£600/Day Freelance Rate UK: Your Actual Take-Home Pay in 2026
By PayMetric Labs Research Desk
A £600 day rate sounds like a clear number until you work out what actually lands in your account. Outside IR35 through a limited company, at 200 realistic billable days, the answer is £73,285 a year, £6,107 a month. Here is the full 2026/27 breakdown, plus how much bench time between contracts moves that figure.
£600 a day, quoted as an annual figure, looks like £120,000 (assuming 200 working days). It is not. £120,000 is your gross contract revenue, before your limited company pays Employer NI on your salary, before Corporation Tax on its profit, and before Dividend Tax on whatever you extract personally. By the time all three have taken their share, the number that actually reaches your bank account is £73,285, just over 61% of the headline figure.
Here is the exact 2026/27 breakdown, run through the same engine as our Freelance Rate Calculator, plus what happens to that figure when bench time between contracts eats into your billable days.
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Plug in your exact day rate, overheads, leave allowance and bench percentage to see your real net take-home, and compare it against a permanent salary offer.
The Bottom Line: £600/Day Net Take-Home
200 billable days at £600/day = £120,000 gross annual contract revenue. Outside IR35, limited company, £12,570 director salary, £2,900 standard overheads, no pension contribution, single person, 2026/27 rates.
| Line Item (2026/27) | Amount |
|---|---|
Contract Revenue 200 billable days × £600 | £120,000 |
Business Overheads Accountancy, insurance, software, equipment | −£2,900 |
Employer NI on Salary 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, on a £12,570 director salary | −£1,136 |
Company Profit (pre-tax) | £103,394 |
Corporation Tax 19% up to £50,000 profit, rising to 25% above £250,000 | −£23,649 |
Dividends Available | £79,745 |
Dividend Tax 10.75% basic rate band, 33.75% higher, above the £500 allowance | −£19,030 |
Director Salary Matches the personal allowance: zero Income Tax, zero employee NI | £12,570 |
Estimated Annual Net Take-Home | £73,285 |
Estimated Monthly Take-Home | £6,107 |
£120,000 of revenue becomes £73,285 of net pay, a reduction of just under 39%. Employer NI, Corporation Tax and Dividend Tax each take a share before overheads and non-billable time are even accounted for. Figures are estimates: actual results vary with accountancy fees, expenses and pension contributions. Scotland's separate income tax bands do not change this figure: the £12,570 director salary sits below every UK region's tax threshold, and Dividend Tax and Corporation Tax are set UK-wide, not devolved.
The Same £600/Day Rate, Three Bench-Time Scenarios
Your day rate doesn't change. Only the number of days you can actually bill in a year changes, and it moves your take-home more than any tax decision will.
0% bench (222 days)
Billable days
222
Est. monthly take-home
£6,627
Est. annual take-home
£79,518
10% bench (200 days)
Billable days
200
Est. monthly take-home
£6,107
Est. annual take-home
£73,285
20% bench (178 days)
Billable days
178
Est. monthly take-home
£5,588
Est. annual take-home
£67,051
Going from 0% to 20% bench costs £12,467 a year at an identical £600 day rate. That is a bigger swing than the difference between inside and outside IR35 at this rate. Pipeline and utilisation matter more to your real income than almost any tax structure decision.
What permanent salary matches £600 a day?
At 200 billable days, £73,285 net take-home from contracting is equivalent to roughly £112,200 gross as a PAYE employee. That is the salary a permanent role would need to offer to hand you the same net pay. It is a useful sanity check before comparing a contract rate against a permanent offer: a headline gross salary a long way below £112,200 is not automatically a worse deal once benefits, security and paid leave are weighed in, but it is not a like-for-like comparison either until you convert both sides to net terms.
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Common Questions About £600 a Day Take-Home Pay
What is the take-home pay for £600 a day outside IR35 in the UK?
At 200 realistic billable days a year, a £600 day rate outside IR35 through a limited company nets an estimated £73,285 annually, roughly £6,107 a month. That figure assumes a £12,570 director salary, standard business overheads of £2,900, no pension contribution, and dividends taxed at 2026/27 rates after Corporation Tax has already been paid on company profit.
Why isn't £600 a day simply £120,000 a year?
£600 × 200 billable days is £120,000 in gross contract revenue, not take-home pay. Before any of it reaches your bank account, your limited company pays Employer NI on your salary, business overheads have to be covered, Corporation Tax is due on the remaining profit, and Dividend Tax is due on whatever you extract from what's left. Those four deductions turn £120,000 of revenue into £73,285 of net pay, a reduction of just under 39%.
How much does bench time change my take-home at the same £600 day rate?
More than most contractors expect. At 0% bench (222 billable days) the same £600 rate nets £79,518. At a realistic 10% bench allowance (200 days) it drops to £73,285. At 20% bench (178 days, more typical for a contractor between longer-term engagements) it falls to £67,051, a difference of £12,467 a year for an identical headline day rate. Bench time is consistently a bigger lever on your actual income than the tax structure you choose.
What permanent salary would match £600 a day outside IR35?
Roughly £112,200 gross as a PAYE employee, based on 200 billable days a year. That is the salary an employer would need to pay you as a permanent hire to hand you the same £73,285 net take-home. If a permanent offer sits meaningfully below that figure once pension matching and other benefits are included, the contract rate is the better deal purely on cash terms; if it's close to or above it, the comparison gets more nuanced once you weigh job security and paid leave.
Is £600 a day inside or outside IR35 a better comparison point?
This breakdown assumes outside IR35 through your own limited company, extracting income as a low salary plus dividends. If the same £600 day rate is inside IR35 instead, the umbrella company becomes your employer of record and 15% Employer NI plus the apprenticeship levy come off your rate before PAYE is even calculated, which typically costs an inside IR35 contractor several thousand pounds a year versus the outside structure at the same headline rate. See our £500/day inside vs outside IR35 breakdown for the exact mechanics.
How is this different from working out what day rate I need to hit a target income?
This article runs the calculation forwards: you already have a £600 day rate in mind (from a client, an agency, or the market rate for your role) and want to know what it actually nets after tax. If instead you're starting from a target take-home figure and need to work out what day rate to charge to hit it, that's the reverse calculation, covered in our freelance rate calculator guide, which builds the required day rate up from your target net income instead of down from a quoted rate.
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