For freelancers, contractors, and 1099 workers
Stop guessing what
to set aside for taxes.
No employer is withholding anything for you. So you pick a percentage, hope it’s enough, and find out in April. We read your actual deposits and estimate what you’ll owe for self-employment tax, federal, and state. Refresh anytime to pull in new deposits.
- Read-only bank connection
- We never see your login
- No money ever moves
Try it. This is the real calculator
- Self-employment tax$12,999
Social Security + Medicare, the part an employer would normally split with you
- Federal income tax$6,926
After the standard deduction and a $13,880 qualified business income deduction
- Colorado income tax$3,762
Estimated at your state's rate
Set aside this year
25.7% of what you bring in
That’s $3,912 of your own money parked for no reason.
2026 rates. Illustration on gross income before business expenses. An estimate to plan with, not tax advice. State figure is approximate ($3.8K at 4.40%).
Why this exists
Nobody is withholding this for you anymore.
So we built the thing we wished existed: read your real deposits, run the real math, and hand you the number before the deadline arrives, not after.
The withholding you used to have is gone
A job took tax out of every paycheck before you ever saw the money. As a 1099 worker that step doesn't happen automatically. Nothing is broken. It's just now your job, and nobody hands you a number to start from.
Guessing costs money in both directions
Set aside too little and you owe a lump sum you didn't plan for, plus interest on the shortfall. Set aside too much and that money sits idle in a tax account instead of your business or your life. Either way, a guess is the wrong tool.
The deadline doesn't wait for you to feel ready
Quarterly payments come due four times a year whether or not you've looked at your numbers. Most people find out how far behind they are the same week the payment is due.
Who it’s for
Built for Schedule C filers.
If you work for yourself, get paid into your own bank account, and have nothing withheld, you owe self-employment tax on top of income tax. That’s exactly what Setaside estimates.
Freelancers
Designers, writers, developers, photographers, consultants.
1099 contractors
Paid by clients with nothing withheld.
Gig workers
Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, and similar platforms.
Trades and solo services
Handymen, trainers, tutors, stylists who rent a chair.
Side businesses
Alongside a W-2 job. We stack your salary in correctly.
Single-member LLCs
Taxed as a sole proprietor, which is the default.
Not a fit yet
For these, the rules are different, so our estimate would be wrong rather than just rough. A CPA is the right call.
S-corp and C-corp owners
Your pay and distributions follow different rules.
Partnerships and multi-owner LLCs
Your income comes on a K-1, not into your bank.
Landlords and investors
Rent and capital gains don't owe self-employment tax.
How it works
Four steps to your number.
01
Connect your account, read-only
Plaid handles the login, so we never see your bank credentials. The connection can only read transactions. There is no path from here to your money.
02
We find your business income
Recurring client payments get flagged automatically. You confirm or correct each one in about a minute, so the number is built on income you recognise.
03
We estimate what you'll owe
Self-employment tax, the QBI deduction, federal brackets, your state's rate. The real 2026 math, not a percentage someone picked.
04
You get a number, and a nudge
One figure to set aside before the next quarterly deadline, plus an optional reminder a week out so it never arrives as a surprise.
The difference
Most apps have you guess a flat 25–30%.We estimate it from your real numbers.
A flat percentage isn’t wrong by a consistent amount. It’s wrong unpredictably. It over-saves when your income is modest and your deductions are real, and it quietly under-saves right when you can least afford the shortfall.
Same three people, same 30% rule of thumb. Look at how differently it lands.
2026 rates, calculated on gross business income before expenses. State figures use a single rate per state and are rougher than the federal estimate. Estimates for illustration, not tax advice.
Works with your accountant
We handle the year.An accountant handles the return.
Filing a return and making the judgment calls a license covers is an accountant’s job. Ours is everything before that: keeping an eye on your income all year so the quarterly payments aren’t a guess and your records are in order when it’s time to file.
We’re working toward a partner CPA who files your return straight from your Setaside records. That part isn’t built yet.
All year
Reads your deposits and the business expenses you categoriseEach quarter
Estimates what to pay and reminds you a week before it's dueAt tax time
Your income and expenses, already confirmed and categorisedJudgment calls
Labels every figure as an estimate and shows how it got therePricing
Free during the beta.
The estimate is free while we’re in beta. What we’re building toward is one price for the whole tax year: the estimate, your records, and a return filed by a partner CPA.
Right now
Setaside Estimate
$0during the beta
- Read-only bank connection through Plaid
- Automatic income detection, with a one-minute review
- Self-employment, federal, and state tax estimated from the deposits you confirm
- Business expenses categorised and deducted from your estimate
- How much of each deposit to set aside, and a check on what you've moved
- A monthly check-in, and catch-up advice if a quarter is missed
- A reminder a week before each quarterly deadline
- A year-end Schedule C summary you can export for any CPA
The goal
Not built yetThe tax year, filed
One price for the year
- Everything in the estimate, all year
- Your income and expenses organised the way a CPA needs them
- A partner CPA reviews, signs, and files your return
- Your money never leaves your own accounts. You pay the IRS yourself
Price set before it launches. Nothing to sign up for today; the roadmap below shows where it fits.
Where this is going
We’ll tell you exactly what we do and don’t do yet.
Most tax tools are vague about where the software stops. Here’s the whole plan, including the parts we haven’t built.
- 01Live now
We estimate it
We read your real deposits and work out self-employment tax, federal brackets, the QBI deduction and your state's rate. Not a flat percentage. The real 2026 rules, applied to your numbers.
An estimate to help you plan, free during the beta.
- 02Live now
You set it aside, and we check
For each deposit we show how much of it to move into your tax savings, and compare what you've moved against what you should have by now. A monthly check-in keeps your records clean. You move the money yourself; it never passes through us.
Live now, on the same read-only connection.
- 03The goal
A partner CPA files your return
At tax time, your records go to a partner CPA who reviews them, signs, and files your return. The estimate, your records, and the filing, for one price for the tax year.
The goal. Not built yet, and the price will be set before it launches. See pricing above.
Steps one and two are live. Everything you see is an estimate built to help you plan, not tax advice or a filing, and we say so plainly on every number.
Where your money goes
We’re software, not a bank.
We never see your bank login
Plaid handles authentication directly with your bank. Your credentials never touch our servers, and we couldn't store them if we wanted to.
The connection is read-only
We pull transaction history. That's it. This product has no transfer capability at all. Not disabled, not built.
Your money stays where it is
We don't hold funds, move funds, or open an account for you. You keep your money in your bank and pay the IRS yourself.
Your data isn't for sale
Transaction data is used to calculate your estimate and nothing else. We don't sell it, and we don't share it with advertisers.
See your estimate before the next deadline.
Connect an account, confirm your income in a minute, and see an estimate for the next quarterly deadline.