What is the standard mileage rate for 2026?

There are two rates in 2026, not one, because the IRS revised the business rate mid-year. Business mileage is $0.725 per mile from January 1 through June 30, then $0.76 per mile from July 1 through December 31. Medical/military-moving mileage runs $0.205 then $0.235 across the same split, and the charitable rate is fixed by statute at $0.14 all year. A full-year mileage log has to be split at the July 1 boundary rather than multiplied by one rate. See the full breakdown in the 2026 IRS Mileage Rate guide.

What is the Section 179 deduction limit for 2026?

The 2026 Section 179 maximum is $2,560,000, with the phase-out starting once total qualifying equipment placed in service in the year reaches $4,090,000 and completing at $6,650,000 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32). Both figures are dramatically higher than pre-2025 law because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) raised the base limit to $2.5 million and the phase-out threshold to $4 million, effective for property placed in service in tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, with the 2026 amounts reflecting one year of inflation indexing on that new base. For almost every solo freelancer the phase-out is irrelevant regardless. The number that does matter for freelancers with a business vehicle is the separate, much lower heavy-SUV cap: $32,000 for 2026.

What is the Social Security wage base for 2026, and why does it matter for self-employment tax?

$184,500 for 2026. Self-employment tax is really two pieces: a 2.9% Medicare portion with no ceiling, and a 12.4% Social Security portion that only applies up to the year's wage base — and that ceiling is shared with any W-2 Social Security wages you already earned in the same year. A freelancer who also has a W-2 job that already reaches or exceeds $184,500 in Social Security wages owes no 12.4% portion on their Schedule C profit at all, only the 2.9% Medicare piece.

How much can I contribute to a Solo 401(k) in 2026?

The employee elective deferral is $24,500 for 2026 (Notice 2025-67). Add an employer profit-sharing contribution of up to roughly 25% of your net self-employment earnings, and the combined 2026 §415(c) cap is $72,000 for someone under 50. At 50+, an $8,000 catch-up raises that to $80,000; SECURE 2.0's 'super catch-up' for ages 60 through 63 replaces the regular catch-up with $11,250, raising the combined cap to $83,250. Note that the age-50+ catch-up for higher earners has its own new wrinkle in 2026 — see the SECURE 2.0 Roth catch-up mandate guide if you run your business through an S-corp and pay yourself W-2 wages.

What are the 2026 QBI (Section 199A) income thresholds?

The 2026 taxable-income thresholds are $201,750 for single filers and $403,500 for married filing jointly (Rev. Proc. 2025-32). Below those numbers, every qualifying freelancer gets the full 20% deduction with no W-2-wage or property tests at all, regardless of what kind of business they run. OBBBA widened the phase-in range starting in 2026 to $75,000 above the threshold for single filers and $150,000 for MFJ (up from $50,000/$100,000 under prior law) — so the deduction fully phases out at $276,750 (single) and $553,500 (MFJ). Specified service trades or businesses (SSTBs) — consulting, law, accounting, health, and similar fields — see the deduction phase out entirely across that range; non-SSTB freelancers instead face W-2 wage and property limitations across the same range. Full mechanics are in the QBI Deduction for Freelancers guide.

What is the 1099-K threshold for 2026?

$20,000 in gross payments AND more than 200 transactions from a single third-party payment network — both conditions have to be met. OBBBA repealed the American Rescue Plan Act's phased-down threshold (which would have reached $600 with no transaction minimum) and retroactively restored the original $20,000/200-transaction rule back to the 2022 tax year. A freelancer who takes card or app payments below that combined threshold generally won't receive a 1099-K at all, even though they still owe tax on every dollar of business income regardless of whether a form is issued.

The 2026 Schedule C Numbers Every Freelancer Needs to Know

Published: August 29, 2026 · Reading time: 8 min

TL;DR: Seven 2026 numbers drive most Schedule C decisions, and several moved well outside their normal annual inflation adjustment because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA): the mileage rate ($0.725/mi Jan–Jun, $0.76/mi Jul–Dec), the Section 179 cap ($2,560,000, with a $32,000 heavy-SUV sub-cap), the §280F luxury-auto cap ($12,300 without bonus depreciation, $20,300 with), the Social Security wage base ($184,500), Solo 401(k) limits ($24,500 employee deferral, $72,000 combined under 50), the QBI thresholds ($201,750 single / $403,500 MFJ, with a widened phase-in range), and the 1099-K threshold (back to $20,000 and 200 transactions). Every one of these is set by a specific, dated revenue procedure or statute — confirm the exact current-year figure and its source at irs.gov before filing, since a number that's right today can be superseded by year-end guidance.

Freelancer tax planning runs on a handful of dollar thresholds that change every year — sometimes more than once a year, as 2026's mileage rate proved, and sometimes by more than a typical inflation adjustment, as OBBBA proved for three of the figures below. Instead of hunting down each one in a different guide, here's every figure that matters for a Schedule C filer in 2026, in one place, with a link to the full mechanics behind each.

Vehicle and mileage numbers

Figure	2026 amount	Notes
Standard business mileage rate	$0.725/mi (Jan 1–Jun 30), $0.76/mi (Jul 1–Dec 31)	Mid-year revision — split your log at July 1
Medical/military-moving mileage	$0.205/mi, then $0.235/mi	Same July 1 split
Charitable mileage	$0.14/mi (all year)	Fixed by statute, not indexed
§280F luxury-auto cap, year one	$12,300 (no bonus) / $20,300 (with bonus)	Passenger vehicles ≤6,000 lbs GVWR only; Rev. Proc. 2026-15
Heavy-SUV §179 cap	$32,000	Vehicles 6,000–14,000 lbs GVWR
Bonus depreciation rate	100%	Permanently restored by OBBBA

The most important operational detail is the mid-year mileage split: 2026 is the third time in fifteen years the IRS has revised the rate part-way through the year (after 2011 and 2022). A full-year mileage log has to be divided at the July 1 boundary and each half multiplied by its own rate — quoting a single full-year figure will be wrong in one direction or the other. See the full walkthrough in the 2026 IRS Mileage Rate guide.

The §280F luxury-auto cap only applies if you depreciate a vehicle under the actual-expense method; if you take standard mileage, depreciation is already baked into the per-mile rate and the cap doesn't apply as a separate limit. It also applies to the combined depreciable basis of a vehicle and any later improvement to it (like a dual-control installation), not to each piece separately. Full mechanics: Luxury Auto Limits Explained and Section 179 for Freelancers.

Self-employment tax numbers

Figure	2026 amount
Social Security wage base	$184,500
Additional Medicare Tax threshold (MFJ)	$250,000 (fixed, not indexed)
Additional Medicare Tax threshold (single/HoH)	$200,000 (fixed, not indexed)
Additional Medicare Tax threshold (MFS)	$125,000 (fixed, not indexed)

Self-employment tax is 2.9% Medicare (no ceiling, ever) plus 12.4% Social Security (capped at the year's wage base, and that ceiling is shared with any W-2 Social Security wages you also earned). If you have a day job whose W-2 wages already reach $184,500, none of your Schedule C profit is subject to the 12.4% piece — only the 2.9% Medicare portion remains. Full mechanics and a worked example: Self-Employment Tax and the Combined Wage Base.

The Additional Medicare Tax's 0.9% surtax thresholds are fixed by statute and never adjust for inflation, unlike almost everything else on this page — worth remembering since they get relatively easier to hit every year that wages grow and they don't.

Retirement contribution numbers

Figure	2026 amount
Solo 401(k) employee elective deferral	$24,500
Solo 401(k) combined §415(c) cap, under 50	$72,000
Solo 401(k) combined cap, age 50+ (+$8,000 catch-up)	$80,000
Solo 401(k) combined cap, ages 60–63 (+$11,250 super catch-up, replaces the regular catch-up)	$83,250
SEP-IRA / Solo 401(k) employer share	Up to ~25% of net self-employment earnings

Figures per IRS Notice 2025-67. The Solo 401(k)'s flat employee deferral is what makes it stronger than a SEP-IRA at moderate profit levels, since a SEP-IRA is employer-contribution-only. See Solo 401(k) Contribution Limits and SEP-IRA vs. Solo 401(k) for the full comparison — note that both of those posts predate Notice 2025-67 and should be read for mechanics rather than for the exact dollar figures.

One 2026-specific wrinkle: if you've elected S-corp treatment and your 2025 W-2 wages from that S-corp exceeded $150,000, SECURE 2.0 requires your 2026 age-50+ catch-up contribution to go in as Roth, not pre-tax — a rule that can't touch a pure sole proprietor with no W-2 wages at all. See the SECURE 2.0 Roth Catch-Up Mandate guide for exactly who it hits and why.

Income-reporting and deduction numbers

Figure	2026 amount
QBI (Section 199A) threshold, single	$201,750
QBI threshold, MFJ	$403,500
QBI phase-out range above threshold (widened by OBBBA for 2026)	+$75,000 (single) / +$150,000 (MFJ)
1099-K reporting threshold	$20,000 and more than 200 transactions (restored by OBBBA)
Business gift deduction limit	$25 per recipient per year (in place since the Revenue Act of 1962)

Below the QBI threshold, every qualifying freelancer — SSTB or not — gets the full 20% deduction with no wage or property tests. Above it, non-SSTB businesses face W-2 wage/property limitations while SSTBs phase out entirely by the top of the (now wider) range. Full walkthrough: The QBI Deduction for Freelancers — read for mechanics, since its published dollar figures predate the OBBBA changes reflected here.

The 1099-K threshold reverting to $20,000/200 transactions means far fewer freelancers will actually receive a form in 2026 than the immediately preceding years suggested — but the underlying obligation to report all business income is unchanged whether or not a 1099-K arrives. See 1099-K Threshold 2026 for reconciliation mechanics, again reading for process rather than for its stated dollar threshold.

Why these numbers move — and why one page can't be the only source you check

Most of the figures above are adjusted for inflation annually under a formula set by statute. Three of them — the Section 179 cap, the QBI thresholds and phase-in range, and the 1099-K threshold — moved by far more than a typical annual index in 2026 because OBBBA (signed July 4, 2025) directly rewrote the underlying law, and two other figures (the charitable mileage rate and the $25 gift limit) never adjust at all. A number that was correct last year, or even correct under the law as it stood before a mid-2025 statute changed it, can be wrong today for reasons that have nothing to do with inflation. Treat this page as a map of which numbers matter and where the full mechanics live, and confirm the live figure — and which revenue procedure, notice, or statute currently sets it — at irs.gov or with your tax preparer before you rely on any of them for a return.

How CentSense Helps

CentSense applies the correct rate automatically as it changes — mid-year mileage splits, vehicle depreciation caps, and Schedule C line mapping are built into every receipt and trip you log, so you're never stuck manually tracking which threshold applies to which half of the year.

For the full filing-season checklist built around these numbers, see the Freelancer Tax Checklist 2026 and Freelancer Tax Deadlines Calendar 2026.

Authoritative References

Stop re-deriving these numbers every quarter. Start a free CentSense account and let every receipt, trip, and contribution get mapped to the correct 2026 threshold automatically — including the mid-year mileage split most spreadsheets miss.

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