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When you work for yourself, nobody withholds taxes for you — and you pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare. This estimates your 2026 self-employment tax on your freelance profit, the slice you can deduct back, and what to set aside each quarter.
Nothing you type leaves your browser. This is an estimate, not tax advice — confirm your numbers with a CPA or enrolled agent.
When you're an employee, your paycheck quietly loses 7.65% to Social Security and Medicare — and your employer pays a matching 7.65% you never see. When you're self-employed, you are both halves. That combined 15.3% is the self-employment (SE) tax, and it's completely separate from the income tax you also owe. It catches a lot of first-year freelancers off guard, because no one is withholding it for you.
The tax isn't charged on your full profit, though. You first multiply by 92.35% — that adjustment exists so the self-employed are taxed on roughly the same base an employee would be after their employer's share is excluded. The Social Security portion (12.4%) only applies up to an annual ceiling called the wage base; the Medicare portion (2.9%) has no ceiling. Here is the exact formula this calculator uses:
Two details save you real money, and the calculator builds both in. First, you can deduct half of your SE tax (the "employer-equivalent" portion) against your income tax — that's the "deductible half" figure above. Second, if you also hold a W-2 job, the Social Security wage base is shared across all your work, so high day-job wages can shrink — or eliminate — the Social Security part of your freelance tax. Enter your W-2 wages to see that effect.
Because no employer is withholding tax from your freelance income, the IRS expects you to send it in four estimated payments across the year (roughly mid-April, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-January). Skip them and you can owe an underpayment penalty even if you pay in full at filing time. The "per quarter" line above is the simplest version of that target: your estimated tax divided by four. Add your income-tax rate to make that quarterly number reflect everything you'll owe, not just the SE portion.
15.3% total — 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare — charged on 92.35% of your net profit. The Social Security part only applies to the first $184,500 of earnings in 2026 (the wage base); the Medicare part has no cap, and very high earners pay an extra 0.9% on top.
The 7.65% reduction mirrors the employer's share that a regular employee never pays SE tax on. Multiplying your net profit by 0.9235 puts you on roughly equal footing with an employee, so you're not taxed on the "employer half" of your own income.
Not by default — self-employment tax and income tax are two different things. This tool computes the SE tax precisely, then lets you enter your own combined federal + state income-tax rate so the quarterly set-aside reflects your total bill. We don't guess your income-tax bracket, because it depends on deductions, filing status, and any other household income.
A common rule of thumb is 25–30% of your profit, but that lumps SE tax and income tax together. This calculator splits them out: the SE tax is exact, and adding your income-tax rate gives you a tailored "per quarter" number to move into a separate savings account each time you get paid.
If your net earnings from self-employment are under $400 for the year, you generally don't owe self-employment tax at all. Above that, the full 15.3% applies. The calculator reflects this $400 floor automatically.
No. Every calculation runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to a server or stored. The link in your address bar updates so you can bookmark or share a scenario, but it only contains the numbers you chose.
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