and the rest with the return

Put the four estimated dates on the calendar, pay nine-tenths of the tax by May 1 even if the return comes in October, and the Virginia extension costs nothing.

Written by Charles Trautman, EA, editor  ·  Need to Know Tax, Lone Tree, Colorado
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Forms and official pages named in this article

Sources and where to check

Updated November 12, 2026, after the November 3 election · tax year 2026 figures · awaiting review by a Virginia practitioner — use the right article