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Tax & paperwork

Self-Employment Tax (SE Tax)

Also called: SE tax, SECA tax, self employment tax

The 15.3% Social Security + Medicare tax that self-employed workers pay on their net business income — both the employee and employer halves of FICA.

Self-employment tax is the version of FICA that self-employed people pay. Where a W-2 employee pays 7.65% and the employer matches the other 7.65%, a self-employed person is both — and pays the full 15.3% themselves on Schedule SE.

The breakdown:

  • 12.4% Social Security on adjusted SE income up to $176,100 (2026 wage base, combined with any W-2 wages)
  • 2.9% Medicare on adjusted SE income with no cap
  • +0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on combined income above $200K single / $250K MFJ

The adjustment: before applying the rates, you multiply your net SE income by 92.35%. This represents the employer half of FICA that you don't actually have. So the effective rate on gross net SE income is roughly 14.13% — not the full 15.3%.

Half of your SE tax is deductible from your federal taxable income, reported on Schedule 1. This doesn't lower the SE tax itself, but it does reduce your income tax bill — partially offsetting the cost of paying both halves.