[mattdanger]

In the US if you have a mortgage and/or office in your house you can take additional deductions. Contributions to an individual 401k are deductible.

[nicksergeant]

Certainly. And I do that. But after a point, you're losing a ton of money by not having enough deductions to cover your income.

[dwd]

Which puts you in the same position as an employee paying top tax rates. It's the pre-tax deductions (cost of doing business expenses) that differentiate working for yourself or for someone else.

[nicksergeant]

But those pre-tax deductions are pretty limited in the software development field. More code written != more deductions taken.