The 1099 vs W-2 Calculator Pack — Seven linked calculators, every formula checked by recalculation

Seven calculators for the choice between a salary and a contract, from either side of the table. Start with sheet 3: it turns a W-2 offer into the contract rate that actually matches it, and in the worked example that is 1.87 times the salary's hourly rate. Sheet 4 does the self-employment tax the way Schedule SE does, including the Social Security cap. These are estimates. Nothing here files anything, income tax is a rate you enter, and your own situation -- state tax, deductions, credits, other income -- changes the numbers. Every formula was recalculated and checked against an independent implementation before this shipped.

What is in it

7 calculators, one per sheet. Overwrite the blue cells with your own numbers and everything else follows — nothing is locked, there are no macros, and it opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

• Salary to hourly and back — What is a salary per hour -- per hour paid, and per hour worked?
• What the benefits are worth — What does a W-2 job pay you on top of the salary?
• Contract rate to match a job — What hourly rate as a contractor equals this W-2 offer?
• Self-employment tax — How much Social Security and Medicare tax is due on profit?
• Quarterly set-aside — How much to put aside each quarter for tax?
• Same rate as an employee — What is a client's 'same hourly rate' contract really worth?
• The employer's side — Is a W-2 hire or a contractor cheaper for the same hours?

Every formula was checked

This pack contains 46 formulas. Before it was published, every one of them was recalculated by a spreadsheet engine and compared against an independent implementation of the same arithmetic written in Python. All 46 agreed to within a cent, and the workbook carries a Verification sheet saying so.

That is an unusual thing to be able to claim about a spreadsheet, and it is the main reason to buy this one rather than download a free template. A formula that looks right and is wrong is worse than no formula at all, because you will act on it.

What each calculator assumes

There is a sheet listing this, because a calculator that hides its assumptions is just a number generator:

• Every paid week has the same hours. Overtime is not modeled.
• Benefits are valued at what the employer pays, not at what you would pay to buy them yourself, which is often more.
• Adding the employer's half of FICA approximates the extra self-employment tax; sheet 4 computes it exactly. Business costs and unbilled time are your estimates.
• Leaves out the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on high earnings, farm and church-employee rules, and the optional methods. Schedule SE is the authority; this only estimates it.
• Your effective rates are the ones you enter; deductions, credits and other income all change them. This is a savings target, not the IRS safe-harbor calculation, and it files nothing.
• Both sides compared before income tax. The SE-tax $400 floor and W-2 wages from another job are ignored here; sheet 4 handles both.
• Same hours of work either way. Equipment, training, management time and the legal test for classification are not costed.

What this is not

Not financial, tax or legal advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, borrow or sign anything. These are calculators: they show what a choice costs, not which choice is right for you. Where a published rate or threshold is used it is the one current when the pack was built — those change, the arithmetic does not.

Honest about the format

One .xlsx workbook, 7 calculator sheets plus Start Here, Assumptions and Verification. Not a PDF, not a physical product, not a Notion template. Available immediately after purchase; nothing ships.

Refunds

If this isn't what you expected, email me within 30 days and I'll refund you in full — no need to explain. Because it's an instant download I can't take the file back, so I'd rather you just had your money back.