Self-employment tax estimator template

Free build guide: Self-employment tax estimator for WordPress

This guide rebuilds the Self-employment tax estimator from this site in Gravity Forms: 1 input, 4 live results and no submit button. Expect about 15 minutes by hand. The template above is the same form as an import file, and the bundle adds a PDF version of this guide with a screenshot of every setting, plus the stylesheet.

You will end up with:

• Self-employment tax
• Earnings subject to the tax
• Deductible half
• Per quarterly payment

What you need

• Gravity Forms (any license) — Calculation fields are in core.

Everything here is core Gravity Forms. No add-ons.

1. Create the form

1. Go to Forms → New Form and name it Self-employment tax.
2. In Form Settings → Form Layout, set the CSS Class Name to fo-live-only. Step 3 uses it to hide the submit button.
3. Leave the form open in the editor; the fields come next.

2. Add the fields, in this order

Field IDs are assigned as you add fields. If yours come out differently, change the {Label:ID} references in the formulas to match your IDs. Settings not mentioned stay at their defaults.

1. Net profit from self-employment · Number · ID 1
Number Format Currency; Default Value 60000; Description “Schedule C income after expenses, for the year.”.

2. Self-employment tax · Number · ID 2
Number Format Currency; Description “Social Security (12.4%) plus Medicare (2.9%) on 92.35% of profit. Income tax is extra.”; Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 2.

( ( {Net profit:1} * 0.9235 ) * 0.153 )

3. Earnings subject to the tax · Number · ID 3
Number Format Currency; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbour (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 2.

( {Net profit:1} * 0.9235 )

4. Deductible half · Number · ID 4
Number Format Currency; Description “Comes off your income on Form 1040.”; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbour (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 2.

( ( {Net profit:1} * 0.9235 ) * 0.153 ) / 2

5. Per quarterly payment · Number · ID 5
Number Format Currency; Description “The self-employment part of each estimated payment.”; Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 2.

( ( {Net profit:1} * 0.9235 ) * 0.153 ) / 4

3. Hide the submit button

The results are live, so nothing needs submitting. Add this filter to your theme’s functions.php or a code-snippets plugin; it hides the button on any form carrying the fo-live-only class:

add_filter( 'gform_submit_button', function ( $button, $form ) {
	return str_contains( (string) rgar( $form, 'cssClass' ), 'fo-live-only' ) ? '' : $button;
}, 10, 2 );

Or with CSS alone: .fo-live-only_wrapper .gform_footer { display: none; }

4. Put it on a page and make it look like this

Add the form to any page with the Gravity Forms block, or the shortcode [gravityform id="X" title="false" ajax="false"]. The form inherits your theme’s styles; the classes you set in step 2 are hooks for the look you see on this site:

• fo-result on a calculation field makes it the big teal result panel.
• fo-result fo-result--sub makes the smaller secondary figures.
• fo-segmented on a radio field turns it into a segmented switch.
• Two fields on one row is the editor’s own column layout: drag a field beside another and the row splits in half. No CSS class is needed, and the old gf_left_half Ready Classes are deprecated.

The bundle includes the two stylesheets that implement those classes, with notes on matching your brand colours. Without them the form still works; it just looks like your theme’s default Gravity Forms styling.

How the maths works is explained under “How it’s calculated” on the live Self-employment tax estimator.