Mileage and travel deductions for freelancers

Travel is one of the largest deductible categories for freelancers who leave the house, and one of the worst documented. The rules are not complicated. The record keeping is where claims fall apart.

General guidance rather than tax advice. Rates, rules, and definitions vary by country.

What generally counts as business travel

• Travel to a client site, when your home is your normal place of work
• Travel between two work locations in the same day
• Travel to a conference, training course, or industry event related to your work
• Travel to meet a supplier, collaborator, or subcontractor
• Trips to buy business equipment or materials

What generally does not count: commuting to a place you regularly work from, and any personal leg of a trip. If you attend a two day conference and stay four days, the extra two days are yours to fund.

Mileage rate versus actual costs

Two ways to claim a car.

• Standard mileage rate. A published rate per kilometre or mile covering fuel, wear, and depreciation. You keep a log of business distance and multiply. Simple, and usually the better option for a modest amount of business driving in an ordinary car.
• Actual costs. Claim the business percentage of fuel, insurance, servicing, and depreciation. More paperwork, better for expensive vehicles or very high business mileage.

Many jurisdictions restrict switching between methods once you have chosen for a particular vehicle, so pick deliberately in year one.

The mileage log that actually holds up

A claim without a log is a number you invented, and that is exactly how it will be treated. For each business trip record:

• Date
• Start and destination
• Purpose, in a few words, naming the client or event
• Distance

A note in your phone at the moment of the trip is enough. A reconstruction at year end from calendar entries is weaker, though far better than nothing.

Trips with a mixed purpose

The rule is apportionment. If a five day trip includes three days of client work and two days of sightseeing, the airfare is usually claimable when the primary purpose is business, while accommodation and meals are claimable only for the business days.

Two things make a mixed trip defensible:

• A written itinerary made before the trip showing the business purpose
• The meeting confirmations, event ticket, or client correspondence that justify the dates

Bringing a partner does not disqualify the trip. Their costs are not deductible.

Meals and accommodation

Rules here vary more than any other category. Some countries allow full deduction of subsistence while travelling, others allow a fixed daily allowance, others restrict client entertainment entirely or allow only a percentage. Assume nothing from advice written for a different country.

Whatever the rule, the record is the same: the receipt, the date, who was present, and the business purpose. Write the purpose on the receipt or in the note field of your expense tool at the time. Nobody remembers in March who the lunch on 14 August was with.

Making the records painless

The whole category collapses if capture is manual and delayed. What works:

• Photograph every travel receipt at the moment of payment, before it goes in a pocket.
• Log the trip purpose in the same place as the receipt.
• Keep the original currency on foreign receipts and let the tool convert, so the audit trail matches the card statement.
• Tag anything you will rebill to a client as reimbursable so it lands on the right invoice rather than being absorbed.

Receiptly does the capture and extraction side of this, including keeping the original currency, and marks reimbursable expenses so they can be pulled onto a client invoice later.

TL;DR

• Client sites, events, and travel between work locations generally qualify. Ordinary commuting does not.
• Choose mileage rate or actual costs deliberately, because switching later is often restricted.
• Log date, route, purpose, and distance at the time of the trip.
• Apportion mixed trips, keep the itinerary that proves the business purpose, and photograph every receipt on the spot.