Self-Employment Tax and Quarterly Payments for Gig Workers

1The four dates for 2026 income

Estimated tax is paid as you earn, in four installments. Each covers income from a set stretch of months, and the stretches are not equal quarters, which is why the June payment comes only two months after April's.

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

When a due date falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the payment is on time if it is made on the next business day. The three 2026 dates have passed, so the payment still ahead is the one due January 15, 2027, for income earned from September through December.

2How self-employment tax is figured

Self-employment tax is the Social Security and Medicare tax that an employer and an employee would normally split, paid in full by the person who works for themselves. It is separate from income tax, and you owe it even when your income is too low to owe any income tax.

Start with net earnings: what you were paid minus the business expenses you can deduct, such as the business share of car costs for a driver. Multiply by 92.35 percent, then by 15.3 percent. The 12.4 percent Social Security part applies only up to the wage base, $184,500 for 2026; the 2.9 percent Medicare part has no cap. Half of the tax is then deducted when you figure your adjusted gross income.

If you also earn wages, the wage base is shared. Wages already taxed for Social Security use up part of the $184,500 first, and only the room left over applies to your self-employment earnings; Schedule SE does that subtraction for you.

3Who has to pay quarterly

You generally must make estimated payments if you expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for the year after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits. Self-employment tax counts toward that total, so even modest gig income can cross the line once both taxes are added together. There is one exception: if you were a U.S. citizen or resident for all of 2025 and had no tax liability for that full year, you do not have to pay estimated tax for 2026.

If you also have a job with a paycheck, you have a second option: ask your employer to withhold more by filing a new Form W-4. Withholding is treated as paid evenly through the year, so extra withholding late in the year can cover gig income earned earlier.

4The safe harbors that prevent a penalty

The penalty for paying too little, too late, is figured separately for each payment period, much like interest on the amount that was short. You avoid it if your payments and withholding for the year, made on time, add up to the smaller of:

• 90 percent of the tax shown on your 2026 return, or
• 100 percent of the tax shown on your 2025 return, if that return covered all 12 months. The figure rises to 110 percent if your 2025 adjusted gross income was more than $150,000.

The prior-year safe harbor is the easier one to plan around, because you already know the number: divide last year's total tax by four and pay that amount by each date. If your income arrives unevenly, for example mostly in the fall, the IRS's annualized income method on Form 2210 can lower or remove a penalty for the earlier periods.

5Records that make each payment easier

Estimating four times a year is much simpler with records kept as you go. A few habits cover most gig and freelance work:

• A mileage log with the date, purpose and miles of each business trip, if you drive for work.
• Receipts for expenses, such as supplies, phone costs and platform fees, saved in one place.
• Each platform's earnings statements, downloaded at the end of every payment period rather than once a year.
• Confirmations of every estimated payment, with the date and amount, for your return.

At each due date, add up the net profit since the last one and set aside enough for both taxes. The figure does not need to be exact; the safe harbors exist so that a reasonable estimate is enough.

6Forms you may or may not receive

Platforms and clients report some payments to the IRS, but the tax is owed either way.

• Form 1099-NEC reports payments for services from a business that paid you at least $2,000, for payments made after 2025. The threshold was $600 before.
• Form 1099-K reports payments through apps and payment platforms when they total more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in the year.

All income is taxable whether or not a form arrives. Keep your own records of what you were paid and what you spent, because a missing form does not make the income disappear.

7How to pay

You can pay through IRS Direct Pay from a bank account, through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, through your IRS Online Account, by debit or credit card through an approved processor, or by check with a voucher from Form 1040-ES. Whatever the method, make sure the payment is applied to the right year and marked as estimated tax.

Paying late is still better than not paying. The penalty keeps growing until the shortfall is paid, so a late payment stops the clock for that period.

8What the tax buys you

Self-employment tax is not only a cost. The earnings it is paid on go on your Social Security record, earning the work credits that make you eligible for retirement and disability benefits and raising the benefit you will eventually receive. Our guide to your earnings record explains how to check that your self-employment income was recorded.

Net self-employment earnings also count as earned income for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which can return part of the tax for workers with lower incomes. And if gig work slows down, our guide to unemployment for gig workers explains what help may be available.