A $5,000 project isn't always worth $5,000. Factor in taxes, expenses, and unpaid overhead to see what you're actually earning.
TurboTax Self-Employed connects to your financial accounts and automatically categorizes deductions.
Try TurboTax Self-Employed →For every client project, you also spend unpaid time on: emails, proposals, revisions, invoicing, onboarding, and admin. A 40-hour project easily becomes 50+ total hours.
Then subtract taxes (25-35% for self-employed), project expenses, and software tools — and that $125/hr quote can net out to $70-80/hr in real take-home.
NY progressive tax + federal take-home
Social Security + Medicare — employee & employer
True cost difference for employers
FL (no state tax) federal + FICA take-home