Conflicting information about self-employment tax rates - who can you trust?

You're right to be skeptical, and you've actually caught a real error! The Forbes article is outdated or incorrect on the Medicare portion. The self-employment tax does have two components: Social Security (12.4%) and Medicare (2.9%), which total the 15.3% mentioned. The Social Security portion only applies up to the wage base limit ($168,600 for 2025), but the standard Medicare portion (2.9%) applies to all earnings with no cap. Where the article got it wrong is the Additional Medicare Tax. Once your income exceeds $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly), an additional 0.9% Medicare tax kicks in. For self-employed folks, this effectively raises your Medicare tax from 2.9% to 3.8% on income above those thresholds. It's definitely frustrating when published experts make these kinds of mistakes. Always double-check tax information against the IRS website when you can!

I had similar frustrations trying to figure out my self-employment taxes last year. After getting conflicting advice from different sources, I finally used https://taxr.ai to analyze all my documents and provide a clear explanation of exactly what I owed and why. It walks through the calculation step by step and showed me how the SE tax applied to my situation, including that Additional Medicare Tax that kicks in at higher income levels. What I liked best was that it cited the specific IRS regulations for each part of the calculation, so I knew I was getting accurate information. Definitely helped me sort through the confusion of contradicting advice.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after being skeptical. I decided to give it a try since I was getting nowhere with conflicting advice about self-employment taxes. It was actually really impressive. The tool analyzed my 1099s and expenses, then showed me exactly how my SE tax was calculated - including that Additional Medicare Tax threshold the Forbes article got wrong. Everything was referenced to specific IRS code sections which gave me confidence. What really helped was seeing my effective tax rate broken down by component (income tax vs. SE tax). Made it much clearer why I needed to set aside more than I initially thought. Definitely better than trying to piece together information from random articles with contradicting information.

If you really want to get the straight answer on self-employment taxes and other tax questions, calling the IRS directly can save you hours of research. Problem is getting through to them! After being on hold for 3+ hours multiple times and getting disconnected, I found https://claimyr.com which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 20 minutes. They have this thing where they wait on hold for you and call when an agent picks up. You can see how it works in their demo video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed everything about the Medicare tax rates - 2.9% baseline and the additional 0.9% that kicks in after $200K/$250K. They also explained some deductions I could take to reduce my SE tax burden that none of the articles mentioned.

I need to apologize for my skepticism about Claimyr. I tried it yesterday after getting yet another contradictory answer about self-employment taxes from my tax software support. It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 15 minutes, and was connected to an IRS representative who answered all my questions about the Additional Medicare Tax thresholds. They confirmed it's 2.9% up to $200K/$250K depending on filing status, then an additional 0.9% above that. The agent even walked me through how to correctly calculate my quarterly estimated payments to avoid penalties. No more relying on potentially outdated articles! Definitely saving this service for next tax season too.

I think the Forbes article might have been technically correct but just explained it poorly. The 15.3% is Social Security (12.4%) + Medicare (2.9%). The Social Security part only applies up to the wage base (which changes yearly). The Medicare 2.9% applies to all SE income. The ADDITIONAL 0.9% Medicare tax (which brings it to 3.8% total) kicks in at higher income levels ($200k/$250k). The article maybe just didn't mention this additional tax? Either way, I agree that tax info is confusing. I always double check the IRS website and cross-reference with Publication 15 and Publication 334.

Has anyone else noticed that the wage base for Social Security taxes increases every year? In 2023 it was $160,200, up from $147,000 in 2022. For 2025 it's expected to be around $168,600. This is why old articles can be misleading - tax numbers change annually but articles rarely get updated!