Why missed deductions are so expensive
For a freelancer in the 30% tax bracket, every 1,000 euros of forgotten deductions costs 300 euros in extra tax. Multiply that by a typical year of small unrecorded purchases and you are looking at one to three months of net income, gone — entirely legally claimable, but never claimed.
The eleven most-missed categories
1. Bank and payment fees. Your business account fees, Stripe and PayPal commissions, currency conversion fees — all 100% deductible.
2. Software subscriptions under 20 euros/month. The small ones (font libraries, AI tools, cloud storage) are the ones that vanish from your records.
3. Home office, calculated properly. A dedicated work area gives you a proportional deduction on rent, electricity, internet and heating.
4. Professional development. Books, online courses, conferences and even relevant podcasts subscribed to are deductible.
5. Travel between client sites. Not your daily commute, but every trip from one paid engagement to another counts.
6. Client meals. Generally 50% deductible in most jurisdictions, when documented with the client name.
7. Phone and internet, business share. If you use them 60% for work, deduct 60% of the bill.
8. Insurance premiums. Professional liability, equipment insurance and even partial health insurance in many countries.
9. Marketing. Domain names, business cards, paid social ads, freelance platforms' commissions.
10. Co-working day passes. Each individual day pass is small but adds up across a year.
11. Bad debt. An invoice that a client refuses to pay, after documented collection attempts, is deductible as a loss.
The audit-proof documentation method
Every deduction is only as strong as its proof. For each expense you should be able to produce: a dated receipt or invoice, the business reason in one sentence, and a payment trace (bank line or card statement). A receipt-tracking app that captures all three at the moment of purchase is the cheapest insurance against an audit.
Take ten minutes today to scan the receipts already in your wallet. The deductions you uncover will probably pay for years of expense-tracking software.