Add up your home office, mileage and everyday business expenses — with the correct deductible percentage applied to each — and see what it's worth in tax saved.
For US freelancers, contractors and sole proprietors filing a Schedule C.
Business expenses cut both your income tax and your self-employment tax, so the combined marginal rate is roughly your income-tax bracket plus about 14%. Use the Self-Employment Tax Calculator to work out your own figure rather than relying on the 30% default.
Estimates only for tax year 2026 — not tax, legal or accounting advice. Deductibility depends on an expense being ordinary, necessary and genuinely business-related, and on records you can produce if asked. Large equipment purchases may need depreciating rather than deducting in full. Confirm your own position with a qualified tax professional.
The IRS standard is short and deceptively broad: an expense is deductible if it is ordinary (common and accepted in your line of work) and necessary (helpful and appropriate for your business). It does not have to be indispensable. It does have to be genuinely business-related, and you have to be able to show it if asked.
That second half is where freelancers lose deductions. A legitimate expense with no receipt, no bank record and no note about what it was for is a deduction you may not be able to defend. The tool above helps you total them; a simple habit of keeping records is what lets you keep them.
The one most people get wrong: health insurance premiums are not a Schedule C business expense. For most self-employed people they're a separate above-the-line deduction on Form 1040 instead. Leave them out of the insurance box above, or you'll double-count them.
To claim it at all, the space must be used regularly and exclusively for business, and be your principal place of business. "Exclusively" is strict — a desk in the corner of a spare room can qualify; the kitchen table you also eat at does not.
There are two ways to calculate it:
The calculator works out both and tells you which is larger, so you're not leaving money on the table by defaulting to the easy one. Note that the simplified deduction can't exceed the gross income from the business use of your home.
You can deduct business driving two ways: the standard mileage rate (a set number of cents per business mile, covering everything) or actual expenses (your real vehicle costs, multiplied by the percentage of driving that was for business). You cannot claim both, and if you want the option to switch later you generally need to use the standard rate in the first year you use the car for business.
2026 has two mileage rates, not one. The IRS set 72.5¢ per mile from January, then raised it to 76¢ from July in response to fuel prices. If you drove in both halves of the year, a calculator applying a single annual rate will give you the wrong figure — which is why the tool above asks for your miles twice.
Commuting from home to a regular workplace is not deductible. But if your home is your principal place of business, trips from there to a client site generally are — one of the quieter advantages of qualifying for the home office deduction.
| Expense | Deductible amount | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Business meals | 50% | Long-standing statutory limit. 80% for workers under DOT hours-of-service rules. |
| Phone & internet | Business-use share only | Mixed personal/business use — you can only deduct the business portion. |
| Vehicle | Business-use share only | Same principle; commuting doesn't count as business use. |
| Client entertainment | 0% | Entertainment deductions were eliminated by the 2017 tax law. The meal can still qualify if billed separately. |
| Clothing | Usually 0% | Only deductible if unsuitable for everyday wear — a branded uniform, not a nice suit. |
| Large equipment | Varies | May need depreciating over several years rather than deducting in full, though Section 179 often allows an immediate write-off. |
Ana uses a 150 sq ft room exclusively as her office, drove 3,000 business miles in the first half of 2026 and 2,000 in the second, and has the usual running costs:
Total deductions: $10,595. At a combined marginal rate of 30%, that's roughly $3,179 less tax — and it also lowers the net income figure she feeds into the self-employment tax calculator.
Had she used a single annual mileage rate of 72.5¢ for all 5,000 miles, she'd have claimed $3,625 instead of $3,695 — a small miss, but it scales with your mileage.
Figures last checked against these sources on July 30, 2026. Tax figures change annually — if that date looks stale, verify against the IRS before relying on the result.
This calculator and guide are for general information only and do not constitute tax, legal or accounting advice. Deductibility depends on your specific facts, and tax rules change. Consult a qualified tax professional before claiming any deduction.
Any expense that is ordinary and necessary for your business: software, equipment, a home office, business mileage, professional fees, insurance, marketing, training, travel and subcontractors. The calculator above covers the common categories and applies the right deductible percentage to each.
Whichever gives the bigger deduction, unless the record-keeping isn't worth it to you. The simplified method is $5.00 per square foot up to 300 sq ft (max $1,500) and needs no receipts. The actual method often wins if you rent somewhere expensive. Enter both in the calculator and it will tell you which is larger.
Because 2026 has two different standard mileage rates. The IRS set 72.5¢ per mile from January and raised it to 76¢ from July. Splitting your miles across the two periods gives an accurate figure; applying one annual rate to everything does not.
No — leave it out of this calculator. Self-employed health insurance premiums are generally deducted as an above-the-line adjustment on Form 1040 rather than as a business expense on Schedule C. Including them here would double-count them and overstate your business deductions.
Yes, 50% is the general rule, and the calculator applies it automatically — enter what you actually spent. The temporary 100% deduction for restaurant meals applied only to 2021 and 2022. Workers subject to DOT hours-of-service limits can deduct 80%, which this tool does not model. Client entertainment is not deductible at all.
More than most people expect, because a business expense reduces both your income tax and your self-employment tax. As a rough guide the combined saving is your income-tax bracket plus about 14%. The savings figure in the calculator multiplies your deductions by whatever combined rate you enter — use the Self-Employment Tax Calculator to find your real one.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. Your figures are never uploaded, stored or logged, and there's no sign-up.
Four free tools that pass their numbers to each other.
Feed your expense total in to find the hourly rate that actually covers your costs.
Set my rate →Subtract these deductions from revenue to get the net income figure, and find your real tax rate.
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