Self-Employment Tax Explained: The 15.3% Coaches Pay (11.5.1)

Self-employment tax is the line that catches every newly self-employed coach off guard, because as a W-2 employee they never saw it as a separate number. Fifteen point three percent. On a separate track from income tax. It applies to every dollar of self-employment earnings up to the Social Security wage base, and the Medicare portion keeps going without a cap. The S-corp election exists primarily as a mechanism to reduce this single tax line. Walks the composition — 12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare plus an Additional Medicare surtax above $200k. What SE tax actually applies to in sole prop vs. S-corp. The half-of-SE-tax deduction that takes some sting out of income tax but doesn't reduce SE tax itself. Then the savings math comparing sole prop and S-corp at $100k and $120k of net income. Chapters: 0:00 SE Tax: The 15.3% Coaches Miss 0:49 SE Tax Runs on a Separate Track 1:42 Composition: SS Cap Plus Medicare 2:40 What SE Tax Applies To by Entity 3:36 Half-of-SE-Tax Deduction Explained 4:32 S-Corp Savings Math at $100K 5:33 What Happens Above the SS Wage Base 6:29 Sole Prop vs S-Corp at $120K 7:29 Run Your Own Numbers Now In this lesson: • Why SE tax runs on a separate track from income tax (and most first-year coaches don't realize they owe both) • The composition — 12.4% SS up to the wage base ($168,600 for 2024), 2.9% Medicare uncapped, additional surtax above $200k • What SE tax applies to — 100% of Schedule C profit (× 92.35% factor) vs. S-corp salary only • The SE-tax deduction — reduces income-tax base, not SE tax itself • The S-corp savings math worked through with illustrative numbers • What happens to the math above the SS wage base — additional savings diminish on the 12.4% portion • Sole prop vs. S-corp worked at $120k net — the dollar gap on the page About the course Setting Up Your Coaching Practice is the entry course in The Practitioner Series — async ICF Continuing Coach Education specializations for credentialed and pre-credentialed coaches. 21 modules, 171 videos, fully self-paced. Covers everything from forming the entity through year-one tax filing. Framework: Coach as Founder — the identity shift from a coach who is starting a business to a founder who builds the operational foundation a coaching practice runs on. ICF CCE eligible: ~20 hours (4 Core Competency + 16 Resource Development) — bracket pending Phase 10 submission. ▶ Next lesson: Payroll Services for Coaches: Gusto vs OnPay vs Justworks →    • Payroll Services for Coaches: Gusto vs OnP...   Full course (Tandem Coaching Academy): https://community.tandemcoaching.acad... More from Tandem: https://tandemcoach.co Coaching industry data: https://tandemcoach.co/coaching-indus... #CoachingPractice #NewCoach #ICF #CoachAsFounder #PractitionerSeries #TandemCoaching