About SelfEmploymentTaxEstimator.com

I'm Jordan Keller, and I built SelfEmploymentTaxEstimator.com as a free educational tool for freelancers, independent contractors, gig workers, and anyone with self-employment income. I'm a self-employed consultant, and I went through the exact same experience most freelancers face: realizing that taxes work completely differently when no employer is handling withholding for you.

Why I Built This Site

When you transition from traditional employment to self-employment (or start picking up freelance work on the side), the way you pay taxes changes. You're suddenly responsible for self-employment tax, quarterly estimated payments, and tracking your own deductions. The IRS resources are thorough but dense, and most online calculators either oversimplify the math or bury important details behind a paywall.

I built this site to fill that gap: a free, no-signup, no-paywall calculator that handles the parts of self-employment taxes simpler calculators skip, including combined W-2 and 1099 income, the Social Security wage base offset, the 50% SE tax deduction, and quarterly payment estimates. The guides section provides plain-language educational content explaining the concepts behind the numbers, so you understand what the calculator is doing and why.

What This Site Does

• Estimates your self-employment tax (Social Security + Medicare) for 2025 and 2026
• Calculates estimated federal income tax using the actual progressive bracket structure
• Accounts for the interaction between W-2 wages and self-employment income (the Social Security wage base offset)
• Shows your quarterly estimated payment amounts so you can plan throughout the year
• Provides free educational guides written in plain language for freelancers and independent contractors

What This Site Does Not Do

This is an educational estimation tool, not a tax preparation service. It does not file taxes, generate official IRS forms, or account for every possible deduction, credit, or individual circumstance. It does not calculate state taxes. The estimates here are a starting point for planning, not a substitute for working with a qualified tax professional. It also does not track mileage, expenses or invoices; the same publisher, Woodfire Digital, LLC, runs Self Employment Toolkit for that.

If your tax situation is complex (business entity structures, depreciation, retirement contributions, multiple state obligations), I encourage you to work with a qualified CPA or enrolled agent who understands self-employment. This calculator helps you build the intuition and ballpark numbers you need to have an informed conversation with that professional.

About the Author

My name is Jordan Keller. I write under a pen name to keep my personal and professional lives separate, but the experience is real: I run a small consulting business and have dealt with every aspect of self-employment taxes firsthand. Quarterly payments, estimated tax calculations, combined W-2 and 1099 income, the learning curve that comes with managing your own tax responsibilities: I've navigated all of it. I originally built this tool to solve my own problem, and I share it freely because plenty of other people are stuck on the same questions.

Accuracy and Sources

The tax rates, brackets, and thresholds used in the calculator are sourced from official IRS publications. Both tax years use published figures. The 2026 brackets and standard deductions come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the 2025 standard deduction reflects the increase in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Social Security wage base for each year comes from the Social Security Administration.

Key reference sources include:

• IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center
• IRS: Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
• IRS Form 1040-ES: Estimated Tax for Individuals

Contact

Have a question, found a bug, or want to suggest an improvement? Visit the contact page to get in touch.