Washington Self-Employment Tax Calculator (2026)
Federal self-employment tax, federal income tax and how much to set aside for each estimated payment on 1099 income earned in Washington, which has no personal income tax. Business, sales, local and entity-level taxes are outside the calculator and are described below.
Federal 2026 data checked against the official publications, last on 2026-09-05 Runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere, not even when you reload or share the link No sign-up Methodology and data status
- Total tax
- $14,803
- Effective rate
- 20.6%
- Set aside per quarter
- $3,701
- After-tax income
- $57,197
| Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Net profit (income − expenses) | $72,000 |
| Self-employment tax | $10,173 |
| Social Security (12.4%) | $8,245 |
| Medicare (2.9%) | $1,928 |
| Federal income tax | $4,630 |
| Adjusted gross income | $66,913 |
| Standard deduction | −$16,100 |
| Qualified business income deduction (20%) | −$10,163 |
| Taxable income · marginal rate 12.0% | $40,651 |
| Washington income tax | None |
| Total federal + state | $14,803 |
Amounts to set aside, not bills: federal $3,701 for each Form 1040-ES installment (Apr 15, Jun 15, Sep 15, Jan 15). For the safe-harbor amount and payments you have already made, use the quarterly calculator with these inputs.
Washington and self-employment income
Washington has no tax on wages or self-employment income, and its capital gains excise tax reaches only long-term gains on investments. That does not leave a freelancer untaxed by the state. The Business & Occupation tax falls on the same receipts an income tax would have reached, and since October 2025 retail sales tax reaches a long list of freelance services outright.
Washington at a glance, for a one-person business
| Stands in for an income tax | Business & Occupation tax on gross receipts, 1.5% for almost every freelancer |
|---|---|
| Where it starts | No tax-free allowance; registration required at $12,000 of gross, or at any size once you must collect sales tax |
| Are freelance services taxable? | B&O always. Retail sales tax too, since 1 October 2025, for advertising, IT, web development, custom software, data processing and group workshops |
| State licence | State business licence, plus a separate city licence in many cities |
| What a sole proprietor files | B&O returns on the assigned schedule, unless granted active non-reporting status |
None of this is income tax, so none of it is in the calculator above. The same five rows for all 9 states without an income tax sets Washington against the rest.
What a Washington freelancer may still owe
- The Business & Occupation tax is charged on gross receipts with no deduction for expenses. Almost every one-person business pays the 1.5% service rate. The 1.75% and 2.1% rates sit above it, and the rate is set by the previous calendar year's gross, with affiliated businesses counted together.
- There is no tax-free allowance, but there is a registration threshold. You need no Department of Revenue registration only if gross from all B&O activities is under $12,000, public utility tax gross is under $12,000, you owe the department nothing else, and you need no state licence. Selling anything that requires collecting sales tax removes the exemption at any size.
- A business under $125,000 of B&O gross that collects no retail sales tax and owes the department nothing else can request active non-reporting status and then files no periodic returns. It has to be asked for rather than granted automatically, and it is your responsibility to tell the department when you outgrow it.
- Since 1 October 2025 many services freelancers sell carry retail sales tax: advertising, IT support and IT consulting, custom website development, custom software, and data processing. Standalone graphic design stays outside, but the same design bundled into an advertising campaign or a website build is inside.
- Teaching is its own question. A paid workshop, seminar or course with real-time interaction and more than one attendee is a taxable live presentation. One-on-one tutoring or consulting is not, and from 1 July 2026 neither are music lessons, whatever the class size, nor presentations given by a 501(c) nonprofit. Nor is a presentation that is merely part of delivering a broader service to a client.
- Writing, bookkeeping, accounting and legal work remain outside retail sales tax on interim guidance rather than settled statute, and the department has said it will revisit the boundary in 2026. Delivering the same work through a self-serve template or an automated platform, rather than person to person, can move it inside.
- A small business B&O credit of up to $160 a month cancels the tax for most one-person service businesses and phases out as the bill grows. Several cities, Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue among them, levy their own B&O tax on top of the state's, with their own thresholds.
- The capital gains excise tax is tiered: 7% on the first $1 million of Washington capital gains in a year and 9.9% above that, over a standard deduction of $278,000 for 2025. Washington has not published the 2026 figure yet. None of it touches business income.
Washington business obligations last read against the agency's own pages on 2026-09-09: Services newly subject to retail sales tax, Advertising services, included and excluded, Tax registration, the $12,000 test, Active non-reporting criteria, Live presentations, included and excluded, Live presentations: new exclusions from 1 July 2026, RCW 82.04.290, service B&O rate tiers, New tiered capital gains rates. These are outside the calculator; it computes income tax only.
The consultant who now collects sales tax
A Seattle consultant with $90,000 of receipts and $20,000 of expenses owes B&O on the full $90,000, because the tax allows no deduction for costs at all. At the 1.5% service rate that is $1,350 on money an income-tax state would have taxed as $70,000, and the small business credit can cancel a bill that size outright. Since 1 October 2025 the harder question is what the consulting is. If it is IT support, custom website development, custom software or advertising work, it is now a retail sale, and the consultant has to register, charge Washington clients sales tax and remit it. That also rules out active non-reporting status, which otherwise lets a business under $125,000 stop filing altogether. Ordinary business consulting, writing and bookkeeping stay outside for now.
How the federal part is worked out
Net profit is 1099 income less business expenses (Schedule C). Self-employment tax is 15.3% of 92.35% of that profit — 12.4% Social Security up to $184,500 of combined wages and earnings, 2.9% Medicare on all of it. Half of that tax, the $16,100 standard deduction ($32,200 joint) and the 20% qualified business income deduction come off before the 2026 brackets are applied; the child tax credit and the earned income credit then reduce what is left, and the refundable parts can offset self-employment tax. The methodology page sets out the full sequence and every rule the calculator leaves out.
Quarterly estimated tax deadlines (2026)
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more of federal tax for the year, the IRS expects four estimated payments (Form 1040-ES). Because Washington has no income tax, there is no separate state estimate to make.
The 2026 dates are April 15, 2026, June 15, 2026, September 15, 2026, January 15, 2027. The federal amount is split into four equal Form 1040-ES installments after any withholding you entered; paying 100% of last year's tax instead (110% above $150,000 of prior-year AGI) also avoids the penalty. The quarterly calculator works that out and subtracts what you have already paid, and the guide to the due dates explains the rule.
Common questions
Do I pay self-employment tax if Washington has no income tax?
Yes. Self-employment tax is a federal tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. It applies in every state regardless of state income tax.
Is half of self-employment tax really deductible?
Yes, for federal tax. The employer-equivalent half is an adjustment to income on Schedule 1, which lowers your AGI and therefore your federal income tax. It does not reduce the self-employment tax itself.
Does an LLC change these numbers?
For federal income tax and self-employment tax, a single-member LLC taxed as a sole proprietorship follows exactly the calculation shown here. State and local obligations can still differ: an LLC may be a taxable entity for a state's franchise, gross-receipts or excise tax, and may owe registration or licence fees a sole proprietor does not — Washington's are listed above. Electing S-corporation status changes the federal arithmetic too (salary plus distributions) and is outside this tool's scope.
What if I moved to Washington during the year?
Income earned while you were a resident of another state is taxable there under that state's rules. This calculator assumes all income was earned as a Washington resident.
Data sources and status
Federal figures for 2026: verified · last verified 2026-09-05 · the revenue procedures and forms they were read from, with every other data set
Washington Department of Revenue · How figures are checked · Corrections log
Other states
Comparing the states that skip the income tax altogether? What the 9 states with no individual income tax charge instead puts the gross-receipts taxes, sales tax treatment of services and licence fees side by side.
Paying as you go? The quarterly estimated tax calculator applies the federal safe harbor and subtracts what you have already paid.