About 1099Local

1099Local does one job: estimate a self-employed person’s federal quarterly taxes, entirely inside your browser.

It exists because of what a tax estimate requires you to disclose: what you earn, what you spend, how you file, whether you have children. The mainstream “free” 1099 calculators we checked all ask for those numbers server-side, because the calculator is a lead magnet — for tax-prep software, bookkeeping subscriptions, or a sales call. The estimate is the bait; your finances are the catch. That trade is rarely stated out loud, which is exactly what’s wrong with it.

The fix is architectural, not cosmetic. This site is static: there is no upload endpoint, no processing queue, no account system, no email field. The tax math is a few kilobytes of JavaScript executing on your own device; your entries persist only in your browser’s localStorage. That’s why the calculator works offline, and why the privacy claim can be verified in your browser’s DevTools Network tab rather than taken on faith.

Principles

• Local only. Your income, expenses and family details never leave your device. Not “encrypted in transit” — never transmitted.
• Sourced numbers. Every figure in the math — brackets, wage base, deductions, deadlines — is compiled from IRS and SSA publications with the compile date stated. The methodology page lists all of them, and what the estimator deliberately does not model.
• Honest limits. This is a federal planning estimate, not tax advice and not a filing tool. Where the truth is “ask a CPA” — S-corp elections, QBI phase-outs — the pages say so instead of pretending.
• Free without a catch. No signup, no email wall, no “premium version”. Your device does the work, so serving you costs almost nothing.

Who makes this

1099Local is built and maintained by an independent developer as part of a small family of single-purpose, local-first browser tools. It may eventually show unobtrusive ads to cover its costs — if it does, they will sit outside the tool and will never see your numbers, because the no-upload architecture doesn’t change with the funding model.

Found an error in our figures, or a situation the estimator handles badly? Get in touch — corrections are the most valuable mail this site receives.