Tax year 2026 · United States federal
Quarterly estimated taxes for freelancers
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in tax, the IRS wants it in four payments across the year rather than one lump in April. irs.gov
That threshold is lower than it sounds. A single filer with no other income crosses it at roughly $7,100 of net profit, because self-employment tax alone runs 15.3% before any income tax enters the picture. irs.gov Most people who think they are too small for quarterly payments are not.
Your number
The calculator below runs the same engine as the rest of this site. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Each quarterly payment
$3,486
- Q1$3,486.35
- Q2$3,486.35
- Q3$3,486.35
- Q4$3,486.36
- Net profit
- $75,000
- Self-employment tax
- $10,597
- Federal income tax
- $4,898
- QBI deduction
- −$10,720
- Total for the year
- $15,495
- Effective rate on profit
- 20.7%
- What you keep
- $59,505
About $1,291 a month set aside, if that is easier to hold to than four lump sums.
State tax not included. State income tax for is not included in this figure. The federal number above is complete; your total liability will be higher by whatever charges. See which states are covered at /state-taxes/, or check your state's revenue department for its current rate. What this site covers, state by state.
The four dates
| Payment | Covers income earned | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 1 January – 31 March | 15 April 2026 |
| Q2 | 1 April – 31 May | 15 June 2026 |
| Q3 | 1 June – 31 August | 15 September 2026 |
| Q4 | 1 September – 31 December | 15 January 2027 |
Two things about that table catch people out every year. irs.gov
The quarters are not quarters. Q2 covers two months and Q3 covers three, which means the June payment arrives after a shorter earning window than the schedule implies. And the fourth payment falls in the following calendar year, so January carries both your Q4 estimate and the beginning of the next year’s obligations.
How the amount is built
Four figures stack up, in this order:
- Net profit. What you were paid, minus what it cost to earn it.
- Self-employment tax, at 15.3% — 12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare. irs.gov
- Federal income tax, on what remains after the standard deduction and the qualified business income deduction.
- State income tax, which for most states this calculator does not yet model.
The step almost every free calculator drops sits between 1 and 2. Only 92.35% of your net profit is subject to self-employment tax, because the employer-equivalent half of the 15.3% comes out first. irs.gov Skip it and the bill comes out 8.3% too high — on $75,000 of profit that is $878 of self-employment tax you do not owe.
What the effective rate actually does
The common advice is to set aside 30%. Here is what the engine returns for a single filer in a no-income-tax state, across the range: irs.gov
| Net profit | Total federal tax | Effective rate | Parked by the 30% rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $5,181 | 17.3% | $3,819 |
| $50,000 | $9,732 | 19.5% | $5,268 |
| $75,000 | $15,495 | 20.7% | $7,005 |
| $100,000 | $22,365 | 22.4% | $7,635 |
| $150,000 | $37,608 | 25.1% | $7,392 |
Nothing in that column is 30%, and the last one shows what the rule of thumb costs. At $30,000 the standard deduction of $16,100 absorbs more than half the profit, irs.gov so a flat 30% parks money you never owed for a year. The gap narrows as income rises and never quite closes.
A percentage that is wrong in both directions is not a useful rule. Run your own number.
The safe harbor is the part worth understanding
You are not penalised for owing money in April. You are penalised for not having paid enough during the year, and there are three ways to be safe: irs.gov
- 90% of what you end up owing this year, or
- 100% of what you owed last year, or
- 110% of last year’s tax if your adjusted gross income then was above $150,000.
The second one is the escape hatch nobody uses. Take last year’s total tax, divide by four, pay that — and it does not matter if this year turns out to be twice as good. You are protected regardless. irs.gov
It is the single most useful thing to know about quarterly payments, and it is buried three levels deep in the IRS’s own documentation. The full explanation is here.
Where this gets harder
Everything above assumes income arriving at a roughly even rate. Freelance income is not like that.
The fix exists and almost nobody writes about it: the annualized income installment method. It lets you match payments to when the money actually arrived. It requires Form 2210, Schedule AI, and more record-keeping — and for an irregular year it can be worth several hundred dollars.
First year, no prior year
If this is your first year with self-employment income, the 100% safe harbor has nothing to point at. You had no prior-year liability to match.
That leaves the 90%-of-current-year test, which means estimating a year you have not finished. The practical approach is to recalculate each quarter with what you actually earned so far, rather than committing in April to a projection made in March. Underpaying early and correcting later costs interest on the shortfall; overpaying early costs you the use of the money.
Everything in this cluster
Each of these answers one question properly rather than gesturing at it:
- How much to set aside — the real percentages by income band, computed rather than repeated
- The safe harbor rule — the escape hatch that removes the guesswork entirely
- Uneven income and the annualized method — for a year that arrived in bursts
- Missing a payment — what the penalty actually costs, with the arithmetic
- How to actually pay — Direct Pay against EFTPS against card, and which to use
- Your first freelance year — why the usual advice does not apply to you
- State estimated taxes — the nine states that want nothing, and everywhere else
When to stop reading and get help
- You have employees, or pay yourself through an S-corp
- Income arrives in more than one state
- You received a notice from the IRS
- The amount at stake is larger than a preparer’s fee, which is most of the time