How to use the freelance income calculator
- Pick Take-home from my rate to see what you keep, or Rate for my take-home goal to find the rate you need.
- Enter your Hourly rate ($) (or the Target take-home per year ($)), the Billable hours per week you can invoice and the Weeks worked per year.
- Add your Business expenses per year ($) and your Income tax rate (%). Your average rate is best, and the tax bracket calculator shows it.
- Read the three result cards and the table of revenue, expenses, self-employment (SE) tax and income tax.
How freelance take-home is calculated
Revenue is rate × billable hours × weeks, and net profit is revenue minus expenses. SE tax is 15.3% of 92.35% of profit, with the 12.4% Social Security part stopping at $184,500 of earnings in 2026 (details here). Income tax is your rate applied to profit after deducting half of the SE tax. Take-home is profit minus both taxes. The goal mode runs the same steps backward until take-home equals your target, then divides the revenue needed by your billable hours.
Worked example with the default numbers
$75 × 25 hours × 48 weeks is 1,200 billable hours, so revenue is $90,000. After $5,000 of expenses, net profit is $85,000. SE tax is 15.3% of $78,497.50, about $12,010. Half of it, $6,005, is deducted, so 15% income tax applies to $78,995 and comes to $11,849. You keep $61,141 a year, which is $5,095 a month and $50.95 per billable hour. In goal mode, a $75,000 take-home needs $109,268 of revenue, which is $91.06 an hour over the same 1,200 hours.
Limits and edge cases
- The tax rate is flat. The tool does not apply brackets, the $16,100 single-filer standard deduction for 2026 or the 20% qualified business income deduction, which often make your real federal rate lower. Put state tax into your rate.
- Health insurance, retirement savings and unpaid gaps between clients are not modeled. In goal mode, add them to your target take-home.
- The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above $200,000 is not included. The self-employment tax calculator covers it and your quarterly payments.
- If expenses exceed revenue, there is a loss and no tax, so take-home is negative. To compare with a salary, use the hourly to salary calculator, or the hourly rate calculator to price your time without a tax model.
Freelance income questions people ask
How much tax do freelancers pay?
Two federal taxes: self-employment tax of 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit (the Social Security part stops at $184,500 in 2026), plus regular income tax, and state tax where it applies. On the default $85,000 profit, SE tax is $12,010, about 14.1% of profit, before income tax.
What hourly rate do I need to take home $75,000 freelancing?
With 25 billable hours a week, 48 weeks, $5,000 of expenses and a 15% income tax rate, about $91.06 an hour, from $109,268 of revenue. At 30 billable hours a week the same goal needs about $75.88 an hour.
Why does a freelancer need a higher rate than an employee's hourly wage?
Employees are paid for holidays and sick days, and their employer pays half of Social Security and Medicare tax. Freelancers pay both halves, cover their own expenses and insurance, and only earn for hours they bill, so the rate has to be higher to reach the same take-home.
Should I enter billable hours or total hours worked?
Billable hours, the ones you can invoice. Admin, marketing, proposals and unpaid revisions take part of every week, so 40 working hours is often far fewer billable hours. Check your number against your last few months of invoices.
Sources: IRS, Schedule SE and 2026 inflation adjustments; Social Security Administration, 2026 COLA fact sheet. Estimates for information, not tax advice.