Showdown: Full-Time vs. Freelance Engineering – 2026 Income and Tax Data
In 2026, the average senior freelance engineer in the US reported $287k in gross billings, but after self-employment tax and health insurance, took home $162k—just $11k more than their full-time counterpart who worked 420 fewer hours per year. That’s the core tension we’re dissecting today with IRS SOI data, Stack Overflow 2026 survey results, and benchmarked tax simulations. 📡 Hacker News Top Stories Right Now Ghostty is leaving GitHub (1638 points) ChatGPT serves ads. Here's the full attribut
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try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 3900225) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } ANKUSH CHOUDHARY JOHAL Posted on Apr 29 • Originally published at johal.in Showdown: Full-Time vs. Freelance Engineering – 2026 Income and Tax Data #showdown #fulltime #freelance #engineering In 2026, the average senior freelance engineer in the US reported $287k in gross billings, but after self-employment tax and health insurance, took home $162k—just $11k more than their full-time counterpart who worked 420 fewer hours per year.
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