Basic tax guide: Expenses you can really deduct

Do you work from home and don't know what share of the electricity bill you can deduct? Do you use your car for work? And your phone, meals when you work away, health insurance? This guide explains in plain language, with one example from start to finish, which expenses are really deductible for income tax and for VAT.

What it includes

• 📄 6-page PDF guide (A4), with a full year of a sample freelancer and all her numbers.
• 📊 Excel spreadsheet (3 tabs): your expenses with their category and what you save, the calculation for your home's utilities and a table of what is deductible and why.
• 🇪🇸 Also in Spanish. The PDF and the spreadsheet, in English and in Spanish, in the same download.

What you will find

• The three rules any expense has to meet: it is for your work, invoiced in your name and recorded in your books.
• Why income tax and VAT don't work the same way.
• If you work from home: the share by floor area (property tax, community fees, mortgage) and 30% of that share for electricity, water, gas and internet.
• Your phone: when it is fully deductible and when not at all.
• Your car: why almost never for income tax and half for VAT, and the exceptions.
• Meals: requirements and daily limits (€26.67 in Spain without an overnight stay).
• Health insurance, training, software and your adviser's fees, and what is never deductible.
• What changes if you invoice through a company.
• The five mistakes we see most.

Who it is for

Freelancers under direct assessment who want to know what they can deduct without overstepping, and company owners who want to see the differences.

How you receive it

When you pay, you get the PDF and the spreadsheet straight away, on the confirmation page and in your e-mail. The spreadsheet also opens in Google Sheets or Numbers. It is digital content: once you receive it, you lose the right of withdrawal.

Version

October 2026 version, with the rules in force on that date.

Who wrote it

DPL Asesores, a tax and accounting advisory firm in Alicante that handles the bookkeeping and taxes of freelancers and small businesses. Guide written with the help of artificial intelligence tools.

⚠️ This is general information as of the version date, written to be understood without prior knowledge. It does not replace advice on your specific case.

€5 VAT included.

🎁 And if you then book a consultation with DPL Asesores within the following 3 months, we take the €5 for the guide off: the code is on its last page.

Terms of sale: dplasesores.com/en/ecommerce/condiciones-de-contratacion