Articles
Long-form pieces on the parts of self-employment tax that the one-paragraph answers get wrong. Each one shows its arithmetic and cites what it is derived from.
What Self-Employment Tax Actually Costs in All 51 US Jurisdictions
We ran the same $80,000 freelancer through every state's 2026 tax code. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive state is smaller than almost everyone assumes — and the reason why is the part nobody mentions.
The Quarterly Tax Safe Harbour, With the Actual Arithmetic
The safe harbour rule means you can legally underpay your estimated taxes and owe no penalty. Here is exactly how much you can underpay, and the two numbers that decide it.
When an S-Corp Election Starts Paying for Itself
An S-corp election saves self-employment tax on distributions but costs real money to run. Here is the break-even arithmetic, and why the usual $40,000 rule of thumb is wrong for most people.
The Home Office Deduction: Both Methods, and Which One Wins
The simplified method caps out at $1,500. The regular method often doubles that but requires real record-keeping. Here is how to tell which applies to you before doing the work.
1099 vs W-2: What the Rate Difference Has to Be Before You Break Even
Going freelance at the same headline rate is a pay cut. Here is the multiplier that makes contract work equivalent to a salary, and the arithmetic behind it.
Every 2026 Tax Number a Self-Employed Filer Needs
The brackets, thresholds, caps and limits for the 2026 tax year, in one place, each traced to the IRS document it comes from.