Enter Your Net Income
Self-Employment Tax
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Social Security
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Medicare
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Estimate your self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare) from net freelance or business income.
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Social Security
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Medicare
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Multiply net self-employment income by 92.35%, then by 15.3% (12.4% Social Security up to the annual wage base, plus 2.9% Medicare with no cap). $80,000 net income gives $80,000 × 0.9235 × 0.153 ≈ $11,304 SE tax.
SE Tax = Net Income × 92.35% × 15.3%
A traditional employee has FICA split evenly: the employee pays 7.65% (6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare) and the employer matches it with another 7.65%. A self-employed person is effectively both employer and employee, so they owe the full 15.3% combined, called self-employment (SE) tax, on their net earnings from self-employment.
Before applying the 15.3% rate, net self-employment income is multiplied by 92.35%. This adjustment exists because a traditional employee's FICA is calculated on their gross wages, which don't include an employer-tax component; the 92.35% factor approximates removing the "employer half" of SE tax from the base before calculating the tax, so self-employed and traditionally-employed workers are taxed on a comparable base.
The 12.4% Social Security portion of SE tax only applies up to an annual wage base limit (adjusted yearly); income above that cap is not subject to the Social Security portion, though it remains subject to the 2.9% Medicare portion, which has no cap. High earners with self-employment income near or above the cap should account for this when estimating their total SE tax.
You can deduct the "employer-equivalent" half of your SE tax (roughly 7.65% of net earnings) as an adjustment to income for federal income tax purposes, even though you can't deduct it from the SE tax itself. This deduction reduces your taxable income for income tax calculations, partially offsetting the extra burden of paying both halves of FICA-equivalent tax.
Self-employment (SE) tax covers Social Security and Medicare for freelancers and business owners, replacing the FICA tax an employer would normally split with an employee. It's 15.3% of net earnings (92.35% of net profit), covering both the employer and employee shares.
An employee only pays the 7.65% employee share of FICA; the employer pays a matching 7.65%. A self-employed person is both employer and employee, so they pay the full 15.3% combined.
Yes. You can deduct the employer-equivalent half of self-employment tax (roughly 7.65% of net earnings) from your income for income tax purposes, though not from the self-employment tax itself.
For official guidance, see the IRS self-employment tax page. Estimate your income tax too with the Tax Bracket Calculator.
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