Freelance Take-Home Calculator
Free freelance take-home estimator: find the billable rate you need to reach a target net income, or estimate net income from a rate, after a tax set-aside.
Estimate only, not tax advice. The set-aside is a single percentage for tax and social contributions - it does not model brackets, VAT, or deductions, which vary by income, region, and circumstances. Confirm with an accountant.
Rate, costs, tax, and take-home
A freelance rate has to cover more than your target income. Business costs come off the top, and tax and social contributions come out of the profit, so the rate you bill is well above the money you keep. This tool works in both directions: the rate needed for a target take-home, or the take-home implied by a rate.
The set-aside percentage is pre-filled with a rough average for the country you pick (2026) and is yours to change. It is a planning estimate, not a tax return.
Take-home questions
How are billable hours a year calculated?
Hours a week, times the weeks you actually work after time off, times your billable share. A 40-hour week at 70% billable with six weeks off is far fewer billable hours than 40 times 52, which is why a rate set from a salary figure comes out too low.
What is the billable percentage?
The share of your working time a client pays for. Admin, sales, invoicing, and learning are real work that nobody bills, so 100% is not a number anyone reaches.
How is tax handled?
As a single flat percentage of profit, which is a planning estimate rather than a tax calculation. Brackets, allowances, social contributions, and local rules all move the real figure, so confirm it with an accountant before you commit to a rate.
What counts as annual business costs?
Everything the business pays for before you do: software, insurance, equipment, accounting, workspace. Leaving them out raises the take-home figure by exactly their amount.
Freelance take-home by country
Track the billable hours behind the rate
Sandtime.io records billable and non-billable time as you work, so your real billable share and rate rest on data, not a guess. Free for unlimited users, without surveillance.