You can usually write off any expense that is ordinary and necessary for running your business, but different categories have different rules on how much you can deduct and when.

What Can You Write Off as a Business Expense?

The Basic Rule (So You Don’t Guess)

Tax agencies (like the IRS in the U.S. or HMRC/CRA in other countries) generally allow you to deduct expenses that are:

  • Ordinary: Common and accepted in your line of work.
  • Necessary: Helpful and appropriate for running the business (doesn’t have to be absolutely essential).

If something is partly personal and partly business (like your phone or car), you usually can only deduct the business-use percentage.

Common Expenses You Can Usually Write Off

Below are typical categories most small businesses and self‑employed people can deduct if they meet the rules.

1. Office, Equipment, and Supplies

  • Office supplies: Paper, pens, printer ink, notebooks, postage, small consumables.
  • Office equipment: Computers, monitors, printers, routers, phones, some furniture (sometimes depreciated over several years or taken under special rules like Section 179 in the U.S.).
  • Software and subscriptions: Accounting tools, project management software, industry‑specific apps, website hosting, domain names, SaaS tools used for business.

Example: A freelance designer can deduct design software subscriptions, a business laptop, and printer ink used only for client work.

2. Rent, Utilities, and Home Office

  • Rent for business premises: Office, studio, warehouse, or retail space.
  • Utilities: Electricity, gas, water, trash, security services, internet, and business phone lines for that space.
  • Home office: If you regularly and exclusively use a part of your home as your principal place of business, you may deduct a share of rent/mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, and insurance, based on business-use percentage (e.g., 10% of home used as office → 10% of eligible costs).

3. Business Travel and Local Transportation

  • Long‑distance business travel: Flights, trains, buses, business mileage, taxis/rideshare, baggage fees, lodging, and related incidentals on bona fide business trips.
  • Local transportation: Mileage or actual expenses for using a car for business, parking and tolls, public transit to client meetings, etc.
  • Business meals while traveling or meeting clients: Often partially deductible (for example, around 50% in many U.S. cases), provided there’s a clear business purpose and records are kept.

Key point: If a trip mixes personal and business, you can only write off the business portion—keep receipts and notes on purpose, dates, and who you met.

4. Employee and Contractor Costs

  • Employee wages and salaries: Pay to staff employed by the business.
  • Employer payroll taxes and benefits: Employer‑paid share of social insurance, retirement contributions, and certain benefits programs.
  • Payments to freelancers and contractors: Fees you pay outside service providers (designers, developers, virtual assistants, etc.), usually with proper invoices/contracts.

Note: Your own personal income tax and personal social‑security‑like contributions generally are not a business deduction—they’re personal.

5. Advertising, Marketing, and Professional Services

  • Advertising and marketing: Online ads, print ads, sponsored posts, business cards, flyers, promotional materials, and reasonable costs of branding.
  • Website and digital presence: Web design, hosting, SEO services, email marketing platforms if used for business.
  • Professional services: Legal, accounting, bookkeeping, consulting, and similar professional fees used for business purposes.

Many of these are typically 100% deductible if they’re purely business‑related.

6. Insurance, Bank Fees, and Interest

  • Business insurance: Property insurance, liability coverage, professional indemnity/malpractice, workers’ compensation, certain employee health plans, and some business interruption insurance.
  • Bank fees: Service charges on business accounts, merchant fees, and similar charges.
  • Interest on business loans and lines of credit: Often deductible up to certain limits and rules, especially when the borrowed money is used for business operations or assets.

7. Education, Training, and Memberships

  • Courses and training: Seminars, conferences, certifications, and courses that maintain or improve skills in your current business.
  • Books and reference materials: Industry‑related books, journals, and paid research tools.
  • Professional dues: Memberships to professional associations, trade groups, or chambers of commerce (if directly related to your trade).

8. Other Frequently Deductible Categories

  • Business licenses and permits.
  • Business‑related software and cloud storage.
  • Repairs and maintenance on business property (not major improvements that must be capitalized and depreciated).
  • Certain bad debts: Money owed to you that you can’t recover, in limited situations and depending on your accounting method.

What’s Only Partially Deductible or Not Deductible?

Here’s a quick look at common gray areas:

  • Mixed‑use items (phone, car, internet): Deduct only the business‑use share (for example, if you use your phone 60% for business, you can usually deduct 60% of eligible costs).
  • Meals and entertainment: Meals often only partially deductible; pure entertainment (like taking clients to a game) may be limited or disallowed in some systems.
  • Clothing: Only specialized protective or branded clothing usually qualifies, not normal everyday clothes you could wear personally.
  • Fines and penalties: Government fines and penalties are generally not deductible.

Simple HTML Table of Typical Business Write‑Offs

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Expense Category</th>
      <th>Examples</th>
      <th>Deductibility Snapshot</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Office supplies & equipment</td>
      <td>Paper, ink, laptops, small devices</td>
      <td>Often 100% deductible; larger items may be depreciated or expensed under special rules</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Rent & utilities</td>
      <td>Office rent, electricity, internet, home office share</td>
      <td>Generally deductible when tied to business use</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Travel & transportation</td>
      <td>Flights, lodging, mileage, taxis on work trips</td>
      <td>Business portion usually deductible; mixed trips must be prorated</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Meals</td>
      <td>Client lunches, meals while traveling</td>
      <td>Often partially deductible (commonly around 50% where allowed)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Employees & contractors</td>
      <td>Wages, payroll taxes, contractor invoices</td>
      <td>Normally fully deductible business costs</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Advertising & marketing</td>
      <td>Online ads, website, promo materials</td>
      <td>Typically 100% deductible if directly business-related</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Insurance & bank fees</td>
      <td>Liability insurance, processing fees, loan interest</td>
      <td>Usually deductible within tax-law limits</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Education & memberships</td>
      <td>Courses, conferences, professional dues</td>
      <td>Deductible when they maintain or improve existing business skills</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Quick Story: The “Shoes vs. Software” Problem

Imagine Jenna, a new online fitness coach:

  • She buys workout clothes, new shoes, and a ring light to film videos.
  • She also pays for video‑editing software, a booking app, and a website.

Her software, booking app, website, and ring light are clearly business expenses, so they’re typically deductible.

Her workout clothes and shoes, even though she wears them on camera, may not be deductible if they’re normal clothing she could wear outside work—most tax authorities treat those as personal.

This is the kind of line you have to watch.

“Latest News” & Forum‑Style Advice Angle

In recent years (especially around and after the pandemic), a few themes keep popping up in tax blogs and forums:

  • More focus on home office deductions as remote work and solo businesses grew.
  • Lots of confusion and discussion over what counts as a “legit” online creator/influencer write‑off (sets, props, subscriptions vs. personal lifestyle purchases).
  • Ongoing reminders from tax pros: keep records and receipts and don’t assume that “my friend wrote it off” means it’s truly allowed.

In many forum discussions, experienced business owners often say something like:
“If you had to spend the money to reasonably run or grow your business, and you can explain it to an auditor with a straight face and receipts, it might be deductible—but check with a pro.”

How to Decide If Something Is a Business Write‑Off

You can walk through these steps:

  1. Ask: Does this expense directly relate to earning business income?
  2. Decide: Is it ordinary and necessary in your industry, not lavish or purely personal?
  3. Measure: If mixed‑use, calculate your business‑use percentage (time, space, or usage).
  4. Document: Save invoices, receipts, bank statements, and brief notes on the business purpose.
  5. Confirm: Run borderline items by a qualified tax professional in your country.

SEO Notes for Your Post

If you’re turning this into a blog article with the title “what can you write off as a business expense”:

  • Use that exact phrase in:
    • The H1 title.
    • At least one H2 (e.g., “Common Things You Can Write Off as a Business Expense”).
  • Sprinkle related terms like “business tax write‑offs”, “small business tax deductions”, and “deductible business expenses” naturally throughout.
  • Keep paragraphs short and use bullets for lists of expenses to maintain readability and user engagement.

Meta description idea (you can tweak):

Learn what you can write off as a business expense, from home office and travel to software and marketing, plus key rules so you don’t miss legal tax deductions.

TL;DR: You can usually write off expenses that are ordinary and necessary for your business—think office, travel, marketing, staff, insurance, and software—but mixed personal items must be prorated and gray areas should go through a tax pro in your country.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.