Self-Employment Tax Calculator

Self-employment tax is the SECA (Self-Employment Contributions Act) tax that funds Social Security and Medicare for people who work for themselves — freelancers, independent contractors, sole proprietors, and most 1099 earners. If your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more in a year, you generally must file Schedule SE and pay this tax, in addition to any regular income tax.

The 15.3% total rate is made up of two parts: 12.4% for Social Security (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (Hospital Insurance). Employees split an equivalent 15.3% with their employer (7.65% each), but self-employed workers pay both halves themselves.

The IRS multiplies your net profit by 92.35% (1 minus 7.65%) before applying the Social Security and Medicare rates. This adjustment approximates the employer-equivalent share that a traditional employer would have excluded from an employee's taxable wages, so self-employed taxpayers aren't taxed on a base an employee never would be.

Only the Social Security (12.4%) portion is capped, at the annual Social Security wage base — $176,100 for 2025 and $184,500 for 2026. Once your net earnings exceed that cap, you stop paying the 12.4% portion on the excess. The Medicare (2.9%) portion has no cap and applies to all of your net earnings.

The Additional Medicare Tax is an extra 0.9% owed on net self-employment earnings above $200,000 (single or head of household), $250,000 (married filing jointly), or $125,000 (married filing separately). It's calculated separately on Form 8959, not on Schedule SE, so this calculator shows it as its own line rather than folding it into your total self-employment tax.

Yes — you can deduct one-half of your total self-employment tax when calculating your adjusted gross income (AGI), taken as an above-the-line deduction on Schedule 1. This deduction only reduces your income tax; it does not reduce your self-employment tax itself or your net earnings from self-employment.

If you also earn W-2 wages that already had Social Security tax withheld, those wages count against the same annual wage base. Enter your W-2 Social Security wages and the calculator will reduce the remaining wage base available to your self-employment earnings — potentially lowering or eliminating the 12.4% Social Security portion of your SE tax, while the 2.9% Medicare portion is unaffected.

No. The IRS filing threshold for self-employment tax is net earnings of $400 or more (after the 92.35% adjustment). Below that, you generally don't need to pay SE tax, though you may still owe regular income tax on the profit and should still report the income.

Self-employment tax (SECA) funds Social Security and Medicare and is calculated separately from federal income tax, which is based on your taxable income and marginal tax brackets. Self-employed taxpayers typically owe both: SE tax on their net self-employment earnings, and federal income tax on their total taxable income (which can be estimated with our federal income tax calculator).

Yes. The Social Security Administration adjusts the wage base annually based on national wage growth: $168,600 for 2024, $176,100 for 2025, and $184,500 for 2026. This calculator lets you select the tax year so the Social Security cap matches the correct year's figure.

Most self-employed taxpayers pay SE tax (along with estimated income tax) through quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS, since there's no employer withholding it from a paycheck. Underpaying throughout the year can trigger an estimated tax penalty, so many self-employed workers use a calculator like this one to plan each quarter's payment.

Filing status doesn't change the core 15.3% self-employment tax rate or the Social Security wage base — those apply the same way regardless of status. It only affects the Additional Medicare Tax threshold: $200,000 for single/head of household, $250,000 for married filing jointly, and $125,000 for married filing separately.

The IRS generally requires estimated payments once you expect to owe $1,000 or more in tax for the year after subtracting withholding and credits. You can avoid an underpayment penalty by paying at least 90% of the current year's total tax, or 100% of the prior year's tax (110% if your prior-year adjusted gross income was over $150,000) — whichever figure is smaller — spread across the year's four quarterly due dates.

Yes, indirectly. Self-employment tax is calculated on net profit — your gross self-employment income minus deductible business expenses reported on Schedule C — so a legitimate expense (home office, mileage, equipment, professional services, and similar costs) reduces net profit before this calculator ever sees it, which lowers both your self-employment tax and your income tax. Always enter net profit after expenses, not gross revenue.