20 CFR 404.1096 – Self-employment income
(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.
(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)—
| Taxable year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ending before 1955 | $3,600 |
| Ending in 1955 through 1958 | 4,200 |
| Ending in 1959 through 1965 | 4,800 |
| Ending in 1966 and 1967 | 6,600 |
| Ending after 1967 and beginning before 1972 | 7,800 |
| Beginning in 1972 | 9,000 |
| Beginning in 1973 | 10,800 |
| Beginning in 1974 | 13,200 |
| Beginning in 1975 | 14,100 |
| Beginning in 1976 | 15,300 |
| Beginning in 1977 | 16,500 |
| Beginning in 1978 | 17,700 |
| Beginning in 1979 | 22,900 |
| Beginning in 1980 | 25,900 |
| Beginning in 1981 | 29,700 |
| Beginning in 1982 | 32,400 |
| Beginning in 1983 | 35,700 |
| Beginning in 1984 | 37,800 |
| Beginning in 1985 | 39,600 |
| Beginning in 1986 | 42,000 |
| Beginning in 1987 | 43,800 |
| Beginning in 1988 | 45,000 |
| Beginning in 1989 | 48,000 |
| Beginning in 1990 | 51,300 |
| Beginning in 1991 | 53,400 |
| Beginning in 1992 | 55,500 |
(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.
(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)).)
(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.
(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.