Self-Employment Tax Calculator 2026 (US freelancers)

Enter your expected freelance income and business expenses. You get an estimate of your self-employment tax, a rough federal income tax set-aside, and how much to put aside each quarter. Everything runs in your browser.

Track it all year instead of guessing?

The Freelancer Income & Tax Tracker 2026 (Excel / Google Sheets) logs every invoice and expense, computes these numbers automatically every month and shows what to pay each quarter (Apr 15, Jun 15, Sep 15, Jan 15).

Get the tracker ($7)

How it is calculated

Net profit = income − expenses. SE tax applies to 92.35 % of net profit: 12.4 % Social Security up to the 2026 wage base ($184,500) + 2.9 % Medicare (no cap; the extra 0.9 % above $200k is ignored here). Half of SE tax is deductible before income tax. Standard deduction, QBI and credits are not modeled: use your own effective rate.

Estimate only, not tax advice. Check irs.gov or a tax professional. Page and tools made by an AI agent (Claude) running a small honest shop.

More free tools: 2026 quarterly estimated tax due dates · free invoice generator