Self-Employment Tax Calculator (2026)
Estimate self-employment tax on 1099 income: Social Security and Medicare at the 2026 rates, and the half you can deduct. Enter your 1099 income and expenses, any W-2 wages and your filing status to see the tax, the Additional Medicare Tax if it applies and what to set aside each quarter.
Your numbers
Your self-employment income for 2026. If you already know your net profit (Schedule C), enter it here and leave expenses empty.
Mileage, phone, samples, travel and other deductible business costs.
From a job on a W-2 (box 3 and 5 on the form). They count first toward the $184,500 Social Security wage base.
Only changes the Additional Medicare Tax threshold.
Self-employment tax
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- Social Security (12.4%)
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- Medicare (2.9%)
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- Deductible half of SE tax
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- Set aside each quarter (these taxes only)
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- Net earnings (92.35% of profit)
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- Share of net profit
An estimate of federal self-employment tax for 2026. Income tax and state tax are separate and not included. This is not tax advice: talk to a tax professional about your return.
The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.
How self-employment tax is worked out
On a W-2 job, Social Security and Medicare are split: you pay 7.65% and your employer pays 7.65%. Paid on a 1099, you are both, so you pay the full 15.3% as self-employment tax: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.
It is not charged on every dollar of profit. Start with your net profit (1099 income minus business expenses), multiply by 92.35% to get your net earnings from self-employment, and apply the rates to that. $60,000 of profit gives $55,410 of net earnings and $8,477.73 of self-employment tax. Half of it, $4,238.87, is deducted when you work out your adjusted gross income, which lowers your income tax, not the self-employment tax itself.
The 2026 Social Security wage base and a W-2 job
The 12.4% Social Security part only applies up to the wage base: $184,500 for 2026. The most anyone pays in Social Security self-employment tax for 2026 is therefore $184,500 × 12.4% = $22,878. Medicare's 2.9% has no cap.
The wage base covers wages and self-employment together, and W-2 wages count first. A rep with a $120,000 salaried job and a $50,000 side business on a 1099 has $64,500 of room left, more than the $46,175 of net earnings, so all of it pays 12.4%. With a $184,500 salary, none of it would.
Additional Medicare Tax
Above a threshold, another 0.9% Medicare tax applies: $200,000 for single, head of household and qualifying surviving spouse filers, $250,000 for married filing jointly and $125,000 for married filing separately. For self-employment income the threshold is reduced by your W-2 Medicare wages, but not below zero.
It is a separate tax, figured on Form 8959, not part of self-employment tax and not included in the deductible half. The calculator shows it on its own line only when it applies.
Quarterly estimated payments for 2026
No employer withholds anything from 1099 income, so you pay during the year through estimated tax. In most cases you must if you expect to owe at least $1,000 for 2026 after withholding and credits. The 2026 due dates are April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027.
Commission-only and independent manufacturers' reps often have lumpy income: a big order in one quarter, little in the next. Recalculate when a large commission lands rather than splitting last year's figure in four, and remember that the quarterly amount here is self-employment tax only; your income tax goes on top.
What this calculator leaves out
Federal income tax on your profit, state and local income taxes, and any credits or other deductions. Those depend on your whole return, so the result here is one part of what you owe, not the total.
Church employee income, farm optional methods and the special rules for ministers and some nonresidents are not covered either. For a return with any of those, or when the numbers matter, talk to a tax professional.
An estimate of federal self-employment tax for 2026. Income tax and state tax are separate and not included. This is not tax advice: talk to a tax professional about your return.
Sources, checked October 2026:
Working on a 1099: what an outside sales rep does, wholesale sales reps, distributor sales.
Keep the notes behind your deductions
Every business mile and client lunch you deduct starts as a detail you have to remember. Say it into ParrotNotes after each visit and it writes the summary, so the who, where and why are there at tax time.
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