How much to bill to keep what you want?

Setting your rates as a foreign freelancer in Spain

If you've come to Spain to freelance — often for clients back home or elsewhere abroad — the hardest part of pricing is that your Spanish costs (cuota, IRPF) come out of income you might still think of in your old currency or your old country's take-home terms.

Work backwards from what you need

This calculator starts from the monthly net you want in your pocket and tells you what to invoice across the year to get there after the cuota and IRPF. That's far more reliable than guessing a markup — especially when you're new and don't yet have an instinct for Spanish deductions.

A note on currency and foreign clients

If you bill abroad, remember the figure you enter should be your billing converted to euros, since that's what Spanish tax is calculated on. Currency swings change your real take-home month to month — build a margin in if a lot of your income arrives in another currency.