Which calculation do you need?
Pricing comes first: the hourly rate calculator builds a rate from your costs and real billable hours, and the project pricing tool converts it to flat fees. Tax comes second: self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and the S-corp comparison once profits justify it. Operations follow: billable hours, client lifetime value, payment processor fees, and the W-2 vs 1099 comparison for anyone weighing an offer against employment.
- Pricing: hourly rate, project pricing, salary-to-hourly.
- Tax: self-employment tax, 1099 tax, quarterly estimates, S-corp savings.
- Operations: billable hours, client LTV, Stripe & PayPal fees, emergency fund for variable income.
A worked example
A designer wants to replace an $85,000 salary. Adding self-employment tax, self-bought health insurance, retirement contributions and software brings the revenue target near $118,000. At a realistic 1,150 billable hours a year, the rate is about $103 an hour — not the $43 that dividing the salary by 2,000 hours suggests. Most underpricing is this single arithmetic error, repeated.
Mistakes that distort the answer
- Dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours to set a rate, ignoring both taxes and non-billable time.
- Treating all revenue as income in good months and meeting the tax bill in April with a credit card.
- Electing S-corp status too early, when payroll and accounting costs exceed the SE tax saved.
Questions, answered
How much should I set aside for tax?
A common working rule is 25–30% of net profit, adjusted after your first filed return. The quarterly calculator turns your actual figures into the four payment amounts.
When does an S-corp pay off?
Often once net profit passes roughly $80–100k, when the SE tax saved on distributions exceeds payroll taxes on a reasonable salary plus the extra admin. The S-corp calculator runs your numbers.
Reviewed by Tahir Shehzad, ACMA · Content reviewed November 2026 against primary sources — see our Methodology and Editorial Policy. Figures are educational estimates, not tax or financial advice.
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