The amount you want to actually keep after paying income tax, CPP, and business expenses.
Hours you actually bill clients each week. Most freelancers bill far fewer hours than they work — admin, sales, and breaks aren’t billable.
Leaves room for vacation, holidays, and sick time. 46 weeks allows ~6 weeks off.
Deductible business costs: software, phone, home office, equipment, etc. Use the Expense Calculator to estimate this.
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← Back to dashboard- 2026 federal income tax brackets
- Provincial/territorial tax for all provinces except Quebec
- Self-employed CPP at 2026 rates (both tiers) with deduction and non-refundable credit treatment
- Ontario surtax and Health Premium where applicable
- Business expenses as a pre-tax deduction
- Iterative gross-up to hit your exact take-home target
- Quebec (QPP, separate Revenu Quebec return)
- GST/HST
- Employment Insurance (EI)
- RRSP deductions
- T4 income from other employers
- Investment income or other income types
How your rate is calculated
Most freelancers set rates based on what sounds reasonable, or what competitors charge. The problem: self-employed income is taxed differently from employment income. You owe both income tax and the full self-employed CPP contribution (employee + employer portions), and you only bill a fraction of the hours you actually work.
This calculator works backwards from your take-home target. It finds the gross income that, after income tax and CPP, leaves you with exactly what you want. Then it divides that gross by your billable hours to get the rate you need to charge.
If you work 40 hours a week, you typically don’t bill 40 hours. Admin, sales calls, invoicing, professional development, and slow periods all eat into billable time. Many consultants and freelancers find they bill 20–30 hours for every 40 they work.
Fewer billable hours means a higher rate is needed to hit the same income target. The default of 25 billable hours at 46 weeks gives you around 1,150 hours per year — a conservative estimate for most full-time freelancers.
As a self-employed person, you pay both the employee and employer portions of CPP — roughly 11.9% of net self-employment income between the basic exemption ($3,500) and the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings ($74,600 in 2026), plus a second tier on income up to $85,000.
For someone earning $80,000 net, this adds up to roughly $8,400–$9,000 in CPP alone. If you don’t account for it, you’ll undercharge and underpay — or be surprised at tax time.
The CRA lets you claw some of this back: half of your base CPP contributions qualify as a non-refundable tax credit, the other half and all enhanced contributions are deductible from income. This calculator applies both the deduction and credit, so the CPP figure shown is your true net cost.
The rate here is a floor, not a ceiling. It tells you what you need to break even on your income goal. Market rates, your expertise, the value you deliver, and what clients will pay are separate considerations.
Review your rate at least once a year: income tax bracket thresholds adjust annually, CPP rates change, and your billable hours may shift as your business evolves. Use the Expense Calculator to refine your annual business expense estimate and feed it into this tool for a more precise number.