Creator Unit Math · freelance pricing
Freelance Day Rate Calculator (EU & UK)
Your day rate is not a salary divided by 220. Solve it the right way: target net income + business costs + tax & social, divided by the days you can actually bill.
Required gross day rate
Rate build-up
- Gross revenue you must invoice
- £52,637.57
- Taxable profit
- £49,637.57
- Income tax
- £7,413.51
- Social contributions
- £2,224.05
- Effective income-tax rate on profit
- 14.9%
+ £48.00 VAT to add per day on domestic invoices.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 2026/27 income tax and Class 4 NI. Scotland and other income are not modelled.
Now bill it — under a contract
Once you know your day rate, the next step is invoicing it cleanly. Hello Bonsai handles freelancer invoicing, contracts and proposals in one place; FreshBooks is a popular alternative for time tracking and accounting.
Honest disclosure: these are plain external links to hellobonsai.com and freshbooks.com. We are not in either partner program, so they carry no tracking ID and pay us nothing; if we join later, this note and the links change together. They never change the day rate above, which comes only from the verified formula and statutory tax rates — and they are optional, the calculator is free and complete on its own.
Updated 2026-10-17
To set an EU/UK freelance day rate, start from the net you want to keep, add back income tax, social contributions and your business expenses to get the gross you must invoice, then divide by your realistic billable days — typically 180–220, not 250+, once holiday, sick days, admin, learning and sales time are removed. That is why a freelancer charging the same as an employee’s daily salary takes home far less: the employer’s social cost, paid leave and unbilled days all come out of your rate.
~220
typical billable days — not 250+
10
EU & UK tax regimes covered
£/€
UK + RO band-by-band; EU estimate
Pricing orientation, not tax filing. UK excludes Scotland. Romania assumes a full-year PFA in the real system with no exemptions or other income. Other standard regimes use effective-rate estimates. Confirm with your accountant.
How much should a UK freelancer charge per day to clear £40,000 net?
The method is the same for every country: we solve backwards from the net you actually want to keep, adding back income tax, social contributions and your business expenses to find the gross you must invoice, then dividing by your billable days. For a UK sole trader that means applying the 2026/27 personal allowance (£12,570), the progressive 20% / 40% / 45% income-tax bands and Class 4 National Insurance band-by-band on taxable profit — never one flat blended rate. The UK calculation excludes Scotland and other income. Above £100,000 the allowance tapers by £1 per £2, reaching zero at £125,140; taxable income above £125,140 is taxed at 45%.
| Band | Income tax | Class 4 NI |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £12,570 (allowance) | 0% | 0% |
| £12,571 – £50,270 | 20% | 6% |
| £50,271 – £125,140 | 40% | 2% |
Sources: HMRC — self-employed National Insurance · HMRC — income-tax bands 2026/27
Disclaimer
Results are orientative. UK excludes Scotland; Romania assumes full-year PFA, minimum CAS and no exemptions or other income. Other standard regimes retain effective-rate estimates, not verified tax brackets. Confirm with your accountant before quoting clients — this tool is for pricing orientation, not tax filing.
Dataset 2026.10 · last updated 2026-10-17
UK statutory inputs checked 2026-10-17 against HMRC (England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2026/27).
How it works
- Pick the country whose tax + social-contribution regime applies to you.
- Enter the net income you actually want to clear (after all taxes + expenses) plus your business expenses.
- Enter your realistic billable days per year (after vacation, sick days, admin, learning, marketing — typical 180–220).
- Read the gross day rate. That is what you must charge per billable day to land on your net target.
Frequently asked questions
- How is the required day rate calculated?
- We solve backwards from the net income you want to keep. Starting from your target net, we add back income tax, social contributions and your business expenses to find the gross revenue you must invoice, then divide by your billable days (rounded up to the nearest 5).
- Why did my UK day rate drop compared with other calculators?
- Because we apply the £12,570 personal allowance and the progressive 20% / 40% / 45% income-tax bands plus Class 4 NI at 6% / 2%, instead of one flat blended rate. Ignoring the allowance over-states the rate by roughly a fifth at typical freelance incomes.
- Are income tax and social contributions exact?
- UK calculations exclude Scotland and other income. Romania uses minimum CAS and CASS on profit, with a floor and cap; the floor top-up is not deductible. The other standard regimes use effective-rate estimates. Always confirm with an accountant.
- Which currency does each country use?
- The UK uses GBP, Poland uses PLN, Romania uses RON, and the remaining countries use EUR. Enter your target net in the local currency shown — the day rate comes back in the same currency.
- Does the day rate include VAT?
- No. VAT is shown separately as an amount to add per day on domestic invoices. For EU B2B reverse-charge or VAT-exempt small-business regimes it is zero, because the client accounts for VAT or none is due.
- What about preferential regimes like the Italian forfettario?
- Eligibility is assumed, not checked. France models non-regulated micro-BNC without ACRE: 25.6% social, 0.2% training and an opted-in 2.2% income tax, all on turnover; CFE is excluded. Spain uses €88.64/month for a full first year, with estimated IRPF. Italy remains a blended estimate: the 78% coefficient applies to specified professional activities; the conditional 5% startup relief is not calculated separately.
- Are these the 2026 rates?
- Statutory inputs for all ten countries were checked on 17 October 2026. Standard VAT is unchanged, including Romania at 21%; France means metropolitan France, Portugal means mainland, and Spain excludes the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla. UK bands use 2026/27. Effective-rate estimates are modelling assumptions, not official rates. Review interval: 90 days.