Business expenses freelancers can deduct in the EU (2026): the common, legitimate ones

Every freelancer eventually hears the same well-meaning advice: “put it through the business, it’s a write-off.” It is half-right and half-dangerous. As a team of one you genuinely can deduct a long list of legitimate costs — and doing so honestly lowers your tax bill. But “deductible” is not a magic word, and the line between a clean deduction and a problem is simpler than people make it. This is the plain-English guide to the common, legitimate business expenses a solopreneur can deduct in the EU — and the principle that decides every one of them.

The principle: genuinely for the business

Almost every EU tax system uses some version of the same test — often phrased as “wholly and exclusively for the business” — to decide whether a cost is deductible. Strip away the legalese and it means one thing: the expense has to be genuinely incurred to run your business, not for your personal life.

That single test sorts everything:

• A pure business cost — your accounting software, a client flight, your professional insurance — is straightforwardly deductible.
• A mixed cost that serves both the business and you personally — your home, your phone, your car — is deductible only for the business portion, apportioned on a reasonable basis you could defend.
• A purely personal cost is never deductible just because you happen to be self-employed.

Get the principle and you don’t need to memorise a list — you can reason about any cost. A deduction also reduces your taxable profit, the figure income tax is calculated on, which is why expenses matter for the whole tax picture.

The common, legitimate categories for a solo

These are the cost types nearly every solopreneur incurs and can, in principle, deduct — assuming each is genuinely for the business and your country allows it.

• Software & subscriptions — your accounting tool, design apps, project software, cloud storage, the SaaS that runs the business. The everyday backbone of a solo deduction.
• Hardware — laptop, phone, monitor, peripherals. Larger items may be written off over several years (depreciation) rather than all at once — a country-specific mechanic worth asking about.
• Home office — a proportionate share of rent, heating and electricity when you work from home. This is a classic mixed cost: only the business share is deductible, on a defensible basis (often by room or area), and the method varies sharply by country.
• Coworking — a desk or membership is a clean, fully business cost when it’s where you work.
• Professional services — your accountant, bookkeeper or lawyer. The fee you pay for getting the admin right is itself deductible.
• Bank fees — the charges on your dedicated business account and payment processing. Small individually, real over a year.
• Business travel — transport, accommodation and related costs for genuinely business trips. The test bites hardest here: a conference is business; tacking on a holiday is not.
• Training & education — courses, books and materials that maintain or update the skills you already use in the business. Learning an entirely new trade is treated differently in many countries — ask.
• Marketing & advertising — ads, design, and the cost of promoting what you sell.
• Website costs — hosting, domains and the tools that keep your site running.
• Phone & internet — the business share of your bills. Another mixed cost: if a line is part personal, only the business proportion is deductible.
• Professional insurance — professional indemnity, liability or equipment cover taken for the business.

The honest hedges

The categories are the easy part. The mistakes live in the assumptions around them.

A deduction is not free money. A deductible expense reduces your taxable profit — you then pay tax on a smaller number. It saves you only the tax on the cost, not the cost itself. Buying something you don’t need “for the write-off” still leaves you poorer; you’ve just paid for it at a small discount. Deductions make genuine business costs cheaper after tax — never free.

Keep receipts for everything. A deduction you can’t evidence is one you can lose if you’re ever asked to justify it. Snap or save the invoice for every business cost and store it against the transaction — exactly the bookkeeping habit that keeps your books clean. Retention rules (how many years you must keep records) are real obligations, not suggestions.

Mixed means apportioned. The home, the phone, the laptop you also use on weekends — these are only partly deductible, and the split has to be reasonable and defensible. Guessing generously in your own favour is exactly what gets questioned.

The rules vary by country. What’s deductible, at what proportion, and over what timeframe differs across the EU — and some flat-rate national schemes replace itemised deductions with a fixed percentage allowance entirely, so you don’t deduct individual costs at all. This is precisely the kind of thing where a local accountant earns their fee.

Knowing what you spent (and what you owe)

You can only deduct what you’ve recorded. Two free tools make that mechanical: the income tracker keeps revenue and expenses in one place so nothing slips through to year end, and the tax set-aside calculator helps you park the state’s share as money arrives — because deductions lower the bill, but they don’t make it disappear. For the surrounding admin — accounts, registration, the rest — see the EU admin guide.

The takeaway

• One test decides everything: a cost is deductible only if it’s genuinely for the business (“wholly and exclusively”).
• The common categories — software, hardware, home office, coworking, professional services, bank fees, travel, training, marketing, website, phone/internet, insurance — cover most of a solo’s legitimate deductions.
• Mixed personal/business costs are apportioned — deduct only the business share, on a defensible basis.
• A deduction lowers taxable profit, not your bank balance to zero — it’s a discount, never free money, and never a reason to overspend.
• Keep receipts, and confirm the specifics — what’s allowed and at what proportion varies by country, so check with a local accountant.

Part of the complete money guide for solopreneurs.