Enter your desired take-home pay and we reverse-calculate the exact charge-out rate you need, after ATO tax, Medicare levy, and all your business overheads.
Calculate my rate →SoleTraderTax uses a 4-step sole trader pricing engine. Here's exactly how your charge-out rate is calculated.
Step 1
Most tools calculate tax on a gross income. SoleTraderTax works backwards: given your desired take-home, it solves for the pre-tax income that, after ATO progressive brackets and Medicare levy, produces exactly what you want. This is done via binary search accurate to within $1.
Step 2
Your charge-out rate must recover all business costs: vehicle, tools, insurance, software, marketing, and miscellaneous. These are annualised and added to your required taxable income to get total required revenue.
Step 3
Sole traders don't bill 38 hours a week. Quoting, admin, travel, chasing payments, and quiet periods typically reduce billable hours to 20–25 per week. The default of 25 hrs × 46 weeks = 1,150 billable hours per year reflects this reality.
Step 4
Required revenue ÷ annual billable hours = your minimum charge-out rate. The calculator also shows a Minimum Safe rate (−10%) and a Premium rate (+15%) to give you a negotiating range.
| Income range | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $18,200 | 0% |
| $18,201 – $45,000 | 16% |
| $45,001 – $135,000 | 30% |
| $135,001 – $190,000 | 37% |
| $190,001+ | 45% |
| Medicare levy (all income) | 2% |