Anyone who works for themselves and is proud to be their own boss will have to deal with self-employment tax each year. Self-Employment Contributions Act tax, or SECA is different from the taxes that are paid by those who work for a business. SECA resembles the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA, which those who are not self-employed must pay every year. There is a reason why those who pay self-employment tax seem to pay more taxes than the average citizen does. It is because the self-employed individual is paying his or her own Medicare and Social Security and FICA tax. Working for someone else means that cost is shared with the employer, each of them paying 7.65% in FICA tax. The self-employed pay 15.3 percent. 12.4% of this is for Social Security, while the remaining 2.9% is for Medicare.