{"data":{"id":"us/20-cfr-404.1096","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"20 CFR 404.1096","heading":"Self-employment income.","body":"(a) General. Self-employment income is the amount of your net earnings from self-employment that is subject to social security tax and counted for social security benefit purposes. The term self-employment income means the net earnings from self-employment you derive in a taxable year, except as described in paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of this section.\n(b) Maximum self-employment income. (1) The term self-employment income does not include that part of your net earnings from self-employment that exceeds (or that part of your net earnings from self-employment which, when added to the wages you received in that taxable year, exceeds)—\nTaxable year Amount\nEnding before 1955 $3,600\nEnding in 1955 through 1958 4,200\nEnding in 1959 through 1965 4,800\nEnding in 1966 and 1967 6,600\nEnding after 1967 and beginning before 1972 7,800\nBeginning in 1972 9,000\nBeginning in 1973 10,800\nBeginning in 1974 13,200\nBeginning in 1975 14,100\nBeginning in 1976 15,300\nBeginning in 1977 16,500\nBeginning in 1978 17,700\nBeginning in 1979 22,900\nBeginning in 1980 25,900\nBeginning in 1981 29,700\nBeginning in 1982 32,400\nBeginning in 1983 35,700\nBeginning in 1984 37,800\nBeginning in 1985 39,600\nBeginning in 1986 42,000\nBeginning in 1987 43,800\nBeginning in 1988 45,000\nBeginning in 1989 48,000\nBeginning in 1990 51,300\nBeginning in 1991 53,400\nBeginning in 1992 55,500\n(2) For the purpose of this paragraph the term wages includes remuneration paid to an employee for services covered by an agreement entered into under section 218 of the Act, or an agreement entered into under section 3121(l) of the Code, which would be wages under section 209 of Act if the services were considered employment under section 210(a) of the Act.\n(c) Minimum net earnings from self employment. (1) Self-employment income does not include your net earnings from self-employment when the amount of those earnings for the taxable year is less than $400. If you have only $300 of net earnings from self-employment for the taxable year you would not have any self-employment income. (Special rules apply if you are paid $100 or more and work for a church or church-controlled organization that has exempted its employees (see § 404.1068(f)).)\n(2) If you have net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more for the taxable year you may have less than $400 of creditable self-employment income. This occurs where your net earnings from self-employment is $400 or more for a taxable year and the amount of your net earnings from self-employment plus the amount of the wages paid to you during that taxable year exceed the maximum creditable earnings for a year. For example, if you had net earnings from self-employment of $1,000 for 1978, and were also paid wages of $17,500 during 1978, your creditable self-employment income for 1978 would be $200.\n(d) Nonresident aliens. A nonresident alien has self-employment income only if coverage is provided under a totalization agreement [see § 404.1913]. We do not consider an individual who is a resident of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa to be a nonresident alien.","path":["Title 20—Employees' Benefits","CHAPTER III—SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION","PART 404—FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- )","Subpart K—Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-20.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:45Z","sha256":"fc151ab0590570eb5243ed15960b9c7e6f5ed7f56071857258b095eea1c49fc5","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/20-cfr-404.1095","next":"us/20-cfr-404.1200"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}