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Freelance & Self-Employment Calculator

Comprehensive calculator for freelancers and self-employed professionals. Calculate required rates, self-employment tax, quarterly payments, take-home pay, and compare W2 vs 1099 income.

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How to Use This Calculator
  1. Follow the step-by-step wizard — complete each step before moving to the next. This guided approach ensures you provide all the necessary information in a logical order.
  2. I want to... — Choose your calculation direction. Choose from: Calculate my hourly rate from income goal, Calculate my income from hourly rate. default: 0.
  3. Filing Status — For tax calculation purposes. Choose from: Single, Married Filing Jointly. default: 0.
  4. Target Annual Take-Home — The amount you want to take home after all taxes and expenses. Accepts values from $20,000 to $1,000,000 (default: $85,000).
  5. Your Hourly Rate — Your current or planned hourly rate. Accepts values from $10 to $1,000 (default: $75).
  6. Hours Worked per Week — Total hours worked (billable + non-billable). Accepts values from 5 hrs to 80 hrs (default: 40 hrs).
  7. Billable Percentage — What % of your time is billable? Typical: 60-80%. Accepts values from 20 % to 100 % (default: 75 %).
  8. Weeks Worked per Year — Account for vacation, holidays, sick time (52 - time off). Accepts values from 20 weeks to 52 weeks (default: 48 weeks).
  9. Annual Business Expenses — Software, equipment, co-working, professional fees, etc. Accepts values from $0 to $100,000 (default: $5,000).
  10. Annual Health Insurance — Cost of self-purchased health insurance. Accepts values from $0 to $50,000 (default: $7,200).
  11. Expand "Advanced Options" for additional fine-tuning. These optional inputs let you model more specific scenarios:
  12. Retirement Contribution — SEP IRA (up to 25%) or Solo 401k contribution rate. Accepts values from 0 % to 25 % (default: 10 %).
  13. Profit Margin — Extra margin for business growth, emergency fund. Accepts values from 0 % to 50 % (default: 10 %).
  14. Other W2 Income — If you also have W2 employment income (affects SS tax cap). Accepts values from $0 to $500,000 (default: $0).
  15. Once all inputs are set, review your results in the Results panel. Here's what each output means:
  16. Required Hourly Rate — Minimum rate to achieve your income goal. This is the primary result of this calculator.
  17. True Annual Take-Home — What you actually keep after all taxes and expenses. This is the primary result of this calculator.
  18. Daily Rate (8 hrs) — shown as a dollar amount.
  19. Weekly Rate — shown as a dollar amount.
  20. Monthly Take-Home — shown as a dollar amount.
  21. Gross Annual Revenue — shown as a dollar amount.
  22. Annual Billable Hours — shown as a numeric value.
  23. Self-Employment Tax — Social Security + Medicare taxes.
  24. Quarterly Est. Payment — Pay quarterly to avoid penalties.
  25. Effective Tax Rate — Total taxes as % of net earnings.
  26. Effective Hourly Take-Home — What you earn per hour worked after all costs.
  27. Equivalent W2 Salary — Comparable W2 salary for this freelance income.
  28. 1099 vs W2 Comparison — your calculated result.
  29. Scroll down to explore 4 charts (Revenue Breakdown, Hours Utilization, Tax Breakdown, Freelance vs W2) for a visual breakdown of the data.
  30. Check the Quarterly Estimated Tax Schedule for a detailed row-by-row breakdown. This is useful for spotting trends or finding values at specific points.
  31. Explore the related calculators below if you need deeper analysis or want to approach this topic from a different angle.
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