Self-Employment Tax Calculator

When you work for an employer, you pay 7.65% of your wages in Social Security and Medicare (FICA) tax and your employer pays another 7.65%. When you are self-employed, you are both, so you pay the full 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. This is self-employment (SE) tax, calculated on Schedule SE and paid on top of regular income tax. It applies once your net self-employment earnings reach $400 for the year.

The tax is not charged on your full profit. You first multiply net profit by 92.35%, which mirrors the fact that employees don't pay FICA on the employer's share. Social Security tax applies only up to the annual wage base — $176,100 for 2025 and $184,500 for 2026 — and any W-2 wages you earned count toward that cap first. Medicare tax has no cap, and an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies to combined earnings above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly).

You can deduct half of your SE tax as an adjustment to income, which lowers your income tax (not the SE tax itself). Because no employer withholds for you, the IRS expects estimated payments four times a year — generally April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15. The quarterly figure here covers SE tax only; add your expected income tax for the full amount, or use our Freelancer Tax Calculator to estimate both together.

Ways to reduce SE tax legally include tracking every deductible business expense (which lowers net profit), and, at higher incomes, evaluating an S corporation election where you pay yourself a reasonable salary. That decision has costs and rules of its own, so discuss it with an accountant.

A single freelancer with $100,000 of Schedule C profit in 2026 and no W-2 job: net SE earnings are 100,000 × 0.9235 = $92,350. Social Security tax is 12.4% × 92,350 = $11,451.40, and Medicare is 2.9% × 92,350 = $2,678.15. Total SE tax is $14,129.55, about $3,532 per quarter. Half of it, $7,064.78, is deductible on Form 1040. If profit were $300,000, Social Security would stop at the $184,500 wage base ($22,878), and Additional Medicare would apply to the $77,050 above $200,000.