Self-Employment Tax Calculator

The rate is 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare. It applies to 92.35% of your net profit, not the full amount, so the effective rate on profit works out closer to 14.13%. Social Security stops once combined wages and self-employment earnings hit $184,500 for 2026; Medicare has no ceiling at all. Higher earners add a further 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above their filing-status threshold, on top of the base 15.3%.

An employee's half of FICA is paid by the employer directly and is never counted as the employee's own taxable wages. Someone self-employed pays both halves personally, so the tax code grants an equivalent exclusion by taxing only 92.35% of net earnings rather than the full amount. That figure is exactly 1 minus 7.65%, the employer's share of the combined 15.3% rate. Applying 15.3% straight to gross profit instead overstates the true tax owed by roughly 1.3 percentage points of profit.

They reduce the Social Security portion, not Medicare. Wages from a regular job count first against the $184,500 wage base for the year, so only whatever base remains applies to self-employment earnings. With $150,000 of W-2 wages already reported, just $34,500 of base is left for the 12.4% Social Security charge, cutting that piece substantially. Medicare's 2.9% still applies to all net self-employment earnings regardless, since it carries no cap of any kind.

Yes. Half of the regular self-employment tax is an above-the-line deduction on Form 1040, lowering adjusted gross income. It's available whether or not someone itemizes deductions elsewhere on the return. That deduction reduces income tax owed, not the self-employment tax bill itself, since the two are calculated and paid separately. The Additional Medicare Tax is left out of this deduction entirely; only the regular Social Security and Medicare portions get halved for this purpose.

Self-employment tax is owed once net earnings from self-employment reach $400 for the year; below that threshold, none is due. Most people pay it gradually through quarterly estimated payments on Form 1040-ES rather than as one lump sum at filing time, since the IRS can charge an underpayment penalty when too little is paid across the year. The final annual reconciliation happens on Schedule SE, filed with the regular Form 1040.

No. This calculates self-employment tax only, meaning the Social Security and Medicare contributions computed on Schedule SE. Federal income tax is a separate calculation entirely, depending on tax brackets, the standard or itemized deduction, and any credits, and it's worked out on the rest of Form 1040. Budgeting for both matters: self-employment tax often surprises first-year freelancers more, but income tax rarely disappears just because self-employment tax was already paid.

It's an extra 0.9% on combined wages and self-employment income above $200,000 for single and head-of-household filers, $250,000 for those married filing jointly, and $125,000 for married filing separately. These thresholds are fixed by statute and not adjusted for inflation year to year. Many simpler calculators apply a flat $200,000 to every filer, which overstates the tax for joint filers between $200,000 and $250,000 and understates it for separate filers above $125,000.

It's $184,500 for 2026, up from $176,100 in 2025. This is the ceiling on combined wages and self-employment earnings subject to the 12.4% Social Security portion of self-employment tax; earnings above it face no additional Social Security tax at all. The Social Security Administration adjusts this figure annually based on national average wage growth, which is why it changes most years and needs rechecking each tax season rather than assumed constant.

For the 2026 tax year, the four Form 1040-ES deadlines are April 15, June 15, and September 15, 2026, followed by January 15, 2027. Despite the name, the periods they cover aren't equal three-month blocks; the second payment covers only April and May. The final January payment can be skipped if the full year's tax is paid and the return filed by February 1, 2027 instead.

No. Self-employment tax applies to net earnings, meaning profit after business expenses, not to gross revenue. If a business shows a net loss for the year, there are no net earnings from self-employment to apply the 92.35% factor or the 15.3% rate to, so no self-employment tax is owed for that year. A loss can still affect other parts of a tax return, but it does not generate a self-employment tax liability on its own.

They're the same tax under different names, split differently by who pays it. FICA is the combined 15.3% Social Security and Medicare tax on employees, with the employer paying half directly and the employee having the other half withheld from wages. Self-employment tax is that identical 15.3% combined rate, but the self-employed person pays both halves personally, which is exactly why the 92.35% adjustment and the half-tax deduction on Form 1040 both exist.

It can, for the portion of profit not paid out as W-2 salary, but the mechanics differ from a sole proprietorship rather than eliminating the tax outright. An S-corp owner who also works in the business must pay themselves a reasonable W-2 salary subject to regular FICA withholding; only additional profit distributed beyond that salary avoids self-employment tax. The IRS actively scrutinizes unreasonably low salaries used to sidestep this, so this is a structural decision worth discussing with a tax professional rather than a simple calculator adjustment.

Self-employment tax applies to net profit from a trade or business you run yourself, sole proprietorships, most single-member LLCs, and a general partner's distributive share, all reported on Schedule C or Schedule K-1. Simply receiving a 1099 doesn't automatically make income SE-taxable: 1099-NEC pay for services generally counts, but rental income, most capital gains, and a purely passive limited-partner share usually don't. Because business expenses reduce the figure before the 92.35% adjustment applies, the number that matters is net profit, not gross payments received.

The IRS charges roughly 0.5% of the unpaid amount per month it remains outstanding, capped at 25%, calculated separately from the tax itself under Topic 306. It generally doesn't apply if total tax owed after withholding is under $1,000, or if the safe harbor was met: paying at least 90% of the current year's tax, or 100% of last year's tax (110% above $150,000 in prior-year income), whichever is smaller. The penalty compounds each quarter a payment is missed, so catching up early in the year costs less than waiting until filing season.