100,000 of profit
- Net profit from self-employment
- $100,000.00
- Filing status
- Single
- Tax year
- Tax year 2025
Self-employment tax$14,129.55
Worked by hand: 92,350 at 12.4% and 2.9%
Open this exampleSalary & HRstatutoryUnited States only
Self-Employment Tax Calculator
Self-employment tax on business profit, charging both halves of Social Security and Medicare. The 92.35% factor is not arbitrary: it removes the employer share from the base so a sole trader is taxed like an employee rather than worse.
Also called: se tax calculator, 1099 tax calculator, freelance tax calculator.
Self-employment tax
$14,129.55
$14,129.55 on 100,000 of profit. The base is $92,350.00, which is 92.35% of profit, and $7,064.78 of the tax is deductible above the line.
Net earnings subject to the tax
$92,350.00
Social Security portion
$11,451.40
Medicare portion
$2,678.15
Additional Medicare
$0.00
Deductible half
$7,064.78
Tax as a share of profit
14.13%
Computed from the published rates for the tax year you selected, which is not necessarily the current year. A calculation, not tax advice, and it does not know anything about your circumstances beyond the figures entered.
Method and background
This is what the calculation gives for the numbers you entered. It is an estimate, not advice, and it knows nothing about your situation beyond those numbers. Rules for United States change on a published schedule; the effective date is shown on every rule-based tool.
How this is calculated
An employee pays half of FICA and the employer pays the other half, and the employer half is not itself wages. A sole trader is both, so the base is first reduced by the employer share, which is what the 92.35% factor does. Both halves are then charged on that base, and half the resulting tax is deductible above the line for the same symmetry.
base = 92.35% of profit; SE tax = 12.4% of base up to the wage base + 2.9% of all of it- P
- Net profit from the business (currency)
- B
- Net earnings from self-employment (currency)
- W
- Social Security wage base (currency)
Worked examples
Each of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.
above the wage base only Medicare keeps rising
- Net profit from self-employment
- $300,000.00
- Filing status
- Single
- Tax year
- Tax year 2025
Self-employment tax$30,564.30
176,100 * 12.4%; the Social Security portion stops there
Open this exampleno profit is no tax
- Net profit from self-employment
- $0.00
- Filing status
- Single
- Tax year
- Tax year 2025
Self-employment tax$0.00
degenerate case
Open this exampleMethod and limits
What it assumes
- Profit is from a trade or business subject to self-employment tax.
What it deliberately does not model
- Income tax is separate and additional. This is only the Social Security and Medicare portion.
- S-corporation distributions, partnership guaranteed payments and church employee income have their own rules.
Sources
- IRS Publication 15, Employer Tax Guide (primary government)
- SSA. Contribution and Benefit Base (primary government)
Formula version 1.0.0 · definition 1.0.0 · United States · Report a problem with this calculator
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the rate 15.3% when an employee pays 7.65%?
- Because a sole trader pays both halves. The 92.35% base adjustment and the deduction for half the tax are what stop that from being a straightforward doubling.
- Where does 92.35% come from?
- It is one minus half of 15.3%. Removing the employer share from the base puts the self-employed on the same footing as an employee, whose employer share was never counted as wages.