Your year
Where do you work?
Before income tax, like a salary. Include what you want to put away for retirement.
Software, insurance, equipment, phone, office or co-working, accountant, health cover you pay yourself.
Vacation, public holidays, sick days. Six weeks is about 4 weeks of vacation plus holidays.
Selling, admin, invoicing and learning are not billable. 50 to 75% is common.
The rate to charge
Income you want
$75,000.00
Self-employment tax on the profit
2026 rates
$12,340.87
Business expenses
$12,000.00
Revenue you need in a year
$99,340.87
Billable hours in a year
46 weeks × 40 hours × 65% billable
1,196
Break-even hourly rate
Covers income, expenses and tax, nothing more
$83.06
Hourly rate to charge
With a 10% buffer
$91.37
Day rate (8-hour day)
At 65% billable, about 5.2 billed hours a day
$475.12
Monthly retainer equivalent
One client taking all your billable time
$9,106.54
Self-employment tax at 2026 rates (15.3% on 92.35% of profit, Social Security part up to $184,500). Income tax is not included, so think of the income figure as a pre-tax salary. A planning estimate, not tax advice.