Self-employment tax calculator
Self-employment tax is the part that catches people who have only ever had a salary. This works out exactly what you owe on your profit, and what comes back as a deduction.
Self-employment tax
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Enter your business profit to see the Social Security and Medicare you owe as a self-employed person.
- Net earnings
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- Social Security
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- Medicare
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- Deductible half
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How this is worked out
Self-employment tax is the self-employed version of the Social Security and Medicare taxes that employers and employees split on a paycheck. You pay both halves, so the rate is 15.3%.
The calculator first reduces your profit to 92.35% of itself. That mirrors an employee, whose employer's half of the tax is never counted as their wages. It then charges 12.4% Social Security on those net earnings up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, and 2.9% Medicare on all of them with no cap.
On $80,000 of profit, net earnings are $73,880. Social Security is $9,161, Medicare is $2,143 and the total is $11,304. Half of that, $5,652, is deductible when you work out your income tax, which is why the real cost is a little lower than it first looks.
At higher profits the shape changes. On $250,000 of profit, Social Security stops at $22,878 because earnings pass the wage base, Medicare comes to $6,695, and a further 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies to earnings above $200,000 for a single filer, adding $278. That additional tax is reported on Form 8959 rather than Schedule SE, and it is not part of the half you can deduct.
If you also have W-2 wages, those use up the Social Security wage base first, so less of your self-employment income is taxed for Social Security. No self-employment tax is due if your net earnings are under $400.
Sources
Common questions
What is the self-employment tax rate for 2026?
15.3% — 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare — charged on 92.35% of your net profit. Social Security stops at $184,500 of earnings; Medicare has no cap.
Why is it charged on 92.35% of profit rather than all of it?
The reduction mirrors the deduction an employer gets for its half of payroll tax. It puts a self-employed person in roughly the same position as an employer and employee combined.
Is any of it deductible?
Half of it comes off your income automatically as an above-the-line deduction. You do not need to itemise. The Additional Medicare Tax is the exception — that part is not deductible.
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Estimates based on published federal rules for tax year 2026. State and local tax is not included. This is general information, not advice about your situation.