TallyUp

New Freelancer Kit

The first months of working for yourself, in the order you actually need them: price the work, find the floor, position the taxes, calendar the deadlines — then pin the setup checklist to the wall.

Last updated: October 27, 2026

For anyone in their first months of working for themselves: this kit sequences the setup in the order a new freelancer actually needs it — price the work before the tax position, position the taxes before the first deadline, and finish with the checklist that holds the whole setup together. Every asset already exists on TallyUp; the kit is the order, and the order is the part nobody hands you.

The sequence

  1. Salary to Hourly Calculator

    A salary and an hourly rate are the same pay in two units. Enter either one and this calculator converts in both directions using your own hours and weeks, and shows the weekly, biweekly, and monthly slices too. Run it first if you are arriving from a job: it puts your old pay into the unit freelance work is priced in, before any rate is set.

    You walk away with: your previous salary expressed as an hourly rate on your own hours and weeks — the translation, before the pricing.

    The conversion, explained: How to Convert Salary to Hourly covers the standard 2,080-hour year and the two places it misleads. Note what the conversion leaves out — taxes and benefits — which is what the next steps price.

  2. Freelancer Rate Benchmarks

    What employees in 15 freelance occupations actually earn per hour — the 25th percentile, the median, and the 75th percentile, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2025 release. These are employee wages, not freelance rates, and the page states that caveat up front: they are market context for where pay for your work lands, before your own costs enter the picture.

    You walk away with: the market range for your occupation — earlier-career, median, and experienced employee pay — as context, not as your rate.

  3. Freelancer Hourly Rate Calculator

    Now set the rate from your own numbers: enter your target take-home income, business expenses, estimated tax rate, and billable hours, and the calculator returns the minimum hourly rate that actually sustains the business. This is the step the first two feed — the salary translation gives you a reference point and the benchmarks give you the market; this calculator gives you the floor your costs require.

    You walk away with: the minimum hourly rate you need to charge, built from your income target, expenses, taxes, and billable hours.

    The method, explained: How to Set Your Freelance Hourly Rate works backward through the same four steps — name the income, add expenses, gross up for taxes, count only billable hours.

  4. Break-Even Calculator

    Enter the fixed pile, your price, and what each sale costs you to make, and the calculator returns the units and revenue needed to cover fixed costs — with target-profit units as well. For a service practice, read units as billable work sold: the output is the revenue floor a month has to clear before the practice is ahead.

    You walk away with: the units and revenue you need to cover costs — the floor the rate from step 3 has to be tested against.

    The math, explained: How to Find Your Break-Even Point covers the cost split the calculation stands on and the case where no break-even point exists.

  5. Self-Employment Tax Estimator

    Position the taxes before the first deadline arrives, not after. Enter your net self-employment income and state and the estimator works out your 2026 self-employment tax, federal income tax, and state tax — and what to pay each quarter. Nobody withholds any of this from a freelance payment; this step is where the bill becomes a number instead of a surprise.

    You walk away with: your full expected tax bill and the personal set-aside percentage to move out of every payment as it arrives.

  6. Quarterly Estimated Tax Calculator

    Enter the self-employment income you expect for 2026 and the calculator splits the expected annual tax into exactly what to send the IRS each quarter, and when. Where step 5 sizes the year's bill, this step turns it into the four payments the pay-as-you-go system collects.

    You walk away with: four concrete quarterly payment amounts, each with its due date.

    The system, explained: How Quarterly Estimated Taxes Work covers who pays, the safe harbor rules, and how a quarterly amount is built. The Freelancer Money Hub also carries the quarterly routine — the repeating checklist version of this step — in its Quarterly routine section.

  7. Estimated Tax Deadlines — 2026 & 2027

    Every quarterly due date for tax years 2026 and 2027, with the weekend and District of Columbia holiday shifts already applied, a countdown to the next deadline, and a downloadable calendar file. The four periods are uneven — they cover three, two, three, and four months of income — so the second deadline arrives sooner after the first than the spacing suggests.

    You walk away with: all four due dates on your calendar, with the shifts applied — the dates as they actually fall.

  8. Freelancer Money Hub — the New Freelancer Setup checklist

    Finish by putting the whole sequence on the wall. The Freelancer Money Hub's New freelancer setup checklist compresses the setup into six items — set the rate, estimate the tax, open a separate account for the set-aside, calendar the four due dates, start the mileage log and expense records on day one, and check your solo 401(k) room — and its Quarterly routine checklist is the repeating version of steps 5 to 7 for every quarter after the first.

    You walk away with: a six-item setup checklist that mirrors this kit, and the quarterly routine that keeps it running after setup is done.

You're done when…

…you can state your minimum hourly rate and the costs it was built from, you know the revenue floor the practice has to clear, your expected tax bill exists as a set-aside percentage and four dated quarterly payments, and the hub's New freelancer setup checklist describes your actual setup — rate set, tax account open, dates calendared, records started. From there the work stops being setup and becomes the quarterly routine.

Estimates for planning only — not tax or financial advice. The calculators in this kit provide estimates for planning purposes. The benchmark figures in step 2 are employee wages published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, presented as market context; they are not freelance rates and not a recommended price for your work.

Frequently asked questions

What hourly rate should a new freelancer charge?

There is no universal figure, and this kit deliberately never names one. Your rate has to cover the income you want to keep, your business expenses, your taxes, and the hours you cannot bill — which is why the sequence runs the salary translation and the market benchmarks first, as context, and then sets the rate in step 3 with a calculator that works backward from your own target income, expenses, tax estimate, and billable hours. Copying a market figure as your rate prices someone else's cost structure, not yours.

Are the benchmark figures in step 2 freelance rates?

No — they are employee wages, and the benchmarks page says so up front. The figures are national estimates from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which surveys employers about their employees. An employee's wage arrives with an employer paying half of payroll tax and usually part of benefits; a freelancer funds all of that out of the rate. Use the table to see where pay for your work lands, then set the rate itself in step 3.

How much of each payment should I set aside for taxes?

There is no single percentage, because the bill has two parts: self-employment tax at 15.3% on 92.35% of your net earnings, plus income tax on what is left after the standard deduction and the deduction for half of your self-employment tax. Step 5, the Self-Employment Tax Estimator, replaces any rule of thumb with a percentage built from your own income, filing status, and state. The habit that makes it work is moving that percentage into a separate account the day each payment arrives.

Do I have to pay estimated taxes from my first months?

The U.S. tax system is pay-as-you-go: employees have tax withheld from every paycheck, and the self-employed send the money themselves in four estimated payments a year. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS expects those quarterly payments, and paying late can draw an underpayment penalty. That is why the kit positions the tax estimate and the quarterly split — steps 5 and 6 — during setup, before the first deadline of your practice arrives.

I have already started freelancing. Is it too late for this kit?

No. Work down the sequence and treat each step as a check: where a step's output already exists — a rate you have actually derived from your costs, a set-aside habit already running — move on. Where a step names something still missing, that step is your starting point. The kit ends at the Freelancer Money Hub's setup checklist precisely so a mid-stream reader can see, in six items, which parts of the setup are done and which are not.