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Self employment. Medicare & Social Security taxes

Many Americans who pay self employment taxes need to pay more in Medicare and Social Security tax since they don’t have an employer paying for half.

1040 form for filing self employment taxes for medicare and social security with the IRS

You may calculate your self employment tax using Form 1040.

If people work for an employer, their Social Security and Medicare taxes are normally all figured out for them.

This means they may not deduct Social Security or Medicare from their taxes.


If you’re self employed, your tax rate is 15.3%.

This is 12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare.

If you’re past a certain threshold you will see and additional .9% for Medicare taxes.


Child tax credit: When to pay it back

Thresholds for paying additional Medicare tax with self employment

  • Married filing jointly, $250,000
  • Married filing separate, $125,000
  • Single, $200,000
  • Head of household, $200,000
  • Qualifying widower with child, $200,000

IRS: File your taxes for free

When you need to pay self employment taxes

If you have net earnings worth over $400 you need to pay self employment taxes.

If you had church employee income worth over $108.28 you need to pay the same taxes.

Using a Schedule SE will help you to determine if, and how much, you need to pay in these taxes.

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