Why this calculator exists
Most “salary vs freelance” comparisons stop at income tax. They ignore employer-paid social contributions, health insurance gaps, lost pension matching, unpaid vacation days, and the operational cost of running a one-person business. This site shows the full picture: not only the tax line, but what actually lands in your account after the pieces payroll used to hide.
Each country model uses 2025/2026-style brackets and contribution rates from the JSON driving the interactive tool. The math is simplified—it will not replace a tax advisor—but it answers whether freelancing is even worth exploring before you negotiate a rate or hand in notice.
How the comparison works
Enter your current (or target) employee gross on the left. The tool estimates net cash after income tax, social contributions, and the defaults we expose in the form. On the right, enter freelance revenue and the costs you truly pay: health, retirement, business expenses, and—where modeled—visa or insurance lines.
The recurring insight: €60,000 salary is not comparable to €60,000 freelance turnover. Employers in France, Germany, Sweden, and similar markets often pay 20–45% on top of gross for social charges, pension, and risk. As a freelancer you reproduce that stack from your own invoices. In many runs you need 30–50% more gross as independent work just to match employee net cash.
Use the break-even banner on calculator and rate pages: it searches for the revenue that matches your employee net under the same model assumptions.
What we do not model (and why)
This is educational software, not filing software. We simplify or omit: wealth tax, capital gains, municipal surtax detail, industry-specific schemes (e.g. Künstlersozialkasse nuances), complex cross-border cases, and corporate wrappers (S-Corp, GmbH, Sàrl, Pte Ltd) unless a page explicitly says so.
VAT/GST is generally treated as excluded from revenue inputs unless a country note says otherwise—plan cash flow separately if you are registered. Each country page states its own limits; for binding advice, talk to a local professional who sees your full return.
Who should use these tools
Employees considering contracting, freelancers sanity-checking a new market, HR teams explaining loaded cost to candidates, and recruiters who refuse to quote day rates without context. The models are built for directional decisions: which side of the line you are on, not the last franc on your tax bill.