How much should you set aside for taxes?

When you were on a payroll, your taxes came out before you ever saw the money. Run your own practice and that job is yours now. Nobody withholds anything, so the money lands in your account looking like it's all yours, and a real part of it isn't. The rough answer is to hold back somewhere between a quarter and a third of your profit, move it aside the day each payment clears, and send it to the IRS four times a year. The exact share depends on your profit, your filing status, and your state. Our free estimator will give you your real number in about a minute.

The gap between "it landed in my account" and "it's actually mine" is where solo owners get caught. You feel comfortable all year. You spend like the balance is yours. Then a bill shows up in April, sometimes with a penalty on top for not having paid as you went, and a good year turns into a scramble for money you already spent. The owners who set aside as they go aren't more disciplined than everyone else. They just never have to claw tax money back out of next month's rent.

What's the share, really?

"Around a quarter to a third" is the honest range for most solo clinicians, and it's also why generic advice only gets you close. As your own boss you cover two things. First is self-employment tax, the Social Security and Medicare that an employer would normally pay half of. On your own you carry the whole 15.3%. Then income tax on top, federal and, in most states, state.

Here's what that looks like on real numbers. On $90,000 of profit, a single filer in a no-income-tax state like Washington or Texas sets aside about $5,600 a quarter, a little under a quarter of profit. Add a state income tax, or earn more, and the share climbs from there. That is the problem with a flat "set aside 30 percent" rule: it's built for an average that may not be you. The estimator gives you your number instead, and it runs on the current 2026 brackets, the 2026 standard deduction, and the 2026 Social Security wage base, so it isn't quietly a year behind.

It does one thing on purpose: it leaves out the qualified-business-income deduction, so the figure runs a little high. Treat it as a safe ceiling, not a floor. Ending the year with a few hundred dollars of cushion beats coming up short.

Do you actually have to pay quarterly?

If you expect to owe more than about $1,000 when you file, yes. The IRS wants the money as you earn it, not in one lump the next spring, and skipping the quarterly payments can cost you a penalty even if you pay the full balance on time in April.

There's a simpler way to stay safe than predicting this year exactly. Pay at least what you owed last year, split across the four payments, a little more if you're a higher earner, and the IRS won't penalize you even if this year comes in bigger. Your accountant can set that floor for you in a few minutes. Confirm the final plan with them either way, especially if you're weighing whether to become an S-corp, which changes this math.

When are the 2026 deadlines?

Four of them: April 15, June 15, and September 15 of 2026, then January 15 of 2027 for the final quarter. None of them sting if the money is already waiting. That's the actual trick here, and it isn't a spreadsheet. Open a second account, label it taxes, and move your share over every time a client payment clears, before it ever feels like spending money. You don't notice the bill because the money was never in your hands to begin with.

We learned this one first-hand. Our first couple of years were a string of surprises, first from getting used to running a business, then from growing it. One of them was an April tax bill that ran mid-four figures, real money for a business just starting out. What ended the cycle was two habits: estimating ahead, and automating the saving. Our estimator is the culmination of that learning, still evolving as the rules change, and free for you to use. These days the separate account is in place, the deposits go in on a regular schedule, and tax time comes with no stress at all. For us that relief has more than paid for the effort of the initial setup.

You don't need a bookkeeping system to start. You need a percentage and a second account, and the percentage is the part people get wrong, so start there. If you'd rather see the tax number in context, what your practice actually nets you and what you can safely pay yourself, the free solo Snapshot puts it together in a few minutes, and nothing you type ever leaves your browser.

Free. No signup. The free read runs in your browser.