This is the first year of my self-employment that I’ve been really disciplined about tracking expenses. My goodness, it makes a difference, doesn’t it?

@adders can I ask what type of expenses? Asking because I don’t seem to have any (or barely any) after 2-3 years...

@tibz part of the art of being self employed is knowing what exactly can be classed as an expense, especially for tax purposes

@tibz Travel, equipment, software. Subscriptions, memberships

@grib @adders no, it’s more that, for me, I really only have a yearly Buffer account to expense. Rest is free (software) or my own (hardware)

@tibz I'm not 100% sure about tax details in IE, as I was self employed in UK, but I was advised to consider my own software and hardware purchases (at least for a percentage of their use) when doing tax returns

@grib sole-trader based out of France, so no VAT to add to my invoices on my end. As such, I can’t take off VAT on purchases. Makes accounting easier.

@grib and I’m not aware of something similar for tax purposes, in France at least :(

@tibz it always felt like I was scamming someone when I'd expense a coffee I had with a new client or mileage to attend a meetup but it's really all about offsetting. You use your resources for work which you get taxed on, then you buy more resources and get taxed on the purchase

@grib yep, makes sense. I think I’ve only expensed a half day for a meeting in the past — for the rest, I’m only working remotely ;)

@tibz if you're living in IE now that might affect things too I can ask some of my colleagues if you like? My own tax situation is nuts, I live in and am employed by a UK but work in their Dublin office. I have to pay Irish tax on £ which I then deduct from UK tax calculations 🤪