What is the self-employment tax rate?

The federal self-employment tax rate is 15.3% — 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare. It is applied to 92.35% of your net self-employment earnings. The Social Security portion only applies up to the annual wage base of 168,600 dollars for 2024.

Does DC charge its own self-employment tax?

The District of Columbia has no separate self-employment tax. Instead, your net self-employment income flows into your DC income tax return and is taxed under the standard DC graduated brackets of 4% to 10.75%, the same as any other income.

What is the half-SE-tax deduction?

You can deduct one half of your federal self-employment tax when computing your adjusted gross income. This calculator applies that deduction before figuring DC income tax, which lowers your DC taxable income and your overall bill.

Why is SE tax based on 92.35% of income?

The 92.35% factor (1 minus 7.65%) approximates the employer-equivalent payroll deduction so the self-employed are taxed on a base comparable to employees. You pay both the employee and employer shares because you are both.

Does this replace professional tax advice?

No. This is an estimate combining federal SE tax with DC income tax. It does not model the QBI deduction, quarterly estimated payments, or DC credits. Consult a tax professional or the DC Office of Tax and Revenue for your exact liability.

District of Columbia Self-Employment Tax Calculator

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If you freelance or contract in the District of Columbia, you owe two layers of tax on your profit: the 15.3% federal self-employment tax (Social Security plus Medicare) and DC income tax under the graduated brackets. This calculator computes both, correctly applying the 92.35% net-earnings factor and the deductible half of SE tax.

How it works

Self-employment tax stacks on top of income tax:

Net earnings. Multiply your net self-employment income by 92.35% to get the SE tax base.
Federal SE tax. Apply 12.4% Social Security (up to the $168,600 wage base) plus 2.9% Medicare to that base.
DC income tax. Deduct half of the SE tax from income, subtract the DC standard deduction, then apply the DC graduated brackets.

The formula is seTax = base × 15.3% where base = netIncome × 0.9235, then dcTax = brackets(netIncome − seTax/2 − stdDeduction).

Tips and example

On $60,000 of net self-employment income, the SE base is $60,000 × 0.9235 = $55,410, so SE tax is about $8,478. Half of that ($4,239) is deducted before DC tax, leaving roughly $41,161 of DC taxable income after the $14,600 standard deduction — about $2,070 in DC income tax. Your combined federal SE plus DC bill is around $10,548.

This estimate excludes federal income tax, the QBI deduction, and DC credits. Self-employed filers usually pay quarterly estimated taxes — consult the DC Office of Tax and Revenue and a tax professional for your exact obligations.