Freelance Take-Home Calculator
Estimate a freelancer's take-home pay from gross revenue after business expenses, a tax set-aside, and an optional retirement contribution.
How to use this tool
- Enter your gross revenue (money collected from clients).
- Enter your deductible business expenses.
- Set a combined tax set-aside percentage for income + self-employment tax.
- Optionally set a retirement contribution, then read your take-home pay.
See what you actually keep. Enter your gross revenue, business expenses, a tax set-aside and an optional retirement contribution — the calculator shows net profit and true take-home pay.
Formula
Net profit = Gross revenue − Business expenses
Tax set-aside = max(0, Net profit) × Tax%
Retirement = max(0, Net profit) × Retirement%
Take-home pay = Net profit − Tax set-aside − Retirement
How it works
Freelance gross revenue is not income you can spend. This calculator walks from the top line down to true take-home: subtract business expenses to get net profit, reserve a percentage of that profit for tax, optionally route a slice into retirement savings, and what remains is the cash you can actually live on. Working in this order mirrors how a self-employed person should think — tax and retirement come off profit before lifestyle, not after.
The tax field is a single combined set-aside rate, because real self-employed tax is the sum of income tax and self-employment (Social Security + Medicare) tax, and the right figure depends on your country, bracket and deductions. Rather than hard-code a schedule, the tool lets you enter your own effective rate; many US freelancers reserve 25–35% as a working estimate. The retirement percentage is treated as a deliberate set-aside out of profit, not a tax deduction, so the take-home figure is the cash left after both reserves.
Reviewed by the AbraCalc Freelance Desk. This is an educational estimate, not tax advice; confirm your actual rate and contribution limits with your tax authority (for the United States, the IRS).
Worked example
$120,000 revenue, $20,000 expenses, 25% tax, 10% retirement
- Net profit = 120,000 − 20,000 = 100,000.
- Tax set-aside = 100,000 × 25% = 25,000.
- Retirement = 100,000 × 10% = 10,000.
- Take-home = 100,000 − 25,000 − 10,000 = 65,000.
Take-home pay = $65,000.00
Take-home from $100,000 net profit by tax and retirement set-aside
| Tax set-aside | Retirement | Take-home pay |
|---|---|---|
| 20% | 0% | $80,000.00 |
| 25% | 0% | $75,000.00 |
| 25% | 10% | $65,000.00 |
| 30% | 10% | $60,000.00 |
| 30% | 15% | $55,000.00 |
| 35% | 15% | $50,000.00 |
Key terms
- Net profit
- Gross revenue minus deductible business expenses; the base for tax and take-home.
- Tax set-aside
- Money reserved from profit to cover income and self-employment tax when due.
- Take-home pay
- Cash left after expenses, tax reserve and retirement — what you can actually spend.
- SEP-IRA / Solo 401(k)
- US retirement accounts that let self-employed people contribute a share of profit, often pre-tax.
Frequently asked questions
- What tax percentage should freelancers set aside?
- It depends on income, deductions and country, so enter your own effective rate. As a working estimate many US freelancers reserve 25–35% of net profit to cover both income tax and self-employment tax.
- Is the retirement contribution a tax deduction?
- This tool treats it as a set-aside out of profit so you can see cash take-home. In practice contributions to accounts like a SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k) may be tax-deductible, which would lower your tax — adjust your tax rate if you want to model that.
- Why subtract expenses before tax?
- Because tax is generally owed on net profit, not gross revenue. Deductible business expenses reduce the profit on which both income and self-employment tax are calculated.