Yeah that's true, expect around 50-55% of any pay (contracting or salary) to go to the tax man. As an employee, you get 6 weeks paid holiday, 5-8% of your salar

Yeah that's true, expect around 50-55% of any pay (contracting or salary) to go to the tax man. As an employee, you get 6 weeks paid holiday, 5-8% of your salary in pension and you also get paid when you are ill. When you are contracting you get none of those things. A good rule of thumb is to deduct 20-25% of the contractor pay to reach comparable employee salary. Still, 25% off 16K is 12K before tax. As a full-time frontender in Stockholm, you'd generally be around 5-6K before tax.