The hourly rate you need to charge.

Add your business costs to the income you want, then divide by the hours you can bill in a year. Wanting €50,000 with €6,000 of costs means invoicing €56,000. Over 46 weeks of 40 hours, billing 65% of them, that's 1,196 hours and a rate of €46.82 an hour.

Because some of your week goes on work nobody pays for: finding clients, quotes, emails, invoicing, bookkeeping and learning. Most freelancers bill well under all their hours. Set the share from your own weeks, and check it after a few months.

It leaves 6 weeks for holidays, public holidays and sick days, which no client pays you for. If you take more time off, lower the number and the rate goes up to cover it.

The income you enter is before tax, so the rate gets you there before tax. Out of it you pay income tax, Social Insurance at 16.6% and GeSY at 4%. The self-employed tax calculator shows what you keep.

If you're VAT-registered, yes: add 19% to each invoice and pay it to the Tax Department, so it isn't income. Registration is required once your taxable sales pass €15,600 in 12 months. Business clients usually reclaim the VAT, so it costs them nothing extra.

It depends on how much you earn and what you take out. A company pays corporate tax on its profit and you pay tax on what it pays you, while a freelancer pays income tax on all the profit. The company vs self-employed tool compares the two for your income.