Income & Freelance Tax Calculator
Work out what you actually keep from freelance, employment, dividend and capital gains income, and what you need to charge to hit a target take-home figure. Then read off the dated HMRC Self Assessment schedule: the two payments on account, the balancing payment, and the instalments you prepay toward next year — with weekend deadlines already shifted to the working day before.
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Interactive income tax calculator
Freelance Target & Costs
Input DataCalculate tax and take-home for freelance earnings
Working Schedule & Capacity
1,121 billable hours a year (604 unbilled for sales & admin).
Tax Profile & Other Incomes
Parameters & SettingsCurrent UK tax year: £500 dividend allowance, £3,000 CGT exemption (18%/24% CGT rates), £1,000 savings & property allowance, 8% Class 1 & 6% Class 4 NI.
Where the Money Goes
Results & OutputComplete distribution of gross income across expenses, taxes, allowances, and take-home pay
Summary of Taxes Payable to HMRC
Results & OutputComplete itemized statement of all Income Tax and National Insurance liabilities owed to HM Revenue & Customs, including calculation basis and payment collection methods
| Tax / Duty | Taxable Basis & Reliefs | Statutory Rates | Collection Channel | Annual Due | Monthly Equiv. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Income Tax (Earned & Property Income) Self Assessment | Taxable income of £45,514 (after £12,570 PA) | 20% / 40% / 45% | Paid via HMRC Self Assessment (31 Jan & 31 Jul) | £10,666 | £889 |
Class 4 Self-Employed National Insurance Self Assessment | £58,084 trading profit (above £12,570 limit) | 6% (£12,570–£50,270) / 2% (>£50,270) | Paid via HMRC Self Assessment (31 Jan & 31 Jul) | £2,418 | £202 |
Total Taxes & National Insurance Payable to HMRC | £13,084 | £1,090 / mo | |||
- 31 January: Deadline to file online return & pay balancing tax (£13,084). Plus 1st Payment on Account of £6,542 (50% advance for next tax year).
- 31 July: 2nd Payment on Account of £6,542 (second 50% advance).
HMRC payment schedule
Results & OutputSelf Assessment for 2025/26 (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026), including what you prepay toward 2026/27
| Due | Payment | Counts toward | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| statutory date 31 January 2026 is a weekendalready passed | First payment on accountHalf of your 2024/25 liability | 2025/26 | £6,542 |
| already passed | Second payment on accountThe other half of your 2024/25 liability | 2025/26 | £6,542 |
| statutory date 31 January 2027 is a weekend | Balancing payment2025/26 liability less the £13,084 already paid on account | 2025/26 | £0 |
| statutory date 31 January 2027 is a weekend | First payment on accountHalf of your 2025/26 liability, paid toward 2026/27 | 2026/27 | £6,542 |
| statutory date 31 July 2027 is a weekend | Second payment on accountThe other half, paid toward 2026/27 | 2026/27 | £6,542 |
Return deadlines for 2025/26: paper by , online by .
Payments on account cover income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. Capital gains tax and student loan repayments are not spread across instalments — they fall entirely into the balancing payment. Payments on account are not required at all if last year's bill was under £1,000, or if more than 80% of your tax was collected at source.
Where a deadline lands on a weekend the payment has to reach HMRC by the previous working day, which the dates above already account for. Bank holidays are not modelled, so check the calendar for dates close to one.
Rates, allowances & sources
Every figure applied in the calculations above for the 2025/26 (Current) tax year, what it does, and the official page it is published on
| Figure | Amount / rate used | Where it lands in the calculation | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income Tax | |||
| Personal Allowance | £12,570 | Tax-free slice taken off earned and rental income first, then savings, then dividends | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Personal Allowance taper | £1 withdrawn per £2 of income above £100,000 | Reduces the allowance on adjusted net income, gone entirely by £125,140 | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Income Tax bands | 20% £0–£37,700 · 40% £37,700–£112,570 · 45% above £112,570 | Progressive bands stacked on taxable income after the Personal Allowance | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| National Insurance | |||
| Class 1 (employee) NI | 8% £12,570–£50,270 · 2% above £50,270 | Charged on salary only — never on freelance profit, dividends, interest or gains | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Class 4 (self-employed) NI | 6% £12,570–£50,270 · 2% above £50,270 | Charged on trading profit. Drops to the upper rate where salary already passed the upper limit | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Class 2 (voluntary) NI | £179.40 a year at £3.45 per week | Optional flat charge below the small-profits threshold, to keep the year qualifying for State Pension | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Salary sacrifice treatment | Sacrificed pension reduces gross pay before Class 1 NI | Relief-at-source contributions do not reduce the NI base; salary sacrifice does | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Savings & investments | |||
| Personal Savings Allowance | £1,000 basic rate · £500 higher rate · £0 additional rate | Tax-free band of interest, chosen from the band your other income already reaches | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Dividend allowance & rates | £500 allowance · 8.75% / 33.75% / 39.35% | Dividends stack on top of earned and savings income, then take the rate of the band they land in | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Capital Gains Tax | £3,000 annual exempt amount · 18% basic / 24% higher | Gains above the exemption, split at the basic-rate limit by the income already taxed | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Reliefs | |||
| Property allowance | £1,000 | Deducted from rental income before it is taxed as non-savings income | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Trading allowance | £1,000 | Reference figure — small trading income under this need not be reported | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Pension annual allowance | £60,000 | Cap on contributions attracting relief; contributions reduce taxable income here | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Payment dates | |||
| Payments on account | Two instalments, each half of the prior year's bill · skipped below £1,000 | Due 31 January and 31 July, covering income tax and Class 4 NI only | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Self Assessment deadlines | Paper 31 October · online and balancing payment 31 January | Weekend deadlines are pulled back to the previous working day in the schedule | GOV.UK / HMRC |
| Tax year | |||
| Figures applied: 2025/26 (Current) | 6 Apr 2025 – 5 Apr 2026 | Current UK tax year: £500 dividend allowance, £3,000 CGT exemption (18%/24% CGT rates), £1,000 savings & property allowance, 8% Class 1 & 6% Class 4 NI. | GOV.UK / HMRC |
Rates are stored per tax year and switch with the year selector. Student loan plans, Scottish and Welsh income tax rates, the marriage allowance and blind person's allowance are not modelled — check the linked pages if any apply to you.
Estimate only — not financial advice. Income and self-employment tax projections apply baseline statutory income tax and National Insurance brackets. Actual tax liabilities depend on your business legal structure (sole trader vs limited company), allowable expenses, pension tax relief, student loans, and payments on account. Always confirm tax figures with HMRC, the IRS, or a licensed accountant. Full disclaimer · Site-wide terms
When are Self Assessment payments due, and how much?
Payments on account fall due 31 January and 31 July, each half of the previous year’s income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. The balancing payment for a tax year is due the following 31 January, together with the first instalment toward the next year — so a first January after a profitable year carries roughly 150% of one year’s tax. Nothing is due on account if last year’s bill was under £1,000.
How to use the income tax calculator
- Set your target or gross income: Enter your desired net take-home pay to solve backwards, or switch to Gross Income mode to calculate tax forward.
- Choose employment type: Select Freelancer, Salaried Employee, Combined (Salary + Freelance), or Company Director.
- Toggle Adv Mode for extra streams: Add bank interest (with PSA), stock dividends (with allowance), capital gains (with exemption), or rental profits.
- Read your rates & tax summary: Review net pay, effective and marginal tax rates, required hourly/day rates, and copy the full tax breakdown.
How the income tax calculator works
Working backwards from take-home pay
Most rate calculators go forwards — rate in, income out — which is the wrong direction. You know what you need to live on; the question is what to charge. That inverts to:
billable hours = weeks × hours per week × billable ratio
required profit = gross-up(target take-home)
rate = (required profit + expenses) / billable hours
The gross-up step
Progressive tax cannot be inverted with a single division, because the marginal rate depends on the answer. The tool solves it numerically with a bisection search: it guesses a profit, computes the tax that profit would attract, compares the resulting take-home with your target, and narrows the interval until the two agree to within a penny. Fifty iterations converge well past the precision anyone needs.
What counts as an expense
Anything wholly for the business: software subscriptions, hardware amortised over its life, professional insurance, accountancy, co-working space, travel to clients. These reduce taxable profit, so £1,000 of genuine expense costs you considerably less than £1,000 of take-home pay.
Don't forget the buffer
The output assumes every billable hour is sold. In practice, add a contingency for gaps between contracts — many freelancers plan on 10 or 11 paid months rather than 12, which you can model directly by reducing the working weeks.
Income Tax Calculator — frequently asked questions
In two instalments plus a balancing payment. Payments on account are due 31 January (inside the tax year) and 31 July (after it ends), each half of the previous year’s income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. The balancing payment for the year is then due the following 31 January, alongside the first instalment toward the next year. Where a deadline lands on a weekend, the money must reach HMRC by the previous working day.
Because nothing was paid on account in your first year of trading, that date carries the whole year’s bill plus the first instalment toward the next year — 150% of one year’s tax in a single payment. The schedule on this page shows the exact figure and date, which is the number worth setting aside from month one rather than discovering in January.
No. They are not required if last year’s bill was under £1,000, or if more than 80% of your tax was already collected at source through PAYE. Capital gains tax and student loan repayments are never spread across instalments either — they fall entirely into the balancing payment.
Three multipliers stack up. Only part of your week is billable — admin, sales and invoicing are not. You pay your own tax and contributions rather than having an employer split them. And you fund your own holiday, sick leave, equipment and pension. A 60% billable ratio alone means your rate must be roughly 1.7x the naive hourly figure.
Adv Mode models secondary non-work income: savings interest (with the UK Personal Savings Allowance), corporate dividends (with the £500 dividend allowance and tiered rates), capital gains on stocks or crypto (with the £3,000 exemption), rental income, and pre-tax pension relief.
They are a high-fidelity planning estimate adhering to current statutory brackets. The tool applies progressive bands to your profit and income streams, but cannot know individual bespoke allowances or student loans. Treat the output as a precise planning figure and confirm with an accountant.
Yes. Choose the custom profile and enter your own bands, thresholds and social contribution rates. The engine applies any number of bands progressively.
Official resources & government references
Verified references, primary standards specifications, and official publications governing the rules and calculations implemented in this tool:
Self Assessment Tax Rates, Allowances and Thresholds
Statutory UK Income Tax bands, Class 2/4 National Insurance rates, and Personal Allowance thresholds.
Official Income Tax Calculator & Estimate Service
Official UK government tool to check your personal tax code and verify annual deductions.
Self-Employment Tax (Social Security & Medicare Taxes)
Official US federal instructions for Schedule SE and quarterly estimated tax payments.
Important Disclaimer
Income and self-employment tax projections apply baseline statutory income tax and National Insurance brackets. Actual tax liabilities depend on your business legal structure (sole trader vs limited company), allowable expenses, pension tax relief, student loans, and payments on account. Always confirm tax figures with HMRC, the IRS, or a licensed accountant.