Can You Pay Social Security on Your Own? Self-Employment Tax and Credits

Can you pay Social Security on your own? Yes, if you have self-employment income of $400 or more in a year, you’re required to pay both the employee and employer shares through the self-employment tax system. If you have no earned income at all, though, you cannot voluntarily buy into Social Security. Credits come only from covered work, and there is no check you can write to the Social Security Administration to purchase them.¹

When You Owe Social Security Tax on Your Own Earnings

If no employer is withholding Social Security and Medicare taxes from your pay, you’re responsible for paying both halves yourself. That covers sole proprietors, freelancers, gig workers, and independent contractors, whether the work is full-time or a weekend side business. The trigger is $400 in net self-employment earnings for the year.²

Certain church employees fall into a similar category. When a church or qualified church-controlled organization elects exemption from employer FICA taxes, its workers must pay Social Security and Medicare on their own through the self-employment tax system.³ The threshold for these workers is just $108.28 for the tax year, far lower than the standard $400.⁴

One boundary worth naming: statutory employees, such as certain commission drivers or full-time life insurance agents, may look like independent contractors but are legally treated as employees for Social Security purposes. Their employers handle the tax, and these workers do not file Schedule SE on those earnings.⁵

Why You Can’t Buy Credits Without Earned Income

This is where many people get stuck. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, an early retiree, someone who spent years working abroad, or someone whose past job wasn’t covered by Social Security (some state and local government positions, for example), those years stay as zeros in your earnings record. There is no buy-in, no catch-up mechanism, and no way to convert savings or investment income into credits.¹

There is one meaningful exception for non-working spouses: spousal benefits. A spouse who never worked, or didn’t earn enough credits on their own, can receive up to half of the working spouse’s full retirement benefit. That doesn’t require any credits of your own, only a qualifying marriage to someone who has enough.

What You Actually Owe: The 15.3% Self-Employment Tax

Self-employment tax combines Social Security and Medicare at 15.3%. The Social Security portion is 12.4% (formally Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) and the Medicare portion is 2.9%.² When you work for an employer, each side pays half. When you work for yourself, you pay both halves.

The 12.4% Social Security piece applies only to earnings up to a cap that adjusts each year. For 2026, the cap is $184,500.⁶ Any net self-employment income above that is exempt from the Social Security tax. The 2.9% Medicare tax has no cap.

If you also hold a W-2 job, your wages count toward the cap first. So if your employer wages total $120,000 in 2026, only the first $64,500 of your self-employment income would be subject to the 12.4% Social Security tax. Medicare still applies to all of it.⁷

Higher earners owe an additional 0.9% Medicare tax once combined earnings exceed $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly), bringing the Medicare portion to 3.8% on income above those thresholds.⁸

One partial offset: you can deduct half of your self-employment tax when figuring your adjusted gross income. The deduction goes on Schedule 1 of Form 1040 and reduces your income tax, though not the self-employment tax itself.⁹

How Paying Turns Into Credits

Every dollar of covered earnings you pay Social Security tax on gets tracked, and the system converts those earnings into credits (sometimes called quarters of coverage). In 2026, you earn one credit for every $1,890 in covered earnings, up to four credits per year. Earning $7,560 in 2026 gets you the annual maximum.¹⁰

You need 40 credits, roughly 10 years of covered work, to qualify for retirement benefits. Disability benefits require fewer, depending on your age when disability begins. Earning more than the annual maximum doesn’t add credits, but higher lifetime earnings do raise your eventual monthly benefit.¹⁰

Forms and Filing

You report business income and expenses on Schedule C, which produces your net profit. That figure flows to Schedule SE, where you calculate the Social Security and Medicare taxes owed. Both attach to your Form 1040.¹¹ You need a valid Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to file.

Quarterly Deadlines and Payment Options

Self-employed people don’t wait until April. The IRS requires quarterly estimated payments. For tax year 2026, the deadlines are April 15, 2026; June 15, 2026; September 15, 2026; and January 15, 2027. You can skip the January payment if you file your 2026 return and pay the full balance by February 1, 2027.¹²

IRS Direct Pay transfers funds directly from a checking or savings account for free, with immediate confirmation.¹³ You can also pay through your IRS Online Account, which shows your payment history and balance. The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System remains available if you already have an account, but the IRS no longer accepts new individual enrollments.¹⁴ Paper checks payable to “United States Treasury” also work, mailed with a Form 1040-ES voucher.¹²

What Happens If You Miss a Payment

Missing a quarterly deadline triggers an underpayment penalty that accrues interest on the shortfall from the due date until you pay. As of early 2025, the IRS charged 7% annual interest on underpayments, compounded daily, and that rate adjusts quarterly.¹⁵

Two safe harbors protect you regardless of what you eventually owe: pay at least 90% of the current year’s tax liability through your estimates, or pay 100% of last year’s total tax (110% if your adjusted gross income exceeded $150,000).¹⁶

There’s a second cost to skipping payments that has nothing to do with penalties. A year with zero reported self-employment income is a year that pulls your average lifetime earnings down, reducing the monthly Social Security check you’ll eventually receive. Underreporting today shrinks the benefit later.

The Optional Method for Lean Years

If your self-employment income is low or you had a loss, the nonfarm optional method on Schedule SE lets you report up to two-thirds of your gross nonfarm income as net earnings, even if your actual net profit was tiny or negative. You’ll pay some self-employment tax on income you wouldn’t otherwise owe it on, and in exchange you keep the year in your Social Security record.¹⁷

To qualify, your net nonfarm profits must be less than $7,840 and less than 72.189% of your gross nonfarm income, and you must have had actual net earnings of $400 or more in at least two of the three prior tax years. The IRS caps use of this method at five years over your lifetime, so it’s a tool for occasional lean years, not a long-term plan.¹⁷

1
Social Security Administration. Can I Contribute Money to Social Security to Earn Extra Credits?
2
Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Members of the Clergy
4
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 517 (2025), Social Security and Other Information for Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers
5
Internal Revenue Service. Exempt Organizations: Who Is a Statutory Employee?
6
Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
7
Social Security Administration. If You Are Self-Employed
8
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax
9
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 554, Self-Employment Tax
10
Social Security Administration. Social Security Credits and Benefit Eligibility
11
Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax
12
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals (2026)
13
Internal Revenue Service. Direct Pay Help
14
Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
15
Internal Revenue Service. Interest Rates Remain the Same for the Second Quarter of 2025
16
Internal Revenue Service. Estimated Taxes
17
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule SE (Form 1040)