2026 Self-Employment Tax Rate: What It Is and How to Calculate It
The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. That sounds like a lot — and it is — but you don't actually pay 15.3% on all of your self-employment income. Here's how SE tax really works, especially if you have a W-2 job alongside your side business.
What is self-employment tax?
When you work a W-2 job, you pay 7.65% of your wages for Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%). Your employer pays the other 7.65%. Together that's 15.3%.
When you're self-employed, you're both the employee and the employer. So you pay both halves — the full 15.3%. That's the self-employment tax.
The 2026 SE tax rate breakdown
| Component | Rate | Wage base limit |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security (employee share) | 6.2% | $176,100 |
| Social Security (employer share) | 6.2% | $176,100 |
| Medicare (employee share) | 1.45% | No limit |
| Medicare (employer share) | 1.45% | No limit |
| Total SE tax | 15.3% | |
| Additional Medicare | 0.9% | Over $200K ($250K married) |
Three things that reduce your SE tax
1. The 92.35% multiplier
You don't pay SE tax on 100% of your net self-employment income. The IRS applies a 92.35% factor first. On $50,000 of LLC profit, you pay SE tax on $46,175.
2. The deduction for half of SE tax
You can deduct the employer-equivalent half (7.65%) of your SE tax from your adjusted gross income. This lowers your income tax, though not your SE tax itself.
3. The Social Security wage base
Social Security tax (12.4%) only applies up to $176,100 of combined wages and self-employment income in 2026. If your W-2 salary already covers most of that cap, your side business income might owe little or no Social Security tax — just the 2.9% Medicare portion.
Example: $50K W-2 salary + $25K LLC profit
Here's how SE tax works for someone earning $50,000 from a W-2 job and $25,000 from an LLC:
- Net SE income: $25,000 × 92.35% = $23,087
- Social Security: $23,087 × 12.4% = $2,863 (under the wage base since $50K + $23K < $176,100)
- Medicare: $23,087 × 2.9% = $670
- Total SE tax: $3,533
- Deductible half: $1,766 (reduces your income tax)
Your effective SE tax rate on the $25,000 LLC profit is about 14.1% — not the full 15.3%.
Why this matters for your W-2 + LLC situation
If you have a W-2 job that already pays into Social Security, your side business may owe less SE tax than you think. The key variable is how close your W-2 wages are to the Social Security wage base ($176,100). The closer you are, the less Social Security tax your LLC income owes.
Our write-off calculator factors in your W-2 income when computing the real after-tax cost of business expenses, so the SE tax impact is already accounted for in your results.