Self-Employment Tax Calculator (2026)

What self-employment tax actually is

When you work for an employer, you each pay half of Social Security and Medicare — 7.65% from you, 7.65% from them. When you work for yourself, you are both, so you pay the whole 15.3%. That's self-employment tax, and it's separate from and on top of income tax.

It's reported on Schedule SE and is the reason self-employment feels so much heavier at tax time than the same salary as an employee would.

The 2026 numbers

Self-employment tax applies to 92.35% of your net profit — the 92.35% adjustment approximates removing the employer half before the tax is figured. Of that, 12.4% is Social Security and 2.9% is Medicare.

The Social Security piece stops at the $184,500 wage base for 2026, so very high earners pay only the 2.9% Medicare rate above it. On top of that, an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax applies to amounts over $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly).

You deduct half of it

Half of your base self-employment tax (the Social Security and Medicare portions, not the additional-Medicare surtax) is deductible against your income tax as an above-the-line adjustment. It doesn't reduce the SE tax itself, but it lowers the income tax you pay on top. The estimator applies this automatically.

Who owes it — and how to lower it

You owe self-employment tax once your net earnings from self-employment reach $400 in a year. There's no way to avoid it on genuine earned business income as a sole proprietor — but electing S-Corp status can move part of your profit out of its reach by splitting it into salary and distributions. The S-Corp comparison panel shows whether that trade is worth it for you.

What this estimate does and doesn't cover

Quarterly calculates 2026 federal income tax and self-employment tax for a sole proprietor or single-member LLC, applies the standard deduction and a simplified 20% QBI deduction, and sizes your four estimated payments. It is a planning estimate, not tax advice.

It does not include state or local income tax, the full QBI wage-and-property limitation that applies to higher earners, the qualified-business-income phase-outs for specified service businesses, itemized deductions, tax credits (child tax credit, premium tax credit, retirement-saver credits), the net investment income tax, or business deductions beyond the half-of-SE-tax adjustment. For anything with real money on the line, confirm with a CPA or enrolled agent.