- What you actually owe in federal tax based on your income, filing status, and deductions
- Whether your paycheck withholding is on track to cover it, or needs adjusting
- How much extra tax freelance or 1099 income adds through self-employment tax
- Whether you're headed for a refund or a balance due once it's all combined
What you'll figure out
Step preview
1
What do you actually owe in federal tax?
Start with your gross income and filing status
2
Is your paycheck withholding enough?
Compare what's being withheld against what you'll actually owe
3
Do you also have freelance or 1099 income?
Self-employment income carries its own Social Security and Medicare tax
4
Refund or amount owed — where do you land?
Bring it all together with credits and what's already been withheld
Start Journey →
Takes about 10 min · Save anytime
Most people only look at one number around tax season — either what they think they owe, or what shows up on their W-2. That leaves out whether paycheck withholding is actually on track, what happens if freelance income is added on top, and what the real refund or balance due looks like once everything is combined. This journey walks through all of it in one flow.
Who this is for
- W-2 employees who want to check their paycheck withholding is on track
- Freelancers and 1099 contractors adding self-employment income to a W-2 job
- Anyone who wants a clearer estimate of their refund or balance due before filing
Related journeys
Frequently Asked Questions
About 10 minutes. You can pause and resume anytime within the same browser session, and each step is saved as you go.
No. Step 3 is only relevant if you have freelance, 1099, or other self-employment income — if you're W-2 only, you can skip straight from the withholding step to the refund step.
Step 2 already calculates a projected annual withholding figure based on your salary and pay frequency, so the refund step reuses it rather than asking you to re-enter or re-derive the same number. It stays editable if your actual W-2 withholding turns out different.
No. Everything stays in your browser's session storage and clears when you close the tab. Nothing is sent to thecalcu.com's servers.
Yes. Go back to any step, change a value, and steps that pulled data from it get flagged as needing a recalculation, both on that step and on the summary page.
Not automatically — the refund step in this journey estimates federal income tax and withholding only. If you added self-employment income in step 3, add that tax amount separately when deciding how much to set aside before filing.
Some calculators in this journey support different filing status options than others, so the field stays editable at each step rather than assuming they always match exactly.
Check the summary page for all four results side by side. If step 2 shows you're under-withholding, consider submitting a new W-4 to your employer before adjusting anything else.
Free calculators used in this journey