Self-Employment Tax Calculator

Inputs

$
$0$400K
after business expenses

Result

Total federal tax owed
$19,501.24
  • SE tax (15.3% on 92.35% of net)12.4% SS + 2.9% Medicare$11,303.64
  • ↳ deductible half (against income)$5,651.82
  • Federal income tax$8,197.60
  • Suggested quarterly estimateForm 1040-ES, due 4×/year$4,875.31
  • After-tax income$60,498.76
  • Effective total federal rate24.4%

How to use this calculator

  • Enter your net self-employment income — gross revenue minus all legitimate business expenses.
  • Pick the tax year and your filing status.
  • The "quarterly estimate" line tells you what to send the IRS each quarter.

About this tool

Self-employed income gets hit by two federal taxes: the income tax (same brackets as W-2 workers) and the self-employment tax (15.3%, which covers both your half AND the employer's half of Social Security and Medicare). Real-world quirk: the IRS lets you compute SE tax on only 92.35% of your net earnings, and lets you deduct half the SE tax from your income tax base. This calculator handles both. The "quarterly estimate" line is what you should be sending to the IRS via Form 1040-ES four times a year (April 15, June 15, Sept 15, Jan 15) to avoid underpayment penalties.

Frequently asked

IRS lets you reduce SE earnings by 7.65% before calculating SE tax. It's their attempt to mirror the employer-side FICA deduction that W-2 workers don't see.

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