🏦 Tax Set-Aside Calculator for the Self-Employed
Nobody withholds taxes for you anymore. The self-employed people who get in trouble are not the ones who owed too much; they are the ones who found out in April. Move a fixed percent of every payment into a separate account the day it lands, and tax time becomes a transfer instead of a crisis.
Use your effective rate, not your top bracket. Most self-employed people land between 10 and 25 percent; add your state's rate if it has an income tax.
Set aside this much of every payment
28.1%
From this payment, that is
$281
Quarterly estimated payment
$4,210
Estimated tax for the year
$16,842
Set aside 28 percent of every payment. From the $1,000 that just landed, move $281 to a separate tax account today. Do that on every payment and your four quarterly payments of about $4,210 are already sitting there waiting, instead of ambushing you in April.
Estimates for planning, not financial advice. Your real numbers will vary; that is exactly why you track them.
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Setting aside taxes is step one of acting like an owner. The platform gives you the rest: a launch checklist, money tracking, and next steps built for your business.
Get organized free →Good questions about this math
How is self-employment tax calculated?
The standard convention: 15.3 percent (12.4 percent Social Security plus 2.9 percent Medicare) applied to 92.35 percent of your net profit. That alone is about 14.1 percent of profit before any income tax, which is why the set-aside number surprises people. Half of the SE tax is deductible, and this calculator applies that before figuring income tax.
Why is the common advice to save 25 to 30 percent?
Because for a typical self-employed profit, SE tax (about 14 percent of profit) plus a 10 to 15 percent effective income tax rate lands right in that band. Higher profit or a high-tax state pushes it up; heavy deductions pull it down. Your number above is built from YOUR inputs, which beats a rule of thumb.
When are quarterly taxes due?
Roughly: April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS expects payments through the year, not one check in April. Paying at least what you owed last year (the safe harbor) generally protects you from penalties while your income grows.