I just got paid. How much do I put aside for taxes?

For freelancers, gig workers and side hustlers in the US. Type the payment. Move the amount on the right to savings and tax time stops being scary.

Payment I just got

About your year

Profit this year (guess)

Costs on this payment

Filing status

State tax (0 if none)

Keep

Set aside for tax

An estimate, not tax advice. A W-2 job, a spouse's income, credits or big deductions change the answer; a tax preparer can fine-tune it.

Track it all year

The Self-Employed Tax Tracker (Excel and Google Sheets) logs income and expenses with Schedule C line labels, a mileage log, quarterly estimates and a year-end summary you can hand to whoever does your taxes.

See the Self-Employed Tax Tracker

How it is worked out

Profit on this payment = payment minus your business-cost %. Self-employment tax = 92.35% of profit x 15.3% (Social Security part stops at $184,500 of earnings in 2026). Federal income tax is figured on your whole expected year: profit minus half of SE tax, minus the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 married jointly, $24,150 head of household), minus the 20% qualified business income deduction, run through the 2026 brackets. That gives your average rate, which is applied to this payment. State tax is your % of profit.