What freelance writers can claim as expenses

General information, not tax advice. Rules differ by country and by circumstance. Confirm with your own tax authority — IRS, HMRC, CRA or ATO — and a qualified accountant.

Every country applies roughly the same test: an expense must be incurred wholly and exclusively, or ordinarily and necessarily, for the business. The wording differs; the principle does not.

What varies is which categories a writer legitimately has. Here they are.

The categories writers actually have

Research materials. Books, journal subscriptions, archive access, database fees, paywalled publications you genuinely read for work. A subscription to a magazine you pitch is defensible; a general news subscription you would buy anyway is harder.

Software and tools. Word processors, invoicing and accounting software, grammar tools, cloud storage, a password manager. See accounting and invoicing software.

Website and domain. Hosting, domain renewal, portfolio site.

Professional membership. Society of Authors, Authors Guild, NUJ, PWAC, ASA, EFA. Usually straightforwardly allowable.

Submission and contest fees. A genuine cost of doing business as a writer. Several publications charge to submit — Granta £3.50, The Fiction Desk £5, Malahat CAD$7 — and those add up across a year of submissions.

Travel for reporting or interviews. Fares, mileage, accommodation where the trip is for a commissioned or genuinely intended piece.

Equipment. Laptop, recorder, microphone, printer. Often depreciated rather than deducted at once, depending on cost and country.

Home office. Real, and the most commonly mishandled — see below.

Bank and payment fees. Currency conversion on foreign payments, PayPal and Stripe fees, and transaction charges. On international writing income these are frequently larger than the software.

Training. Courses and conferences that maintain or improve skills for the work you already do.

The three writers most often get wrong

1. Home office. All four countries allow a proportion of household costs for space used for work, and all four expect a reasonable basis. The US offers a simplified per-square-foot method; the UK offers simplified flat rates by hours worked; Canada and Australia have their own methods. Claiming a whole room you also sleep in is the classic error. Use whichever official simplified method exists — it is usually less generous and far easier to defend.

2. Books and reading. A book you bought to research a commissioned piece is clearly business. Your general reading is not, however much it feeds your writing. The distinction the tax authority applies is purpose, not benefit. Keep the receipt and note the piece it was for.

3. Travel that was also a holiday. A trip that produced a commissioned travel piece has a business element. A holiday you later wrote about does not automatically become deductible. Apportion honestly and document the commission.

Country notes

United States. Deductions go on Schedule C. Self-employment tax applies to net profit. The simplified home-office method is a fixed rate per square foot up to a capped area. Keep receipts; the standard is that expenses are ordinary and necessary.

United Kingdom. Expenses are wholly and exclusively for the trade. You choose between the £1,000 trading allowance and actual expenses — not both. HMRC publishes simplified flat rates for working from home and for vehicle mileage. See UK tax for writers.

Canada. Expenses go on form T2125. Business-use-of-home has its own rules and cannot create or increase a loss. GST/HST registration has its own small-supplier threshold.

Australia. Deductions must relate directly to earning assessable income. The ATO publishes fixed-rate and actual-cost methods for working from home, and takes an active interest in home-office and car claims. If you are GST-registered, remember that most published rates — including the ASA schedule — are quoted excluding GST.

The habit that makes all of this easy

Separate the money. One account for writing income and writing expenses turns a reconstruction job into a download. That, more than any deduction, is what makes tax time survivable — see do writers need a business bank account.

Photograph receipts immediately. Thermal paper fades. Most accounting tools scan.

Note the purpose on the receipt. "Research — Guardian piece on X" is the difference between a defensible claim and a guess two years later.

What claiming actually saves you

An expense reduces taxable profit, it does not refund itself. A £100 expense at a 20% marginal rate saves £20 — you are still £80 down.

So never buy something for the tax deduction. Buy it because the work needs it, then claim it. Writers talked into subscriptions "because it's deductible" are simply spending money more slowly.

Weigh purchases against what you actually earn — the rate calculator is a quicker reality check than a spreadsheet.

Checklist

• Business income and expenses run through a separate account
• Receipts captured digitally, with the purpose noted
• Home office claimed by an official simplified method
• Personal and business use apportioned honestly
• Submission fees, memberships and bank charges included — commonly missed
• Records kept for the period my country requires
• I have not bought anything solely for the deduction

Categories reflect widely published guidance from the IRS, HMRC, CRA and ATO as of 6 September 2026. Rules change and depend on individual circumstances. This is general information, not tax advice — verify with your own tax authority and a qualified accountant.