How Much to Set Aside for Taxes — 1099 Set-Aside Calculator Walkthrough

This calculator answers the question most freelancers actually have: "of every dollar I bill, how much should I put away for taxes?" Unlike the Self- Employment Tax Calculator, which covers only Social Security and Medicare, this tool also estimates your federal income tax and an optional state tax, to give one combined set-aside percentage. Find it at tidypapers.com/how-much-to-set-aside-for-taxes/. This guide covers every field and every part of the result.

The page states directly: "No login, no account: everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded," and its disclaimer: "2026 tax year estimates, not tax advice. Consult a tax professional." US-specific (federal income tax brackets, filing status, and state tax are US concepts).

Section 1 — Income

1. Expected annual self-employment net profit (USD) — a number field, pre-filled with an example value of 60000. This is your expected net profit for the year, not gross revenue.
2. Optional W-2 income (USD) — a number field, defaulting to 0. The page's own hint: "If you also have a day job, its income stacks with your 1099 income for federal bracket purposes" — meaning it's added to your freelance profit when working out which federal tax bracket you fall into.

The section note states: "Your inputs are remembered in this browser for next time" — so, like most TidyPapers tools, this one saves your entries locally for your next visit.

Section 2 — Filing status

A choice of two radio buttons:

1. Single
2. Married filing jointly

This affects which federal income tax brackets apply to your income.

Section 3 — State tax

State income tax estimate — a dropdown with four options:

1. None / no state income tax
2. Low (~3%, rough estimate)
3. Mid (~5%, rough estimate)
4. High (~9%, rough estimate)

The page is explicit about the limits of this setting: "These are rough flat estimates, not real state tax brackets. Check your own state's rules for an exact figure." Pick the tier closest to your own state's typical rate, or "None" if your state has no income tax, and treat the result as a ballpark, not a precise figure.

Step 4 — Calculate

Click "🧮 Calculate my set-aside →". Results update immediately.

Reading the result

At the top, the headline figure:

• Recommended set-aside — a single combined percentage (e.g. "27.50%") covering self-employment tax, federal income tax, and your state estimate together.

Below it, three dollar amounts for the same recommendation:

1. Per year — the total to set aside for the full year.
2. Per month — the same total divided into a monthly amount, useful for moving money into a separate savings account regularly.
3. Per $1,000 invoiced — how much to set aside out of every $1,000 you bill, useful as a quick rule of thumb when you get paid per-invoice rather than in a steady salary.

A breakdown below shows exactly what makes up the total:

1. Self-employment (SE) tax — the Social Security + Medicare portion (same underlying math as the Self-Employment Tax Calculator).
2. Federal income tax — estimated based on your profit, W-2 income, and filing status.
3. State estimate (rough) — only shown if you picked a state tier other than "None" — your net profit multiplied by the rough percentage for that tier.

Putting the monthly figure to use

Once you have the "Per month" amount, the most direct next step is to move that much into a separate savings account each month so tax time doesn't come as a surprise. If you want to track this against actual invoices billed and generate a payment reference for the tax office, that's the job of the Freelancer Tax Dashboard — this calculator gives you the target percentage and monthly figure, but doesn't log invoices or generate payment QR codes itself.

Related tools

This page cross-links to the Self-Employment Tax Calculator (for the SE-tax-only figure), the Freelancer Tax Dashboard, and the Payment Fees Comparison calculator. None of these share your entered figures automatically — see How Your Data Moves Between TidyPapers Tools for the full picture.