Freelancer Tax Deductions List
A list you can work down, with what to keep for each item and the catch that trips people up — plus one rule that decides everything on it.
The rule every item on this list has to pass
Quick answer: what can a freelancer deduct?
A freelancer can deduct expenses that are ordinary and necessary for the work — workspace, equipment, software and subscriptions, phone and internet, business travel, professional services, education, marketing, insurance, and bank and payment-processor fees. Where something is used personally as well, only the business share is deductible. The practical limit is evidence: you can claim what you can support with a receipt or invoice.
One test governs the whole list, so it's worth understanding once rather than memorising twenty separate rules. An expense qualifies when it's ordinary — common and accepted in your line of work — and necessary — helpful and appropriate for it. That standard comes from the tax code itself (in the US, section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code), not from anyone's blog post.
"Necessary" is a softer word than it sounds — it doesn't mean you couldn't possibly have worked without it. A second monitor is helpful and appropriate for a developer; it doesn't have to be indispensable. What the test really rules out is the personal purchase you'd like to reclassify.
The second half of the rule does most of the real work: where something serves both business and personal use, you claim only the business share. That applies to your phone, your internet, your car, and the room you work in. Apportionment is where most honest mistakes happen, and it's also where a consistent, written-down method protects you.
One note on sources, since it catches out a lot of otherwise-good articles: the IRS discontinued Publication 535, Business Expenses — its last revision was for 2022. US readers should be working from Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business and the IRS guide to business expense resources. If a list you're reading still cites Pub 535 as current, it hasn't been checked in a while.
The list — deductions almost every freelancer has
Grouped so you can go down it in one sitting. "Typically deductible?" is a general indication, not a ruling on your situation — the gotcha column is where the real detail lives.
Workspace
| Expense | Typically deductible? | What to keep | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home office | Often — if the space is used regularly and exclusively for work | Floor area or room count, plus rent/mortgage interest, utilities and insurance bills | The exclusive-use test is stricter than people expect; a kitchen table rarely qualifies |
| Coworking membership | Usually | Monthly invoices | Day passes get lost — they're small and they never hit a statement as one line |
| Rent on a dedicated space | Usually | Lease and payment records | If you also live there, it's apportioned, not the whole amount |
Equipment
| Expense | Typically deductible? | What to keep | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laptop, monitor, phone, camera | Usually, for the business-use share | Purchase receipt showing date and amount | Cost may make it an asset written down over time rather than a same-year expense — the threshold is country-specific |
| Desk, chair, office furniture | Usually | Purchase receipt | Same expense-versus-asset question as above |
| Repairs to business equipment | Usually | Repair invoice | An upgrade that improves the item is treated differently from a repair that restores it |
Running the business
| Expense | Typically deductible? | What to keep | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software and subscriptions | Usually | The renewal receipt each period, not just the first one | Annual renewals are the easiest thing in this table to forget, because you only see them once a year |
| Hosting, domains, cloud storage | Usually | Provider invoices | Often charged to a personal card years ago and never reviewed since |
| Phone and internet | The business-use share only | Bills plus a note on how you worked out the share | Claiming the whole bill is one of the most common errors |
| Bank and payment-processor fees | Usually | Processor statements showing gross, fee and net | The most-missed line on this list — see the callout below |
Getting work and getting paid
| Expense | Typically deductible? | What to keep | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing — website, ads, portfolio | Usually | Invoices and ad-platform receipts | Ad spend on a personal card is easy to lose in a busy month |
| Professional services — accountant, lawyer, bookkeeper | Usually | Their invoices | Fees for personal tax matters aren't a business expense |
| Professional liability and E&O insurance | Usually | Policy documents and payment records | Personal insurance doesn't qualify; business cover does |
| Business travel and mileage | Usually, for genuine business trips | Itinerary, receipts, and a trip log for driving | Your daily commute is not business travel |
| Meals | Sometimes, and treatment varies | Receipt plus who you met and why | The allowable proportion differs by country and tax year — check your country's page |
| Education that maintains or improves skills | Often | Course receipts | Training that qualifies you for a new occupation is treated differently from keeping current skills sharp |
The one almost everyone misses: payment-processor fees
Stripe, PayPal and card-processing fees are ordinary business expenses, and they're missed more than any other line here for a structural reason: the money never leaves your account. The fee is netted out of the payout before it arrives, so there's no outgoing transaction to spot on a bank statement. If you invoice a client and the payout lands slightly short, that difference is a deductible cost — but only if you record the gross invoice as income and the fee as an expense, rather than recording the net figure and quietly losing both. Over a year of invoices it adds up to real money.
Retirement contributions deserve a flag rather than a row: for most freelancers these reduce taxable income through a different mechanism, not as a business expense on your trading accounts. They're worth understanding separately — see the freelance retirement planning guide.
The ones people get wrong
These come up constantly, and getting them wrong in the confident direction is more expensive than missing a deduction entirely.
- Clothing. Generally not deductible unless it's genuinely unsuitable for everyday wear. Protective gear and branded uniforms usually qualify; the outfit you bought for client meetings usually doesn't, however strictly you reserve it for work.
- The commute. Travelling from home to your regular place of work isn't business travel. Travel between client sites during a working day generally is — see is mileage tax deductible.
- The whole phone or internet bill. Apportion it. Claiming 100% of a connection you also use in the evening is one of the easiest things for anyone reviewing your return to question — the detail is on is my phone bill tax deductible.
- Client entertainment. Treated much less generously than meals in several regimes, and in some cases not deductible at all. Check before you claim rather than after.
- Anything you can't evidence. A deduction you can't support is one you'll lose if it's ever examined — and losing it later, with interest, costs more than never having claimed it.
For the other direction — the legitimate deductions freelancers routinely leave on the table — we keep a separate guide on the deductions freelancers most often miss.
Country differences that actually matter
The categories above are broadly similar across English-speaking tax systems. The percentages, thresholds and forms are not — which is why this page deliberately doesn't print a meals percentage or a mileage rate. Applying a US figure to a UK return is a confident, specific way to be wrong.
- United States. Business expenses are reported on Schedule C with your 1040, and self-employment tax is calculated separately from income tax. The category-level detail is in our Schedule C guide, and the US page covers tracking.
- United Kingdom. Allowable expenses are claimed through Self Assessment, and some freelancers use simplified expenses for home working and vehicles instead of apportioning actual costs. See the UK page.
- Canada. Self-employment income and expenses go on form T2125 with your T1, and GST/HST registration adds its own record-keeping. See the Canada page.
Where a number matters — a meal percentage, a mileage rate, a threshold that decides whether a laptop is an expense or an asset — get it from your country's page or your accountant, for the tax year you're filing. Those change.
What "keeping records" actually means
Look back at the "what to keep" column and you'll notice something: nearly all of it already arrived in your inbox. Software renewals, hosting invoices, flight confirmations, the laptop receipt, the processor's monthly statement — these were emailed to you when they happened. The work isn't obtaining the evidence. It's that the evidence is scattered across a year of email and nobody wants to go looking for it in April.
That's the specific problem ExpenseBot handles. You connect Gmail once, and it reads the receipt and invoice emails already sitting there — pulling out the vendor, date and amount, categorizing each one, and writing it as a row in a Google Sheet in your own Google Drive, with the original email kept as the documentation behind it. Paper receipts go in by photo and PDFs by upload. It runs on a schedule instead of waiting for you, and it labels what it has already read so nothing gets counted twice.
To be clear about what it doesn't do: it doesn't decide what's deductible for you, apply a business-use percentage, or file anything. Those are your calls, and your accountant's. What it does is make sure that when you sit down to work through the list above, the evidence is already collected and categorized rather than scattered across twelve months of inbox. The sheet is yours — you keep it whether or not you keep the subscription.
60-day free trial · No credit card
Year-end checklist
- Go down the list above and mark anything you paid for this year but haven't recorded.
- Pull your payment-processor statements and record the fees — gross income in, fee out.
- Check every annual subscription renewal; they're the easiest to miss because you see them once.
- Write down your apportionment method for phone, internet and home office, and apply it consistently.
- Reconcile the list against your bank and card statements to catch anything with no receipt.
- Flag the "it depends" items — mixed-use equipment, meals, entertainment — for your accountant rather than guessing.
- Confirm the current-year figures (meal percentages, mileage rates, thresholds) for the country you file in.
If you'd rather not do steps 1–3 by hand next year, that's the case for capturing expenses as they arrive — see ExpenseBot for freelancers or the income and expense tracker.
Frequently asked questions
What can freelancers write off?
Any expense that's ordinary and necessary for the work — workspace, equipment, software, business travel, professional fees, marketing, insurance and payment-processing fees are the common ones. Where something is used personally too, you claim only the business share. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
Can I write off my laptop?
Yes, for the business-use share. Depending on what it cost and which country you file in, it may be a same-year expense or an asset written down over several years. Keep the purchase receipt showing the date and amount either way. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
Are Stripe and PayPal fees tax deductible?
Yes. They're a genuine cost of getting paid — and the most commonly missed one, because the fee is deducted from your payout rather than paid out separately. If you record only what landed in your bank account, you've understated both your income and your expenses. Your processor statements show the gross amount, the fee and the net. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
Can I deduct clothes I bought for client meetings?
Generally no. Ordinary business clothing that's suitable for everyday wear isn't deductible even if you only ever wear it for work. The usual test is whether the item is genuinely unsuitable for ordinary use — protective gear and branded uniforms tend to qualify, a good suit does not. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
Do I need receipts for everything?
You need to be able to evidence what you claim. A bank line shows money left your account; a receipt shows what it bought. Keep both where you can — the bank line proves the payment happened and the receipt proves it was business. A deduction you can't support is one you'll lose if anyone asks, and losing it later costs more than never claiming it. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
How much of my internet can I claim?
The business-use share, worked out consistently over a representative period. There is no standard percentage you can simply apply. Whatever method you use — hours, devices, or a documented estimate — write down how you arrived at it and apply it the same way each year. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.
This page is general educational information about commonly deductible business expenses, not advice on your situation. Rules differ by country and by tax year. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.