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🧾 Self-Employment Tax Estimator

A rough, free planning estimate of your US self-employment and federal income tax, plus a suggested quarterly payment - free and unlimited, no sign-in required. Sign in to save an estimate and revisit it later.

Rough estimate only - not tax advice. This tool uses a simplified 2024-era US federal model (Social Security + Medicare + Additional Medicare surtax, plus a simplified income-tax bracket estimate using only the standard deduction). It ignores state/local taxes, other income, withholding, retirement contributions, the Qualified Business Income deduction, itemizing, credits, and every other real-world wrinkle, and the underlying thresholds change every tax year. Use it for ballpark planning only - talk to a tax professional or use the IRS's own worksheets before you actually pay.

Your numbers

Self-employment tax, then income tax on what is left

Two taxes in order, because the second depends on the first. A freelancer owes both halves of Social Security and Medicare, but only on 92.35% of net earnings, and half of that bill comes off before income tax.

se base = net income × 92.35%

social security = min(se base, 168,600) × 12.4%
medicare        = se base × 2.9%              (uncapped)
extra medicare  = max(0, se base - 200,000 single / 250,000 joint) × 0.9%

income tax = 2024 brackets on (net income - half of SS+medicare - standard deduction)
quarterly  = (SE tax + income tax) / 4

On $75,000 net, single: the base is $69,262.50, giving $8,588.55 Social Security and $2,008.61 Medicare — $10,597.16 of SE tax. Half of that, $5,298.58, plus the $14,600 standard deduction leaves $55,101.42 taxable, which the brackets tax at $7,175.31. Total $17,772.47, or 23.7% of what you earned, and $4,443.12 a quarter.

Where the estimate stops

Only Single and Married filing jointly exist here, and the figures are 2024 ones. The quarterly line is the total split four ways, not the IRS Form 1040-ES safe-harbour calculation.

The half-SE-tax deduction covers Social Security and Medicare only, never the 0.9% surtax — the same line the real Schedule SE draws. Signed in you can name and keep up to 20 estimates, free.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a freelancer set aside for tax?

On $75,000 net this lands at 23.7%, so the usual advice to hold back 25-30% is about right federally — and short of it if your state taxes income too.

Why is only 92.35% of my income taxed?

It stands in for the employer half of FICA that a W-2 worker never sees. Multiplying by 0.9235 first is what puts a freelancer roughly level with an employee.

Is the quarterly figure what I send the IRS?

Treat it as a savings target, not a payment. It is this year's total divided by four; 1040-ES safe harbour is calculated from last year's return and has its own due dates.