Just to add some more numbers as someone who's done freelancing in Germany for 15 or so years. 200-210 days of billable work (30 days holidays, sick days, conf

Just to add some more numbers as someone who's done freelancing in Germany for 15 or so years. 200-210 days of billable work (30 days holidays, sick days, conferences, downtime, pre-sales etc.) also a 100% utilization is often unrealistic but in this case might work. ~40% taxes ~9.000€ health insurance / year ~1.500€ liability insurance / year ~15-20% pension savings (personal preference) - various other business related expenses Very rough estimates: With 70€/h that'll be around 120k€ - 40k€ taxes - ~10k€ insurances - 15k€ pension = 55k€ That's not bad but also not an extraordinary amount and that's without any accounting for the extra risk, own hardware etc.