About this site

FreelanceTaxCalculator is a small, free tool made by a freelancer who got a nasty surprise in their first April of self-employment. The math wasn't complicated — it was just buried in IRS publications and behind the signup forms of tax software that wanted a credit card before showing a number.

So this site does one thing: you type in what you expect to earn, and it tells you roughly what to set aside each quarter. No account, no email capture, no upsell. Your numbers never leave your browser — every calculation runs on your own device, and nothing is stored.

How the numbers are produced

The estimator applies the standard self-employment tax formula (92.35% of net earnings taxed at 15.3%, with the Social Security wage base cap applied), deducts half of that tax, subtracts the standard deduction for your filing status, and runs the remainder through the current federal marginal brackets. The annual total is divided into four equal quarterly payments.

What it deliberately doesn't do

It doesn't handle state or local taxes, itemized deductions, the qualified business income deduction, credits, dependents, retirement plan contributions, or multi-income-household edge cases. Adding all of that would turn a 30-second answer into a tax return. If your situation involves any of those, treat this as a starting point and talk to a CPA or enrolled agent.

Not tax advice

This is an educational estimate, not tax, legal, or financial advice. Rates and thresholds change; always confirm current figures on IRS.gov. Full details are in the Terms of Use.

Questions, corrections, or a bracket that looks wrong? The contact page goes straight to a real inbox.