Freelance Tax Calculator 2026

What this calculator estimates

It estimates the 2026 tax on your freelance, 1099 or other self-employment profit, and turns it into two practical numbers: how much of your income to set aside, and how much to pay in each quarterly estimated payment. It is built for U.S. freelancers and sole proprietors who report on Schedule C, including a single-member LLC taxed as a sole proprietorship.

If you also have a W-2 job or a spouse with income, it shows the extra tax your freelance income causes on top of what your wages already owe. That is the amount you need to cover yourself, because nobody withholds tax from 1099 payments.

The assumptions behind it

• 2026 federal rates and standard deduction for your filing status, from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. It assumes you take the standard deduction.
• Net profit is your freelance income minus business expenses. All of it is treated as self-employment income, as for a sole proprietor.
• Self-employment tax is figured as on Schedule SE, with your W-2 wages counted toward the Social Security limit first. Half of it is deducted from your income.
• The QBI deduction is the greater of 20% of your qualified business income (limited by taxable income) and the $400 minimum that applies from 2026 when you have at least $1,000 of QBI from a business you actively run (IRC 199A(i), as described in section 2.12 of Rev. Proc. 2025-32). Above the IRS threshold ($201,750, or $403,500 for joint filers) the deduction phases out until $276,750 ($553,500 joint), following Form 8995-A for a business with no employees or property. Pick your type of work in the form: specified service businesses such as consulting lose it faster.
• Your W-2 wages and your spouse's wages are assumed to have the right amount of tax withheld.
• The child tax credit ($2,200 per child under 17) and the credit for other dependents ($500) are applied, including the refundable part.
• Retirement contributions are treated as Traditional (pre-tax) and limited to your profit after half of self-employment tax.
• State income tax follows each state's 2026 rate schedule, standard deduction and exemptions, starting from federal adjusted gross income.
• Self-employed health insurance premiums, if you enter them, are deducted above the line, limited to your profit after half of self-employment tax. The estimate doesn't check whether you were eligible for an employer plan.
• Tips shown on a 1099 get the federal tips deduction if you enter them. It lowers income tax only, and the state estimate is figured without it.
• Not included: the earned income credit and other credits, itemized deductions, HSA deductions, capital gains, local income taxes and the alternative minimum tax.

How each piece is calculated

Self-employment tax

It replaces the Social Security and Medicare tax an employer would split with you. The rate is 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare, but it applies to 92.35% of your net profit, and the Social Security part stops at $184,500 of combined wages and earnings. The article on why it isn't 15.3% of all your profit walks through it, and the self-employment tax calculator shows it line by line.

Federal income tax

Your profit, plus any wages, less half of self-employment tax, health insurance premiums, retirement contributions and the standard deduction, gives taxable income before the QBI deduction. The 2026 brackets then apply, and the child tax credit comes off the result. A bigger profit, a pre-tax retirement contribution or an expense you missed moves you between brackets, which is why the deductions you can claim matter.

State income tax

Nine states charge no tax on earned income (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming). The rest use a flat rate or brackets, each with its own standard deduction and exemptions. The estimate uses the published 2026 schedule for your state and notes the simplifications for it next to the result.

The state figure is approximate. The rates, brackets, standard deductions and exemptions come from the Tax Foundation's 2026 state income tax tables, which compile them from state statutes and forms, and Ohio's business income deduction from the Ohio Department of Taxation. The estimate leaves out local income taxes, state credits and most phase-outs, so your state return can differ. For exact rules, check your state's tax agency (the Federation of Tax Administrators lists them all).

Set-aside amount and quarterly payment

The total tax, divided by your net profit, is your effective rate. The set-aside percentage rounds that up to the next whole percent so you hold a little extra. The quarterly payment is the total estimated tax divided by four. Penalty rules (the safe harbor) can let you pay less in some cases: see Quarterly Estimated Taxes and the deadlines and safe harbor guide, or use the quarterly estimated tax calculator.

If you get 1099s

A Form 1099 is how a client or platform tells the IRS what it paid you. Unlike a W-2, nothing is withheld from it, so the whole tax bill, self-employment tax included, is yours to cover. This calculator is built for that case: enter what your 1099s add up to as income, your costs as expenses, and it estimates what to set aside and what to pay each quarter.

• No form doesn't mean no tax. For payments made in 2026, a client must send a 1099-NEC at $2,000 or more, up from $600 (IRS instructions), and a payment platform must send a 1099-K above $20,000 and 200 transactions (IRS instructions). The thresholds only decide whether you get a form. The IRS says to report the income either way.
• A 1099 shows gross income, not profit. Enter the 1099 total as income and your costs as expenses, including the fees a platform kept if its 1099-K shows the full amount.
• Tips count only if the 1099 shows them. The tips deduction covers tips reported separately on a 1099, and the field above applies it. Tips not included in a 1099 don't qualify, whether they were paid in cash, by card or through an app.
• With a W-2 job too, your wages are withheld but the 1099 income isn't. Fill in your W-2 income and the estimate shows only the extra tax the 1099 income causes.

For your kind of 1099 work, see driver and delivery taxes, creator taxes and booth renter taxes. To turn the estimate into payments, read Quarterly Estimated Taxes, and for the self-employment tax piece on its own, the self-employment tax calculator.