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.
Income tax + social computed band-by-band from the statutory rates.
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 yet in either partner program, so they carry no tracking ID and pay us nothing today; if we join later a link here may become a paid referral. 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 2026-06-16
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 and Romania are computed band-by-band from the statutory rates; the other countries use a single-tier effective-rate estimate. 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% income-tax bands and Class 4 National Insurance band-by-band on taxable profit — never one flat blended rate. Enter your country, net target, expenses and days below to run your exact figure.
| 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 · PwC — UK income-tax bands 2026/27
Disclaimer
Results are orientative. UK and Romania are computed band-by-band from the statutory rates; the other EU countries use a single-tier effective-rate estimate for a mid-band professional, not a bracket-by-bracket integrator. Confirm with your accountant before quoting clients — this tool is for pricing orientation, not tax filing.
Dataset 2026.06 · last updated 2026-06-16
Data verified 2026-06-16 against HMRC + PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (UK 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% 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?
- For the UK and Romania they are computed band-by-band from the statutory rates. For the other EU countries they are a single-tier estimate for a mid-band professional — directional, not a filing figure. 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?
- Italy (regime forfettario), France (micro-entrepreneur) and Spain (cuota reducida) have a checkbox that switches to the preferential rate, which lowers the required gross day rate. The headline figures for those regimes are estimates of the regime's blended effect.
- Are these the 2026 rates?
- Yes. VAT rates and the EU estimates are for 2026 (Romania's standard VAT is 21%, raised from 19% in August 2025). The UK figures use the live 2026/27 tax year — the personal allowance, income-tax bands and Class 4 NI are unchanged from 2025/26. The verification date is shown above the calculator.