Freelancer calculator · 2026
Enter the take-home amount you want to keep each month. The calculator adds your expenses, estimates income tax and applies the 2026 self-employed contribution to give you a realistic turnover target.
What you want to be left with
2.000,00 €
What you have to invoice
3.391,69 €
12 ×
40.700,28 €
The calculator
Change the take-home target, expenses or billable hours. The result updates instantly and separates what you keep from the contribution, income tax and the cost of working.
Clear, after the contribution and income tax. This is your target, not your turnover.
Rent, utilities, materials, professional services. Not the self-employed contribution: that one is worked out separately.
It lasts 12 months. You can request another 12 before it ends if you expect annual net earnings below the minimum wage.
In 2026 this is the 80 € reduced contribution plus the 0.9% MEI: Importass publishes a total payment of 88.64 €.
Any reimbursement depends on your region and is not automatic. Check your regional support
You set this one. These are not the hours you work, and there is no invented average here filling them in for you.
You have to invoice
3.391,69 €
40.700,28 € a year
To be left with 2.000,00 € clear a month you have to invoice 3.391,69 €, that is 40.700,28 €.
An indicative estimate, not tax advice. It applies the general income tax scale without your personal and family allowance, without reliefs and without regional deductions, and it always uses the lowest base in your band. Your real figure depends on your own situation: check it with your accountant.
Regional support · 2026
The reduced contribution is national; the ‘zero contribution’ is not. Each region sets its own eligible applicants, amount, duration and deadline. That is why support is not deducted from your turnover until it has been granted.
First, the national contribution
If it is granted to you, in 2026 you pay 88.64 € a month including the MEI.
Then, the regional support
It may be a reimbursement, a fixed grant or a call limited to particular profiles.
Do not count it before receiving it
Deadlines, evidence requirements and available funding can leave an application out.
Community of Madrid
It reimburses reduced or discounted contributions you have already paid, including the MEI. It covers the first period and, where applicable, the extension for earnings below the minimum wage. Applications are made after each period, normally within the following three months.
Check the procedure before applying: calls can close or run out of funding.
The three figures
What the calculator returns is the taxable base. Two other figures live on the same invoice and get confused with it all the time, and confusing them is the costliest mistake when setting a rate.
An invoice with a base of 1,000 €, 21 % VAT and a 15 % withholding. Total:1.210,00 €
Where the money goes
The withholding is not an extra tax: it is income tax paid in advance, and it is already counted inside the income tax the calculator subtracts. Adding 15 % to the result would be counting it twice.
Whose money it is
You charge the VAT and hand it over each quarter. It does not enter the calculator because it is never your money, not even while it sits in your account.
Both bars measure the same thing, the total above, cut in different places. The figure to compare with the calculator's result is the base: the other two cuts do not change what you have to invoice.
Standard VAT rate, 21 % (AEAT, Act 37/1992). Income tax withholding on invoices, 15 % standard and 7 % on starting an activity (RD 439/2007, art. 95). 2026 tax year.
The blanks
No calculator that does not ask for your whole life can give you your exact income tax. These are the details nobody asked you for and the direction each one moves your figure in: once you know the direction, you know whether the number you are taking away falls short or long.
Here the scale applies to your whole net earnings. On your tax return there is a slice below it that is not taxed at all.
Your real income tax will be lower: you would need to invoice somewhat less.
The scale has a state half and a regional half, and the regional one changes from place to place. The reference scale is used here.
It can move you either way, depending on where you live.
Maternity, pension contributions, starting an activity, donations, rent: none of them are in here.
Your real income tax will be lower: you would need to invoice somewhat less.
The sum always uses the lowest base in your band, which is what most people pick. You can choose a higher one to improve your future benefits.
A higher base means a higher contribution: you would need more income.
All of this is direct assessment. Anyone taxed under the modules regime works out net earnings a different way, with signs and indices.
Under modules this sum is no use to you.
Here the year is twelve identical months. If you stop in August or your income comes in bursts, the spread is not flat.
The months you do invoice have to bring in more.
None of this is fixed by adding more fields to a form: they are your entire tax return. What can be done is say so, and that is what this section does.
The method
The sum starts with the contribution: the table of bands by real net earnings sets the minimum base that matches what you earn. 1 That base is then multiplied by the total contribution rate, which is the sum of five separate items. 2 If you have been granted the reduced contribution, the payment no longer depends on your band during the granted period. 3 Net earnings, with the year's contributions already deducted, go through the general income tax scale band by band and not through a single rate. 4 What comes out is the taxable base: the VAT you charge sits on top of it and is not part of it. 5 The withholding your clients apply is not added either, because it is that same income tax paid in advance. 6 And finally your deductible expenses are added one by one, the only part of the chain that never goes through the tax office.
The six figures were checked against their source on 13 August 2026. If any of them has changed in your tax year, the result above no longer holds: the regulation rules, not the calculator.
This is an indicative estimate and not binding tax advice. It does not replace your tax return or your accountant. Use it to get a sense of things before setting a rate, not to file anything.
Questions
Because between what you invoice and what you keep there are three bites: the self-employed contribution, income tax and your own expenses. In the example of 2,000 € clear with 300 € of expenses, slightly under 60 % of what you invoice ends up being yours. It is not a bug in the calculator: it is the sum everyone does, only usually backwards and once it is too late.
Invoices, expenses and the quarter closed without spreadsheets. Ten days to try it, no card.
