What should I charge as a freelancer? Hourly rates for $40k to $100k take-home, by billable hours

The most common freelance pricing mistake is dividing the salary you want by 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). A freelancer also pays their own business costs and taxes, takes unpaid holidays, and spends a big part of every week on work nobody pays for: admin, sales, invoicing, learning. Here's the rate that actually gets you to a take-home income.

The formula

revenue needed = (take-home + business costs) ÷ (1 − tax set-aside share)
hourly rate    = revenue needed ÷ (working weeks × billable hours per week)

Worked through for $60,000 take-home, $6,000 of costs, 25% set aside for tax, 46 working weeks and 25 billable hours a week: ($60,000 + $6,000) ÷ 0.75 = $88,000 of revenue, over 1,150 hours = $76.52 an hour.

The table

Same assumptions ($6,000 costs, 25% tax set-aside, 46 weeks); columns are billable hours per week.

Take-home you want	15 h	20 h	25 h	30 h
$40,000	$88.89	$66.67	$53.33	$44.44
$60,000	$127.54	$95.65	$76.52	$63.77
$80,000	$166.18	$124.64	$99.71	$83.09
$100,000	$204.83	$153.62	$122.90	$102.42

What moves the number most

Billable hours. For $60,000 take-home, billing 20 hours a week needs $95.65/h; billing 30 needs $63.77/h. Most freelancers bill 50–70% of the hours they work.
Tax is a share of revenue, so it divides rather than adds. At a 25% set-aside, $66,000 of needs becomes $88,000 of revenue, not $82,500.
Weeks off are unpaid. 46 working weeks leaves 6 for holidays, sick days and slow periods.

Your set-aside rate depends on where you live and how much you earn; ask a tax professional. Use the freelance rate calculator with your own numbers.