1099 Tax Calculator
A 1099 tax bill is two taxes stacked on each other. This calculator estimates both for tax year 2026 — self-employment tax on your net earnings and federal income tax on your taxable income — then converts the total into quarterly and monthly amounts to set aside.
Short answer: total federal tax = (self-employment tax on 92.35% of net profit) + (progressive income tax on net profit and wages, less the deductible half of self-employment tax and the standard deduction). State and local tax is additional and is not modelled here.
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Income and expenses
Everything clients and platforms paid you this year, before expenses.
Ordinary and necessary business costs. Use the startup cost estimator to build this figure.
Wages from a job. Counted for income tax and for the Social Security wage base.
Interest and similar ordinary income. Capital gains and qualified dividends are not modelled.
All five filing statuses are supported, including married filing separately (with its lower $125,000 Additional Medicare Tax threshold). This is still a simplified model — always verify against your actual return.
Payments already made
From a W-2 job or a spouse's job. Withholding counts toward your total, so it reduces what you owe.
Enables the prior-year safe harbour, which is often the lower target.
Above $150,000 the prior-year safe harbour rises to 110% for this filing status.
Federal estimate for tax year 2026
Total estimated federal tax
$14,253
21.9% effective on $65,000 of income
Still to pay after withholding
$14,253
$3,207 per quarter · $1,069 per month
Step 1 — Self-employment tax
Step 2 — Federal income tax
Net profit + wages + other income − $4,592 deductible half of self-employment tax.
| Rate | Bracket | Taxed here | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0–$12,400 | $12,400 | $1,240 |
| 12% | $12,400–$50,400 | $31,908 | $3,829 |
| 22% | $50,400–$105,700 | $0 | $0 |
| 24% | $105,700–$201,775 | $0 | $0 |
| 32% | $201,775–$256,225 | $0 | $0 |
| 35% | $256,225–$640,600 | $0 | $0 |
| 37% | $640,600+ | $0 | $0 |
Not the rate you pay on all income — see the effective rate above.
Step 3 — Payment planning
April 15, 2026 · June 15, 2026 · September 15, 2026 · January 15, 2027
Your estimate exceeds the $1,000 threshold, so quarterly estimated payments generally apply. How quarterly payments work
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Educational estimate, tax year 2026. This tool applies published federal rates to the numbers you enter. It is not tax advice and it is not your actual tax liability — your return can differ because of credits, other deductions, other income, and state or local tax. For a filing decision, use IRS guidance or a licensed tax professional. See our methodology.
What "1099 tax" actually means
There is no separate tax called "1099 tax." A 1099 is an information return a payer files to report money it paid you. What people mean by the phrase is the total federal tax a self-employed person owes on that income — which is why any calculator that returns a single flat percentage of revenue is not answering the question.
The two components behave very differently. Self-employment tax is close to proportional: 15.3% of 92.35% of profit, with the Social Security portion stopping at $184,500 of earnings. Federal income tax is progressive and starts at zero: with the 2026 standard deduction of $16,100 for a single filer, a modest profit can produce self-employment tax and little or no income tax.
That is why the effective rate curve is not intuitive. At a small profit, most of the federal bill is self-employment tax. As profit grows, income tax becomes the larger share and the Social Security portion eventually caps out. Both effects are visible in the breakdown above when you change the numbers.
Expenses matter twice. A deductible business expense reduces net profit, which reduces self-employment tax and the income on which income tax is calculated. That is a reason to track expenses properly, and not a reason to invent them — the startup cost estimator helps you build a defensible expense picture from real line items.
Three worked scenarios
| Scenario | Net profit | SE tax | Income tax | Total federal | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part-time side income | $10,000 | $1,413 | $0 | $1,413 | 14.1% |
| Full-time freelancer | $65,000 | $9,184 | $5,069 | $14,253 | 21.9% |
| Established online business | $135,000 | $19,075 | $18,845 | $37,920 | 28.1% |
Notice the pattern: the effective federal rate rises with profit, but far more slowly than the marginal bracket, and at the lowest level almost the entire bill is self-employment tax rather than income tax.
Thresholds this calculator applies for 2026
- Social Security wage base: $184,500 — W-2 Social Security wages you enter consume this base first, so mixed W-2 plus self-employed users are not overcharged.
- Additional Medicare Tax (0.9% on combined wages + net earnings): Single $200,000, head of household $200,000, qualifying surviving spouse $200,000, married filing jointly $250,000, married filing separately $125,000.
- Self-employment tax floor: $400 of net earnings after the 92.35% adjustment — not $400 of Schedule C net profit. About $434 of net profit is needed before net earnings reach the floor.
- Estimated tax threshold: $1,000 of expected federal tax after withholding.
Why we do not apply a flat 20% QBI deduction
The qualified business income deduction under Section 199A is worth up to 20% of qualified business income — it is not an automatic 20% write-off for everyone with self-employment profit. The deduction is also limited to a percentage of taxable income, and above the 2026 threshold amount ($201,750 of taxable income for Single, phasing in fully by $276,750) additional tests apply: whether the business is a specified service trade or business, the W-2 wages the business pays, and the unadjusted basis immediately after acquisition (UBIA) of qualified property. These 2026 figures come from Rev. Proc. 2025-32 § 3.26 and are not the 2025 amounts.
The full 2026 threshold and phase-in ranges by filing status:
- Single or head of household: $201,750 of taxable income, phasing in fully by $276,750
- Married filing jointly or qualifying surviving spouse: $403,500, phasing in fully by $553,500
- Married filing separately: $201,775, phasing in fully by $276,775
The optional advanced mode is a simplified planning estimate only. It is not a complete Form 8995 or Form 8995-A calculation: it does not apply the SSTB phase-out, the W-2 wage / UBIA limitations, the aggregation rules, REIT and PTP income, or loss carryforwards.
Because those tests depend on facts a calculator cannot see, our primary estimate leaves QBI out. That deliberately produces a slightly conservative number — if you do qualify, your real tax will be lower than shown, which is the safer direction for a planning estimate. The optional toggle in the input panel adds a simplified figure for scenario testing only; treat it as an upper bound, not an entitlement, and confirm eligibility with IRS QBI guidance or a tax professional.
Safe harbour does not always mean "divide by four"
The quarterly figure above splits your annual target into four equal instalments, which is what the safe-harbour percentages assume when income arrives evenly through the year. Meeting a safe harbour protects you from the underpayment penalty overall — it does not mean four equal payments are correct for every taxpayer.
Estimated tax is due as income is earned. Each payment period covers a specific slice of the year, so a freelancer who earns very little in spring and a large amount in autumn can still be penalised for an early period even after paying the full year's tax. In that situation the annualized income instalment method (Form 2210, Schedule AI, explained in IRS Publication 505) matches each instalment to the income actually earned in that period, and usually produces a better result than dividing by four. This calculator does not model that method.
The 2026 due dates are April 15, 2026, June 15, 2026, September 15, 2026, January 15, 2027. When a date falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Our quarterly estimated tax guide walks through both approaches.
Assumptions and what this does not include
What the calculation assumes
- Tax year 2026 only, using the IRS inflation-adjusted brackets and standard deduction and the SSA wage base for that year.
- Standard deduction, not itemized deductions.
- All self-employment income is ordinary Schedule C profit; all other income entered is ordinary income.
- The deductible half of self-employment tax is applied as an adjustment before income tax.
- Safe-harbour figures follow the published current-year and prior-year percentages; the annualized income installment method is not modelled.
- QBI is excluded from the primary estimate; the optional advanced toggle applies a simplified up-to-20% figure, is off by default, and is not a complete Form 8995 / 8995-A computation.
- The $400 self-employment tax floor is tested against net earnings (net profit × 92.35%), not against Schedule C net profit.
- Quarterly figures assume evenly earned income; uneven income may require the annualized income instalment method.
What is not included
- Married-filing-separately special rules beyond rates and thresholds (disallowed credits, capital-loss limits, IRA and student-loan restrictions)
- State and local income tax, and city/local business taxes
- S-corporation or partnership owners taking a salary plus distributions
- Itemized deductions, dependents, and most credits (child tax credit, EITC, education, energy)
- Capital gains, dividends, rental income, retirement distributions, and Social Security benefits
- Self-employed health insurance, HSA, SEP-IRA, solo 401(k), and other above-the-line deductions
- Church employee income, clergy, farm income (Schedule F), and statutory employees
- Nonresident aliens and U.S. taxpayers living abroad
Primary sources
- IRS — Tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 (incl. OBBB amendments)
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 inflation-adjusted amounts, PDF)
- SSA — Contribution and benefit base (Social Security taxable maximum)
- IRS — Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)
- IRS — Questions and answers for the Additional Medicare Tax
- IRS — Estimated taxes
- IRS Publication 505 — Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax
- IRS — Qualified business income deduction (Section 199A)
Rates, thresholds and deadlines are stored in a single dated configuration file and reviewed when the IRS publishes new inflation adjustments, so no figure on this page is hardcoded into page copy.
Related tools and guides
- Self-employment tax calculator — the Schedule SE portion in isolation.
- 1099 vs W-2 comparison — contractor vs employee taxes, with an interactive breakeven tool.
- W-9 vs W-4 — which form each work arrangement uses and why.
- Quarterly estimated taxes — deadlines, safe harbours, how to pay.
- Freelance rate calculator — price work so the tax set-aside is covered.
- How to price freelance work — the pricing frameworks behind the rate.
- Realistic income model — plausible income levels before tax.
- Money Mechanics hub — the full cluster.