Most freelancers I know — including people I've worked with — set their rate based on gut instinct or what they think "sounds right." Then they wonder why they're stressed about money even when they're busy. The problem is almost always self-employment tax. As a freelancer you pay both the employer and employee halves of Social Security and Medicare — 15.3% on 92.35% of your net profit. On $80k that's ~$11k before you even get to income tax. Most people coming from salaried jobs have never seen this before. I built ChargeWhat.app to do the math properly — starting from your target take-home and working backwards through SE tax, your state income tax (all 50 states), health insurance, realistic billable hours, and a profit buffer for slow months. It's free, no signup, and recalculates live as you adjust the inputs. Would love to hear if the numbers surprise you.

Forum Threads

p/chargewhat-app

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5mo ago

What's missing from your freelance rate calculator?

I built ChargeWhat to solve a problem: freelancers massively undercharging because they forgot to account for self-employment tax, health insurance, and the fact that you can't bill every hour you work.

The calculator works backwards from your target take-home pay and accounts for SE tax (15.3% on 92.35% of net profit), your state income tax across all 50 states, realistic billable hours, business expenses, health insurance, and a profit buffer for slow months.

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chargewhat.app

The freelance rate calculator that accounts for SE tax

The freelance rate calculator that accounts for SE tax

Forum Threads

What's missing from your freelance rate calculator?

Forum Threads

What's missing from your freelance rate calculator?