Estonia Contractor Day Rate Calculator

An agency or umbrella employs you, so after its fee it has to fund the 33% employer social tax and 0.8% employer unemployment insurance out of your rate. What is left is your gross salary, which then takes the flat 22% income tax above the EUR 8,400 basic exemption and 1.6% employee unemployment insurance. A FIE (füüsilisest isikust ettevõtja, sole proprietor) pays the 33% social tax (sotsiaalmaks) itself, on profit divided by 1.33, and deducts it before the same 22% income tax. On a EUR 350/day rate over 218 billable days, agency retains about 57.1% of contract revenue as net take-home after a EUR 300/month fee, while FIE retains about 59.2% after EUR 200/month of expenses.

No. Social tax (sotsiaalmaks) funds state pension and health insurance in Estonia and is due on all employment and self-employment income. On a normal payslip the employer pays it on top of gross salary, so it never shows as a deduction. When you bill through an agency, though, the agency is your employer and pays it from the rate the client pays, which is why the agency breakdown shows it before your gross salary. A FIE pays it directly. Either way it comes out of the same money, which is why the two routes end up close.

Social tax for a FIE is calculated on the higher of actual taxable income or a statutory minimum annual base, EUR 10,632 for 2026 (WebSearch-verified, Aug 2026), meaning a FIE with low profit still owes social tax on at least that floor, roughly EUR 3,508.56/year at the 33% rate. This calculator models that floor explicitly rather than silently ignoring it, so very low-revenue freelance scenarios will show a social tax cost that doesn't shrink to zero.

This calculator runs that comparison directly: enter your rate and structure, and the permanent-equivalent-salary figure shows what gross salaried pay (taxed via flat 22% income tax plus 1.6% unemployment insurance, with the employer paying social tax on top) would be needed to match your contractor net take-home. For a EUR 350/day rate on 218 billable days via agency, the equivalent permanent gross salary works out to roughly 54 335 €/year.

Yes, relative to progressive-band countries.Both structures use the same flat 22% income tax rate, and both carry the 33% social tax, paid by the agency out of your rate or by the FIE directly. What separates them is the base: a FIE's social tax is on profit divided by 1.33, while an agency pays it on the full salary plus 0.8% employer and 1.6% employee unemployment insurance. The FIE's statutory minimum base is the other difference. There's no progressive-bracket interaction to model on top of that.

218 days is a common working-year reference (365 days minus weekends, public holidays, and statutory annual leave, plus a margin for gaps between contracts). Adjust the billable-days input to your own realistic figure, especially if you expect longer gaps between FIE clients.