Estimating Federal and Self-Employment Taxes

rwhalen1 — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:02:55 GMT

Hello,

When estimating and making quarterly estimated payments...

Does Self-Employment just include SS and Medicare? Do you have to add your federal tax bracket % + the 15% self employment tax for your estimated payments?

Re: Estimating Federal and Self-Employment Taxes

Gabriella_EA — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 20:32:14 GMT

Hello @rwhalen1!

This is a great question. Yes, self-employment tax includes both Social Security and Medicare tax, but not income tax. The income tax would need to be calculated separately from the self-employment tax, and ideally you'd make your quarterly payments to cover the combination of the two. However, because the US tax system is a marginal tax system, you don't pay tax on all your income at your marginal tax rate (ie. being in the 24% tax bracket doesn't mean all your income is taxed at 24%). Because of this, it can be a little complicated to calculate the numbers entirely on your own. You'd likely benefit from using our TaxCaster to calculate your estimated refund/balance due for 2023 and using that number to determine how much you should pay in a quarterly estimated payment. Even though the TaxCaster is set for 2022, it should get you pretty close for 2023.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to follow up in another reply in this thread, and I'll be sure to come back and answer!

topic Estimating Federal and Self-Employment Taxes in Self employed

Estimating Federal and Self-Employment Taxes

Re: Estimating Federal and Self-Employment Taxes