How US self-employed taxes work: a beginner's guide
What changes the moment nobody is withholding tax for you, and what the IRS expects instead.
Moving from a traditional W-2 job to freelance or gig work is exciting, and it comes with a shock that usually arrives late: taxes. In a traditional job your employer takes tax out of every paycheck for you. Working for yourself, the IRS expects you to handle all of it. If that feels like a lot, it is, and you are not the first person to find it so.
You are now your own employer
Working for yourself makes you a sole proprietor or independent contractor, and two things follow from that.
- No withholding Nobody is taking income tax out of the money you are paid. It arrives whole, and some of it is not yours.
- Self-employment tax An employee and their employer each pay half of Social Security and Medicare. You are both, so you pay both halves — 15.3%, on top of income tax.
Tax is paid across the year, not at the end of it
Waiting until April to pay everything at once can bring a penalty. Where you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS asks for payment in four instalments as the income is earned.
- Q1 15 April
- Q2 15 June
- Q3 15 September
- Q4 15 January of the following year
What actually makes it manageable
The difference between a stressful tax season and an ordinary one is rarely knowledge of the rules. It is having kept track of what came in and what went out while it was happening, rather than reconstructing a year from bank statements in April.