What We Do

SelfEmpTaxCalc.com provides free, privacy-first tax estimation tools for U.S. 1099 independent contractors, freelancers, and self-employed individuals. All calculations run entirely in your browser — no server, no account, no data upload.

Methodology & IRS Sources

All calculation formulas, deduction rules, and tax thresholds are compiled from official IRS publications:

• IRS Publication 15 (Circular E): Employer's Tax Guide — used for payroll tax references
• IRS Publication 535: Business Expenses — deduction rules for home office, mileage, equipment
• IRS Publication 505: Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax — quarterly estimated tax calculation method
• IRS Publication 587: Business Use of Your Home — home office deduction
• IRS Form 1040-ES: Estimated Tax for Individuals — penalty and safe harbor rules
• IRS Publication 15-B: Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits
• IRS Publication 560: Retirement Plans for Small Business — SEP IRA limits

All site content is maintained and reviewed by our development team, with references linked directly to irs.gov official documentation for verification.

2026 Tax Year Data

Tax brackets, standard deductions, and contribution limits for the 2026 tax year are based on IRS inflation adjustments announced in October 2025. All figures are marked as estimates — users should verify against the official IRS.gov website before filing.

Last Reviewed

July 2026 — All calculation formulas and policy parameters were last reviewed against current IRS publications.

Contact

For bug reports or calculation concerns, please verify the number against IRS publications and contact us if you believe a figure is incorrect. We strive for accuracy but cannot guarantee all calculations are error-free.

This site does NOT provide professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Always consult a licensed CPA or tax professional before making tax-related decisions.

Our Mission

SelfEmpTaxCalc.com exists for one reason: to give every U.S. independent contractor, freelancer, and self-employed worker a way to understand and plan for their tax bill without paying for software, handing over personal data, or wading through dense IRS prose. Millions of people earn 1099 income — rideshare drivers, delivery couriers, marketplace sellers, designers, writers, consultants, and gig workers of every kind — yet most tax tools are built for W-2 employees and assume a CPA is in the loop. We built the opposite.

Our guiding principles are simple and non-negotiable:

• 100% free. Every calculator, guide, and estimator on the site is free to use, with no paywall, no premium tier, and no account required.
• Privacy-first by design. All calculations run locally in your browser. Your income figures never leave your device and are never sent to a server.
• Plain-language explanations. We translate IRS rules into steps a first-time filer can follow, then show the math behind every number.
• Source-backed accuracy. Every rate and threshold traces to an official IRS publication or a recognized authority, linked for verification.

We measure success not by sign-ups but by whether a driver in Texas or a designer in Oregon can open the calculator, type in real numbers, and walk away knowing roughly what they owe and why. Tax anxiety comes mostly from not knowing; our job is to remove the not-knowing.

Our Team and Background

SelfEmpTaxCalc is built and maintained by a small group of tax enthusiasts and software engineers who got tired of watching capable self-employed people overpay, underpay, or panic at filing time. We are not a law firm and we do not pretend to be one. Our team combines people who have prepared their own 1099 returns for years with engineers who specialize in building fast, accessible web tools that respect user privacy.

We deliberately avoid naming individual "CPA experts" on the site because none of our published guidance is signed by a single licensed practitioner whose credentials we could verify for you — and we believe honesty about that is more valuable than borrowed authority. Instead, every figure and rule on the site is tied to a public source you can check yourself: the relevant IRS publication, form instruction, or annual inflation-adjustment release. When we are uncertain about a nuance, we say so and point you to a professional.

Our development process is straightforward. An engineer drafts a calculator against the IRS formula, a team member cross-checks it against the controlling publication, and we document the source inline. Changes are reviewed before publishing, and the "Last reviewed" date on each page reflects when a human last confirmed the numbers against current IRS material.

How We Build Trust (E-E-A-T)

Google's quality guidelines call this "Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness." For a tax site, trust is everything, so we anchor our content to primary sources rather than opinion:

• IRS Publication 334 — Tax Guide for Small Business, our backbone for overall sole-proprietor rules.
• IRS Publication 505 — Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, the basis for our quarterly payment logic and safe-harbor thresholds.
• IRS Publication 535 — Business Expenses, which governs mileage, home office, equipment, and write-off treatment.
• IRS Publication 587 — Business Use of Your Home, the source for our home-office deduction method and the simplified $5/sq ft option.
• Tax Foundation — used for state-level context and historical rate comparisons, clearly labeled as a secondary, analytical source.

We also lean on the underlying forms themselves — Schedule C (profit or loss), Schedule SE (self-employment tax), Form 1040-ES (estimated tax), Form 8995 (Qualified Business Income), and Form 8829 (home office) — because the forms are the clearest expression of how the IRS expects the math to flow. Where a state adds its own self-employment or franchise tax, we link to the relevant state department of revenue rather than guess.

Important boundary: this site provides estimates and education, not professional advice. Tax law is fact-specific — the right answer for a single driver in Florida differs from a six-figure consultant in California with an S-Corp election. We strongly recommend confirming your return with a licensed CPA or enrolled agent, especially in your first year, any year you form an entity, or any year your income changes sharply. Our tools are the map; the CPA is the guide.

Our Privacy Commitment

Privacy is not a feature we added later — it is the architecture the site was built on. Here is exactly what happens to your data:

• No server upload. Every calculation executes in JavaScript inside your own browser tab. Your income, mileage, expenses, and state are never transmitted to us or any third party.
• Local storage only. If you see a "save" or "remember my inputs" option, it uses your browser's localStorage, a sandbox on your own device. We cannot read it, and clearing your browser data erases it.
• No accounts. Because we never need to identify you, we never ask for an email, password, or name to use the calculators.
• Analytics minimized. We use privacy-respecting, aggregated measurement only, with no attempt to tie usage to an individual return or person.
• Third-party scripts. The only external scripts are the ad and platform tags needed to keep the site free; they do not receive your typed inputs.

If you want absolute certainty, you can even disconnect from the internet after a page loads and the calculator will keep working — that is the practical proof of local-only computation. Full details live on our Privacy Policy page.

Calculators and Topics We Cover

The site is organized around the decisions a self-employed person actually faces during the year:

• Base Self-Employment Tax. The 15.3% SE tax (12.4% Social Security up to the annual base limit, plus 2.9% Medicare) computed on 92.35% of net profit.
• Full Freelance Tax. Combines SE tax, federal income tax, the 20% QBI deduction, and standard deduction into one estimate.
• Quarterly Estimated Payments. Splits the annual bill into the four Form 1040-ES deadlines and applies safe-harbor rules.
• State Self-Employment Tax. Adds state-level income or business taxes for supported states.
• Home Office Deduction. Both the regular (Form 8829) and simplified ($5/sq ft) methods.
• Retirement Deductions. SEP IRA, Solo 401(k), and SIMPLE IRA contribution limits and their effect on taxable income.
• S-Corp vs. Sole Proprietor. A comparison of whether an S-Corporation election could reduce SE tax through reasonable-salary structuring.
• Medicare Surtax. The additional 0.9% Net Investment Income / Medicare tax that applies above higher-income thresholds.
• Business Write-Offs. A categorized lookup of common deductions with the publication that supports each.

Each calculator shows its formula and the source publication so you can learn while you compute. We add new topics as readers request them and as IRS rules change.

Our Content Accuracy Commitment

Tax numbers move every year. The IRS announces inflation adjustments each October, Congress occasionally changes rates, and states revise their brackets. We treat accuracy as an ongoing obligation, not a one-time setup:

• Annual review. Before each filing season we re-check every threshold (standard deduction, mileage rate, QBI limits, contribution caps, brackets) against the latest IRS releases.
• Dated pages. Each page carries a "Last reviewed" date so you know how fresh the numbers are.
• Source links. Where a figure appears, the controlling publication is linked, letting you verify in seconds.
• Correction process. If a reader or reviewer flags an error, we investigate against the primary source and update the page and its review date.

We will never present a 2024 rate as current once the IRS publishes the 2025 (or later) figure. When a rule is genuinely uncertain — for example, a transitioning 1099-K threshold — we explain the ambiguity rather than guess.

Editorial Standards & Source Citations

We hold our content to a documented editorial process that we publish in full on our Editorial Standards page. In short: every calculator and article is drafted from primary IRS sources, independently checked against the controlling publication before publishing, stamped with a "Last reviewed" date, and corrected when a reader or reviewer flags an error against the primary source.

For the complete, linked list of IRS publications and forms behind each number on this site, see our IRS References & Citations page. We also state plainly elsewhere that we are not a tax firm and do not offer professional advice — our role is to make the IRS's own rules easier to compute and understand, not to stand in for a licensed CPA or enrolled agent.

Website History and How to Reach Us

SelfEmpTaxCalc began as a single spreadsheet one of our engineers shared with fellow rideshare drivers to answer a recurring question: "how much should I set aside per ride?" That spreadsheet grew into a browser-based calculator, then into a full set of freelancer and platform guides. The site has always been free and local-first; the only reason it carries advertising is to cover hosting and keep the calculators open to everyone.

We are a small team and we read every message. If you find a number that looks wrong, a calculator that misbehaves, or a topic we should cover, please reach out through our Contact page. When you write, it helps to include the specific figure, the page URL, and the IRS source you are comparing against — that lets us verify quickly and update the right page.

One last reminder, stated plainly: nothing on this site is a substitute for personalized advice from a licensed tax professional. Use our tools to plan and to learn, then confirm the final return with a CPA or enrolled agent, especially in any year involving entity formation, large income swings, or multi-state work. Thank you for trusting SelfEmpTaxCalc to help you understand your self-employment taxes.