How this 1099 and self-employment tax calculator works
If you earn money as a freelancer, gig worker, creator or online seller, no one withholds tax from your payments, so you have to estimate and pay it yourself. This calculator turns your 1099 income and expenses into an estimate of your 2026 federal tax bill and tells you how much to set aside each quarter. It applies the current self-employment tax rules, the 2026 standard deduction and tax brackets, and the 20% qualified business income (QBI) deduction.
Enter your gross income and business expenses, add any wages from a regular job, choose your filing status and, if you like, a state tax rate. The result shows your self-employment tax, the extra federal income tax your business adds, your total estimated tax, the effective rate and a quarterly figure. It is an estimate for planning, not tax advice or a tax return.
What is self-employment tax?
Self-employment tax is how freelancers pay into Social Security and Medicare. Employees split these taxes with their employer, each paying 7.65%. When you work for yourself you pay both halves, which is 15.3% in total: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. It applies to 92.35% of your net profit, so the effective rate on profit is about 14.1%.
The Social Security part stops once your earnings reach the annual wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026. Your own wages from a regular job count toward that limit. Medicare tax has no limit, and higher earners also pay an extra 0.9% on income above $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. You do not owe self-employment tax if your net self-employment earnings are under $400.
You can deduct half of your self-employment tax when you work out your taxable income, which this calculator does for you.
How federal income tax is calculated on 1099 income
Your net profit is added to any other income, reduced by half of your self-employment tax and any retirement or health insurance deductions, and then by the standard deduction. For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. The remainder is taxed using the 2026 brackets, which run from 10% to 37%.
If you qualify, the QBI deduction lets you subtract up to 20% of your qualified business income before tax is applied. Many sole proprietors and freelancers qualify, which can cut the income tax on their business profit by a fifth. The calculator applies it when your taxable income is under the 2026 limit of $201,750 for single filers and $403,500 for married couples filing jointly. Above those amounts, rules for specified service businesses and wage limits apply, and this tool does not apply the deduction.
Quarterly estimated tax payments for 2026
Most self-employed people have to pay tax during the year through estimated payments. For the 2026 tax year the due dates are April 15, June 15 and September 15 of 2026, and January 15, 2027. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more after withholding and credits, the IRS expects these payments, and missing them can lead to an underpayment penalty.
A simple way to avoid the penalty is to pay at least 90% of this year's tax or 100% of last year's total tax, whichever is smaller. If your income was over $150,000 last year, the prior-year safe harbor is 110%. The quarterly figure in this calculator is one-quarter of your total estimated tax, which is a good starting amount if your income is steady. If your income is uneven, pay more in the quarters where you earn more.
If you also have a W-2 job, you can sometimes avoid separate payments by raising the withholding on your paycheck instead.
How to lower your self-employment tax bill
Track every legitimate business expense, because each dollar reduces both income tax and self-employment tax. Common examples are software, equipment, supplies, a share of your phone and internet, platform fees, mileage and a home office if you qualify.
Retirement contributions to a solo 401(k) or SEP-IRA, and self-employed health insurance premiums, reduce your taxable income. They do not reduce self-employment tax, but they can lower your income tax meaningfully. A tax professional can also tell you whether an S corporation makes sense once your profit is high enough.
Worked example
A single freelancer with no other job earns $60,000 and has $8,000 in expenses. Net profit is $52,000, and 92.35% of that is $48,022. Self-employment tax is about $7,347 ($5,955 Social Security and $1,393 Medicare). Half of it, $3,674, is deducted, leaving adjusted gross income of $48,326. After the $16,100 standard deduction taxable income is $32,226, and the QBI deduction removes about $6,445, leaving $25,781. Federal income tax on that is about $2,846. The total is roughly $10,193, or 19.6% of net profit, which works out to about $2,548 per quarter. The freelancer keeps around $41,807 before state tax.