One of the most common questions we get from freelancers and Schedule C filers isn't about a specific deduction, it's the broader question underneath all of them: what actually counts? The tax code doesn't hand you a tidy checklist. Instead, it gives you a single standard, and everything else is really just that standard applied to different situations.
Here's how that standard works, and how it plays out across the expense categories freelancers deal with most.
The test that decides everything: "ordinary and necessary"
Every deductible business expense on Schedule C has to be ordinary and necessary for your business. Those two words are doing all the work, and it's worth understanding them separately.
Ordinary means common and accepted in your line of work. A photographer deducting camera equipment is ordinary. A graphic designer deducting the same equipment would raise questions, because it's not a typical cost of running a design business.
Necessary means helpful and appropriate for your business. It doesn't have to be indispensable, but it does have to serve a real business purpose. You don't need to prove you couldn't have survived without an expense, just that it made sense as part of running your business.
Put together, the test isn't "would this help my business in some abstract way?”, it's "is this a normal cost of doing what I do, and does it serve an actual purpose in doing it?" That standard is intentionally flexible, which is exactly why it causes confusion. It also means the same expense can be a legitimate write-off for one freelancer and a personal expense for another, depending entirely on what their business actually is.
The expenses freelancers deduct most often
Supplies, tools, and equipment
Anything you buy specifically to do your work (e.g software subscriptions, a laptop, a camera, office supplies, industry-specific tools) generally qualifies. For lower-cost items, there's a helpful rule called the de minimis safe harbor: purchases of $2,500 or less per item or invoice can typically be deducted in full the year you buy them, rather than depreciated over several years. Above that threshold, or for larger equipment purchases, you may need to depreciate the cost over time or use Section 179 to deduct a larger purchase price upfront.
Home office costs
We've covered this one in depth elsewhere on the blog (check it out here), but briefly: if you have a space used exclusively and regularly for your business, a portion of your housing costs, or a flat rate under the simplified method, is deductible.
Vehicle and mileage expenses
If you drive for business to meet clients, pick up supplies, or travel between job sites, that mileage is deductible using either the standard mileage rate (76 cents per mile for the second half of 2026) or your actual vehicle expenses, prorated for business use. What's not deductible is your regular commute between home and a fixed place of work — though as we noted in our home office series, when your home office is your principal place of business, trips from home to client sites generally aren't commuting at all.
Business insurance
Liability insurance, professional insurance (errors and omissions, malpractice), and your health insurance premiums can be deductible, though health insurance is handled separately from Schedule C as an adjustment to income rather than a business expense line item. This is a detail that's easy to get wrong on a DIY return.
Professional services and fees
Accounting fees, legal fees, bookkeeping software, and payments to other contractors you hire for your business are deductible. If you pay any individual contractor $600 or more in a year, remember that you may need to issue them a Form 1099-NEC.
Marketing and advertising
Website costs, business cards, paid ads, a portfolio site, photography for your services. Anything spent to bring in or retain business fits cleanly into the "ordinary and necessary" test for most freelancers.
Education and professional development
Courses, certifications, industry conferences, and subscriptions to trade publications are deductible when they maintain or improve skills you already use in your current business. Education that qualifies you for a brand-new line of work is treated differently. That's a distinction worth checking before assuming a course is deductible.
Business travel
When you travel primarily for business like for example a conference, a client meeting in another city, your transportation, lodging, and 50% of your meal costs are deductible. Meals in general get this 50% haircut in almost every context, whether you're traveling or just taking a client out locally; full deduction of meal costs is the exception, not the rule.
Business use of your phone and internet
If you use your personal cell phone or home internet for business, you can deduct the business-use percentage of the bill. What you can't do is deduct 100% of a plan you also use personally without a reasonable basis for the split.
What generally does not count
The flip side of "ordinary and necessary" is just as important, and it's where we see the most well-intentioned mistakes.
Personal expenses that happen to touch your business. Clothing is the classic example: a nice outfit you wear to meet clients is still ordinary clothing you could wear elsewhere, so it's not deductible even though it feels business-related. The exception is clothing that's not suitable for everyday wear, like a uniform with a company logo or specialized safety gear.
Commuting. Driving from home to your regular place of work is a personal expense, not a business one, with the narrow exception noted above for a qualifying home office.
Entertainment. Since the 2017 tax law changes, entertainment expenses (ex. tickets to a game, a round of golf with a client, a show) are not deductible at all, even though a meal that happens alongside that entertainment may still qualify for the 50% meal deduction if it's separately identified.
Fines and penalties. Parking tickets, traffic fines, and similar penalties paid to a government entity are not deductible business expenses, regardless of whether they happened during business activity.
Anything without a business purpose you can articulate. This is less a specific category than a gut check: if you can't explain in a sentence how an expense relates to earning income in your business, it's worth pausing before deducting it.
The documentation that backs it all up
None of the above matters much if you can't support it later. For every deduction, keep the receipt or statement, a note of the business purpose (especially for anything that could look personal, like meals or travel), and for mileage: a log of dates, destinations, and miles driven rather than an estimate reconstructed at tax time. Cloud-based bookkeeping tools and even a simple spreadsheet updated monthly go a long way here; the goal isn't perfection, it's being able to answer "why was this a business expense" without having to guess months later.
The bottom line
There's no master list that covers every freelancer's situation, because "ordinary and necessary" depends on what your business actually is. A subscription that's a clear write-off for one person might not make sense for another, and that's normal. It's not a sign the rules are inconsistent, just that they're built to flex around real businesses rather than force every freelancer into the same categories.
If you're ever unsure whether something counts, that's a five-minute conversation worth having before you file.
