Small Business Owners Foot 92 Percent of the Self-Employment Tax Bill
Self-employment taxes are comprised of Social Security and Medicare taxes. From 2017 to 2023, small businesses paid approximately 92 percent of self-employment taxes each year.
In 2023, they paid an estimated $74.7 billion of the $81.1 billion in total self-employment tax revenue. Of this $74.7 billion, small business sole proprietorships accounted for $69.2 billion and small business partnerships for $5.5 billion.
Other non-small business contributors, mainly larger partnerships, paid the remaining share. Small business sole proprietorships consistently paid more than 10 times as much self-employment taxes as small business partnerships over this period.