You may need to pay self-employment tax if you’re a freelancer, independent contractor or small-business owner. Here’s what self-employment tax is, how it works and how you can save. Show What is self-employment tax?The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. That rate is the sum of a 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. Self-employment tax applies to net earnings — what many call profit. You may need to pay self-employment taxes throughout the year. One big difference between self-employment tax and the payroll taxes people with regular jobs pay is that typically employees and their employers split the bill on Social Security and Medicare (i.e., you pay 7.65% and your employer pays 7.65%); self-employed people pay both halves. The self-employment tax rate for 2022-2023As noted, the self-employment tax rate is 15.3% of net earnings. That rate is the sum of a 12.4% Social Security tax and a 2.9% Medicare tax on net earnings. Self-employment tax is not the same as income tax.
How to calculate self-employment taxCalculating your tax starts by calculating your net earnings from self-employment for the year.
Who has to pay self-employment tax?In general, you have to pay self-employment tax if either of these things are true during the year:
The tax rules apply no matter how old you are and even if you’re receiving Social Security or are on Medicare. How to pay self-employment tax
Tax deductions for self-employmentYou can deduct half of your self-employment tax on your income taxes. So, for example, if your Schedule SE says you owe $2,000 in self-employment tax for the year, you'll need to pay that money when it's due during the year, but at tax time $1,000 would be deductible on your 1040. Self-employment can score you a bunch of sweet tax deductions, too. One is the qualified business income deduction, which lets you take an income tax deduction for as much as 20% of your self-employment net income. (Learn more about that here.) Plus, there are other deductions available for your home office, health insurance and more. Here’s a primer. |