Self-Employment Tax Calculator

Net self-employment income is gross income minus business expenses. Self-employment tax is figured on 92.35% of it: 12.4% Social Security up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500 (reduced by any W-2 wages you enter), 2.9% Medicare on all of it, and 0.9% Additional Medicare above $200,000. Half of the self-employment tax is deducted before federal income tax, which uses the 2026 brackets after the standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly), less any SEP or Solo 401(k) contribution. State income tax is the rate you enter times net self-employment income after the retirement contribution; the state picker fills the rate each state's own brackets produce at the defaults, the way this site's state self-employment calculators computed it. The quarterly payment is the year's total divided by four. Local income taxes, credits and the qualified business income deduction are left out.

Source: IRS Topic no. 554 and Topic no. 751; state brackets as listed below · checked 2026-10-16

Computed with the calculator above for a single filer with $85,000 of gross self-employment income and $15,000 of expenses ($70,000 net), using each state's own brackets or flat rate. Self-employment tax ($9,891) and federal income tax ($5,626) are the same in every state.

State tax: this site's 2026 single-filer brackets and flat rates (Tax Foundation 2026 table), applied to net self-employment income with no state deduction, exemption or credit and no local income tax. Federal: IRS self-employment tax rules and the 2026 Social Security wage base.

• IRS Topic no. 554, Self-employment tax (15.3% = 12.4% Social Security + 2.9% Medicare, on 92.35% of net earnings)
• IRS Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates ($184,500 Social Security wage base for 2026)
• Tax Foundation, State individual income tax rates and brackets, 2026