Driving for Uber or DoorDash, delivering for Instacart, freelancing, or selling your time on apps? Nobody withholds tax from 1099 pay — so the bill lands on you. Enter your gig income and expenses to see your self-employment tax, federal and state income tax, quarterly payments, and the percentage of every payout to set aside.
Start from a typical gig, then adjust — everything recalculates live.
Everything the apps paid you before expenses — your 1099-NEC / 1099-K total.
Phone bill share, supplies, fees, gear, software, hot bags — not car costs if you claim mileage below.
Miles with a passenger, on a delivery, or heading to a pickup count. Commuting to a regular job doesn't.
The IRS raised the 2026 mileage rate mid-year: 72.5¢/mi Jan–Jun, 76¢/mi Jul–Dec.
W-2 wages use up part of the Social Security wage cap and push gig income into higher brackets — include them for a truer number.
State tax uses a simplified flat effective rate for your state — good for planning, not a return.
Based on the figures on the left.
The IRS wants its money as you earn it. Pay in four installments with Form 1040-ES to avoid an underpayment penalty.
A W-2 employee splits payroll tax with their employer and never sees most of it. As a gig worker you're both sides of that deal — plus income tax on top. Three layers make up your bill:
This is Social Security (12.4%) and Medicare (2.9%) on 92.35% of your net profit — the part a W-2 employer would normally pay half of. It applies from the first $400 of profit, and half of it is deductible against your income tax.
Your profit, minus half the SE tax, minus the $16,100 standard deduction (single, 2026), minus the 20% QBI deduction, taxed through the 10%–37% brackets. This is the same income tax everyone pays — gig workers just pay it in quarterly chunks instead of per paycheck.
Most states tax gig profit too, each with its own rates and rules; nine states have no broad income tax at all. This estimator applies a simplified effective rate for your state so the total isn't a nasty April surprise.
Every $1,000 of legitimate expenses saves roughly $250–$300 in combined tax for a typical driver or freelancer. The ones gig workers miss most:
From IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, IRS mileage notices IR-2025-128 and Announcement 2026-11, and the Social Security Administration's 2026 wage base.
| Figure | Single | Married, joint | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard deduction | $16,100 | $32,200 | $24,150 |
| Top of 10% bracket (taxable) | $12,400 | $24,800 | $17,700 |
| Top of 12% bracket (taxable) | $50,400 | $100,800 | $67,450 |
| Top of 22% bracket (taxable) | $105,700 | $211,400 | $105,700 |
| Top of 24% bracket (taxable) | $201,775 | $403,550 | $201,775 |
| Self-employment & mileage | 2026 rate |
|---|---|
| Self-employment tax (Social Security 12.4% + Medicare 2.9%) | 15.3% of 92.35% of net profit |
| Social Security wage base (SE earnings above this skip the 12.4%) | $184,500 |
| Additional Medicare tax over $200,000 single / $250,000 joint | +0.9% |
| Standard mileage, Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | 72.5¢ per mile |
| Standard mileage, Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 (mid-year IRS increase) | 76¢ per mile |
| QBI deduction (simplified) | 20% of net profit, capped at 20% of taxable income |
The common advice — 25–30% of every payout — is a decent starting point for a full-time gig worker with modest expenses. But your real number depends on profit, not gross pay: heavy mileage deductions can pull it toward 15–20%, while a high-profit freelancer with few expenses can owe 30% or more.
The percentage at the top of this page is calculated from your own income, expenses, mileage, filing status, and state, so use it instead of the generic rule.
April 15, 2026 (Q1), June 15, 2026 (Q2), September 15, 2026 (Q3), and January 15, 2027 (Q4). You file them with Form 1040-ES or pay online through IRS Direct Pay. Note the quarters aren't even: Q2 covers only April–May income and Q3 covers June–August.
Skip them and the IRS charges an underpayment penalty — essentially interest on each late installment — even if you pay in full the following April.
Yes — they're two separate taxes on the same profit. Self-employment tax (15.3%) funds Social Security and Medicare; income tax is the bracket-based tax everyone pays. W-2 workers split the 15.3% with their employer (7.65% each, invisibly). Gig workers pay both halves, which is why the bill feels steep — though half the SE tax is deductible, and expenses and mileage reduce both taxes.
Two ways. First, your W-2 wages count toward the $184,500 Social Security wage base, so high W-2 pay can shrink the 12.4% part of SE tax on gig profit. Second, your gig profit stacks on top of your wages, so it's taxed at your highest bracket, not the lowest. Enter your wages in the estimator to see both effects — and consider raising your W-2 withholding instead of filing quarterly estimates; the IRS treats withholding as paid evenly all year.
1099-NEC reports direct payments from a client for your services (typical for freelancers). 1099-K reports payments processed by a platform or card network (typical for DoorDash, Uber, Etsy, and similar apps). Both are simply reports of income to the IRS — you owe tax on all of it, including amounts under the reporting thresholds and tips the forms don't show.
For most gig drivers, the standard mileage rate wins: at 72.5–76¢ per mile in 2026, a 15,000-mile year is a $10,900–$11,400 deduction, usually more than the business share of gas, insurance, repairs, and depreciation combined. Actual expenses occasionally win for a paid-off, fuel-efficient car driven moderate miles. You generally can't switch back and forth freely, and mileage requires a contemporaneous log either way — a mileage-tracking app makes this painless.
Then there's no self-employment tax — SE tax only applies to profit. A genuine net loss can also offset other income on your return. But the IRS expects a business to aim for profit; claiming losses year after year can get the activity reclassified as a hobby, which kills the deductions. This estimator floors profit at $0 and doesn't model loss carryovers.
