Self-Employment Tax Calculator 2026

1099 income and this calculator

This is PiggyMath’s flagship Schedule SE tool. If you searched “1099 tax calculator,” start at the 1099 hub for the map (SE + income tax + quarterly dates), then come back here for the Social Security and Medicare line. A 1099-NEC does not compute the bill — net profit does, after expenses, on 92.35% of that profit. Side-by-side with a W-2 job: SE tax vs employee FICA. Calendar: quarterly tax deadlines.

How self-employment tax works in 2026

When you work for an employer, Social Security and Medicare taxes are split between you and the company. Freelancers pay both halves: 15.3% total — 12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare — applied to 92.35% of your net profit. For 2026, the Social Security portion stops at the $184,500 wage base; Medicare has no cap, and an extra 0.9% applies above $200,000 ($250,000 married filing jointly).

Two silver linings: business expenses reduce your taxable profit dollar-for-dollar, and you deduct half of your SE tax from your income before income tax is calculated. The home office deduction is one of the most commonly missed, and our state-by-state guide explains why this federal tax is identical wherever you live.

Why 92.35%, and why it matters

The odd-looking multiplier exists to put you on equal footing with employees. An employer's half of payroll tax is a business expense that never appears in the employee's taxable wages, so the tax code lets the self-employed exclude an equivalent slice — 7.65% — before applying the 15.3% rate. Multiplying profit by 92.35% is simply subtracting that 7.65%. On $73,000 of profit it removes about $5,600 from the taxable base and saves roughly $860 in tax, which is why using raw profit instead of net earnings overstates the bill.

The deductible half works differently and is often confused with it. After the SE tax is computed, you deduct 50% of it against your income tax — not against the SE tax itself. On $73,000 of profit that is a $5,157 deduction, worth around $1,100 in the 22% bracket. It happens automatically on your return, but it is the reason your combined tax rate is lower than adding 15.3% to your income tax bracket would suggest.

What counts as self-employment income

Freelance and contract work, single-member LLC profit, partnership income and most side businesses are all subject to SE tax once net earnings reach $400 for the year. That $400 floor is per year, not per client, and it is remarkably low — a weekend side project can cross it. Income from renting property, interest, dividends and capital gains generally are not subject to SE tax, because it applies to earned income rather than investment returns.

If you also hold a W-2 job, the two interact. Your employer already withheld Social Security tax on your wages, and those wages count toward the same $184,500 wage base. Earn $150,000 as an employee and $60,000 freelancing, and only about $34,500 of the freelance earnings faces the 12.4% Social Security portion — the rest is over the cap. Medicare's 2.9% still applies to everything. Enter your W-2 Social Security wages above so Schedule SE does not double-count the wage base; Additional Medicare (Form 8959) also treats those wages as filling the $200,000 / $250,000 threshold before any 0.9% applies to self-employment earnings.

Reducing what you owe, legitimately

Since SE tax applies to profit, every genuine business expense reduces it by roughly 14 cents on the dollar before income tax savings are even counted. The commonly missed ones are the home office, the business share of a phone and internet bill, mileage at the current IRS rate, software subscriptions, professional insurance and self-employed health insurance premiums. Track them as you go — reconstructing a year of expenses in April reliably loses money.

At higher profit levels an S-corporation election can reduce SE tax, because only the salary portion is subject to it while distributions are not. The catch is that the salary must be reasonable for the work performed, and the structure adds payroll filings and accounting costs that typically only make sense above roughly $80,000–$100,000 of profit. It is a conversation for a CPA rather than a calculator.

Frequently asked questions

2026 figures are sourced in data/tax-constants-2026.json and listed with IRS/SSA links on Tax Constants 2026. Calculators read the mirrored values in assets/app.js (kept in sync by tools/verify_tax_constants.mjs). No Enrolled Agent or CPA has reviewed this page unless separately disclosed with credentials and a review date.