What is the self-employment tax rate?

Federal self-employment tax is 15.3% — 12.4% Social Security on net earnings up to the wage base ($168,600 for 2024) plus 2.9% Medicare with no cap. It is applied to 92.35% of your net self-employment profit.

How does Arkansas tax self-employment income?

Arkansas taxes net self-employment income as ordinary income using its graduated brackets, which top out at 4.4% for 2024. The deductible half of your federal SE tax reduces the income that Arkansas taxes.

What is the half-SE-tax deduction?

You can deduct one-half of your federal self-employment tax when computing income subject to income tax. This calculator subtracts that deductible half before applying the Arkansas brackets, matching how the IRS and Arkansas treat it.

Is there an additional Medicare tax on high SE income?

Yes. An extra 0.9% Medicare tax applies to net self-employment earnings above $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for married filing jointly. This tool includes that surtax for high earners.

Do I owe both SE tax and Arkansas income tax?

Yes. Self-employed Arkansans pay federal SE tax (Social Security and Medicare) plus federal and Arkansas income tax on the profit. This calculator shows the federal SE tax and the Arkansas state income tax portions.

Arkansas Self-Employment Tax Calculator

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Self-employed Arkansans owe federal self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare on top of state income tax. This calculator computes the 15.3 percent federal SE tax, applies the deductible half against income, and adds the Arkansas state tax for a combined picture.

How it works

Net self-employment earnings are first multiplied by 0.9235 to remove the employer-equivalent share. The federal SE tax is then:

SE base    = net profit × 0.9235
SS tax     = 12.4% of SE base up to the $168,600 wage base
Medicare   = 2.9% of SE base (no cap) + 0.9% above the threshold
SE tax     = SS tax + Medicare

Half of the SE tax is deductible against income, so Arkansas applies its graduated 2024 brackets (top rate 4.4 percent) to net profit minus that deduction.

Example

On $80,000 of net profit, the SE base is $73,880. SE tax is about $11,304 (12.4% + 2.9% of the base). Half of that — roughly $5,652 — is deducted, so Arkansas taxes about $74,348, yielding roughly $3,000 in state tax before credits.

Notes

This tool models the standard federal SE tax and Arkansas’s graduated brackets. It does not deduct the Arkansas standard deduction or personal credits, model QBI, or include federal income tax — your final Arkansas tax may be lower after those. The Social Security wage base and brackets change yearly; confirm at irs.gov and dfa.arkansas.gov.