Self-Employed Expenses in Ireland: What You Can Claim

Short answer: An expense is deductible only if it was laid out wholly and exclusively for the purposes of your trade or profession, and is not capital in nature. Mixed business and private costs are apportioned and you claim the business share alone. There is no flat-rate home office deduction for the self-employed in Ireland — you apportion actual light, heat and broadband. A photograph is enough only if you upload it to Revenue’s Receipts Tracker; otherwise keep the original. Records must be kept for six years.

Ireland’s expenses rule is one sentence of statute and a great deal of judgement. Everything below comes from Revenue and applies to a sole trader rather than a limited company, because the two are treated very differently on some of these points. For the surrounding picture — rates, USC, PRSI and the pay and file date — see self-employed taxes in Ireland, and for the return these figures eventually land on, Form 11 explained.

What is the test for claiming an expense against my business income in Ireland?

Section 81 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 sets the rule negatively: no deduction is given for any disbursement or expense that is not money wholly and exclusively laid out or expended for the purposes of the trade or profession. Two more filters sit alongside it.

• The capital filter. If the spend buys you something that keeps giving value beyond this year, it is not an expense. It is an asset, and you claim capital allowances instead — Revenue’s standard wear and tear allowance for plant and machinery is 12.5% a year over eight years.
• The private filter. “Exclusively” is about purpose. Where an identifiable part of a cost is genuinely business and the rest is private, Revenue’s own guidance is that you work out how much of the expenditure was for business purposes and claim a deduction for that amount only.

That apportionment sentence does most of the work in practice. Your phone, your car, your electricity and your broadband are all mixed costs, and none is fully claimable simply because part of it was.

Two further points catch people out. If you are VAT registered, deduct expenses net of VAT — Revenue’s instruction is that the amount you claim for expenses should not include the VAT amount, because the VAT comes back through the VAT 3. And costs incurred before you started trading are not lost: relief under section 82 TCA 1997 covers qualifying pre-trading expenditure incurred in the three years prior to commencement — accountancy fees, advertising, feasibility studies, business plans, rent on the trading premises — claimed once the trade begins.

What expenses can I claim as a self-employed person in Ireland?

The categories below cover close to every claim a freelancer, contractor or trade will make.

Category	What you claim	The catch
Purchases and materials	Goods bought for resale, stock, consumables	Unsold stock is carried, not deducted
Premises	Rent, light, heat, cleaning for a business premises	Home is apportioned, not claimed whole
Motor and travel	Business proportion of actual running costs	Commuting to a fixed base is private
Phone and internet	The business share of the bill	You need a basis you can explain
Tools and equipment	Capital allowances at 12.5% over eight years	Not an outright deduction in year one
Software and subscriptions	Business-use portion of the fee	Personal streaming and the like are out
Wages and subcontractors	Pay to employees and subcontractors	Not your own drawings
Professional fees	Accountancy, legal and advisory costs	Some legal costs are capital
Finance costs	Interest on money borrowed for the business	Only the business share of a mixed loan
Insurance	Business cover, public liability, professional indemnity	Personal life and health cover are private

Revenue does not want the workings filed with your return. It wants them available if it asks.

Can I claim for working from home if I am self-employed in Ireland?

This is where sole traders most often reach for the wrong relief. Remote Working Relief is not a deduction against your trading profits. Revenue’s manual on Remote Working Relief says at paragraph 4.1 that the relief “will generally apply to employees and directors rather than chargeable persons” — chargeable persons being self-employed taxpayers. A chargeable person can claim it only in two narrow cases: where part of their income comes from an office or employment in which they are themselves a remote worker, and/or where they are the assessable person in a couple and their spouse or civil partner is a remote worker. Even then it is relief against those PAYE emoluments, not against the trade. So the 30% of electricity, heating and broadband apportioned by days worked at home is an employee calculation, and so is the €3.20 a day an employer may pay tax free under Revenue’s administrative practice (reportable to Revenue by the employer since 1 January 2024 under the Enhanced Reporting Requirements).

You instead apportion your actual household running costs on a reasonable basis you can defend, usually floor area, and claim the business share.

A worked example. One room of eight used as a workspace, with €2,400 of electricity and heating and €600 of broadband across the year:

• Business share by rooms: 1 ÷ 8 = 12.5%
• Light and heat: 12.5% of €2,400 = €300
• Broadband, at a business-use estimate of 50%: €300
• Total claim: €600

Revenue publishes no flat rate, square-metre rate or official apportionment method for a self-employed home office, so the arithmetic above is illustrative rather than a Revenue-approved formula. Two cautions. Write the basis down and use the same one every year — a percentage that moves with your tax bill is what an assurance check notices. And be careful with the word “exclusively”: where a part of a home is used exclusively for business, the Principal Private Residence exemption can be restricted proportionately when you sell, so a claim worth a few hundred euro a year can cost more in Capital Gains Tax later. Take advice on the CGT position before you designate a room as exclusively business — check it against Revenue’s CGT guidance and your own facts. There is a carve-out, but it is an employee rule: Revenue’s remote working manual states that where an employee uses any part of their home for remote working, the Principal Private Residence exemption is not restricted.

Can I claim mileage, or use the civil service motor rates?

The civil service motor travel rates are a mechanism for reimbursing office holders and employees tax free. They are set across four annual distance bands and three engine-capacity bands, and the published rates run from 20.56c to 90.63c per kilometre — the highest rate applies to a car over 1,500cc in the 1,501–5,500 km band, the lowest to a car up to 1,200cc once you pass 25,000 km. These rates took effect on 1 September 2022 and are still the rates Revenue publishes as at July 2026; claims for fully electric vehicles use the 1,201–1,500cc column. The manual governing them, TDM Part 05-01-06, is titled for the reimbursement of travel and subsistence “to office holders and employees” and is framed around them throughout.

Revenue’s positively stated regime for the self-employed is different: deduct the business proportion of actual motor running costs, and claim wear and tear on the vehicle at 12.5% over eight years, restricted by reference to business kilometres and subject to the emissions-based car cost limits in Part 11C TCA 1997 — check the current specified amount and CO2 category against Revenue’s capital allowances guidance before you compute it. If you lease rather than buy, you generally claim the lease charges and not wear and tear.

Either way the split has to be substantiated, which means a log of business journeys with date, destination, purpose and distance. Mileage and motor expenses in Ireland works through the arithmetic. The rates do reach a one-person business in one case: a proprietary director is an office holder, so the company can reimburse them at those rates.

What expenses can I not claim?

Not deductible	Why
Your own wages or drawings	You are not an employee of yourself
Business entertainment	Specifically disallowed
Ordinary clothing	Private, even if you only wear it for work — Revenue excepts protective clothing
Personal food and travel	Private, including home-to-base commuting
Capital purchases as an expense	Claimed through capital allowances instead
VAT you can reclaim	Recovered through the VAT 3, not the Form 11

Is a photograph of a receipt enough, or do I need the paper?

The default position is that you keep the original document for six years. There is one clean exception, and it is worth knowing about: Revenue’s Receipts Tracker, reached in ROS by scrolling to Other Services and clicking Receipts Tracker, lets you upload receipt images and expense details to Revenue storage under a Trade category covering both expenses and capital expenditure. Revenue’s own manual states that where you save receipt details or images to Revenue storage you do not have to retain original receipts for Revenue purposes for a period of six years, provided the uploaded images are clear, readable and complete. Where you do not save an image, that manual is explicit that you must retain the original receipt for six years.

You can upload .jpg, .jpeg or .png images, or a PDF, up to three images per expense, each no larger than 2MB.

VAT records are governed separately and more strictly, and Revenue does not say the Receipts Tracker concession extends to them. Revenue’s VAT record guidance is that paper invoices you issue should be stored in paper form, that paper records are kept within the State unless Revenue agrees otherwise, and that electronic records are retained in line with the electronic invoicing rules. It also states that written permission from Revenue is required to retain relevant documents for a shorter period. If you are VAT registered, do not assume the Receipts Tracker position covers your VAT file. What counts as a receipt sets out what a document has to show before it is worth keeping at all.

How long do I have to keep records in Ireland?

Six years is the headline, under section 886 TCA 1997, but the clock starts in more than one place. Revenue sets these out in TDM Part 38-03-17, Books and Records.

Situation	Retention period
Ordinary business records	Six years from the date of the transaction, act or operation they relate to
Records supporting an allowance, deduction, relief or credit	Six years, with the transaction treated as taking place at the end of the year of assessment in which the amount was taken into account (Finance Act 2021, s25)
That return was filed late	The clock instead starts at the end of the year of assessment in which the return was actually filed
No return was made	Six years after the end of the year in which the return should have been made
Investigation, inquiry, claim, assessment, appeal or proceedings already commenced	Six years or longer, until the matter is concluded
Trade has ceased	Records may be required for periods of up to five years from the date of cessation
VAT records	Six years, or until the matter at issue is finalised — see Revenue’s VAT guidance, linked above

What has to be kept is everything used to arrive at the figures: sales invoices, purchase and expense receipts, books and ledgers, and the “linking documents” — the working papers that show the background and details of the calculations behind the accounts. Revenue requires them to be kept on a continuous and consistent basis rather than reconstructed afterwards, in written form in Irish or English or, failing that, in a compliant electronic format. Failing to keep records or linking documents for a year of assessment carries a €3,000 penalty. Your accountant can hold them, but the obligation remains yours.

Where do the expenses actually go on the Form 11?

Not as a bundle. The Form 11 itself says, in the self-employed income panel, not to submit accounts with the return and to give an extract of information from the accounts instead. You complete the Extracts From Accounts panels, which ask for turnover and expense totals by heading, and hold the evidence behind those totals for six years in case Revenue asks. Getting the categories right during the year is most of the work; the return is a summary of a file you should already have. The sales side of that file is covered in how to invoice as a sole trader in Ireland.

How do I keep the records without a shoebox of receipts?

Six years of paperwork is the actual job of being self-employed, and the failure mode is not dishonesty — it is a faded thermal receipt in a coat pocket in February. Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts, by Ilura Technology OÜ, is built for that narrow problem. It runs entirely on your iPhone: no account, no sign-in, no bank connection, no cloud sync. Its App Store privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”.

The honest tradeoff is that nothing imports itself. There is no bank feed reconciling overnight — you raise the invoice, you photograph the receipt (Apple Intelligence reads the merchant, total, tax and date on device), you log the trip. In exchange the ledger is append-only and hash-chained, the records stay in your hands, and at year end the Accountant Pack exports the whole year as a CSV plus a one-page summary PDF. Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts on the App Store.

The free tier gives you unlimited invoices, receipts and mileage, with a “Made with Keel” footer on invoices. Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

What expenses can I claim as a sole trader in Ireland? Anything laid out wholly and exclusively for the trade and not capital in nature: purchases and materials, business premises costs, the business share of motor, phone and broadband, wages to staff and subcontractors, accountancy and legal fees, business insurance, and interest on business borrowings. Equipment is claimed as capital allowances at 12.5% a year over eight years rather than deducted outright.

Can I claim working from home expenses if I am self-employed in Ireland? Yes, but not through Remote Working Relief against your trade. Revenue’s manual says that relief will generally apply to employees and directors rather than self-employed chargeable persons; a chargeable person can claim it only where they also hold an office or employment in which they are a remote worker, or where they are the assessable spouse or civil partner of one, and then only against those PAYE emoluments. Against trading profits you apportion your actual light, heat and broadband on a reasonable basis such as floor area. Using part of the home exclusively for business can restrict Principal Private Residence relief when you sell.

Do I need to keep original receipts, or is a photo enough in Ireland? Keep the original for six years unless you upload the image to Revenue’s Receipts Tracker, found in ROS under Other Services. Revenue’s manual is that where you save a clear, readable and complete image to Revenue storage you do not have to retain original receipts for Revenue purposes for six years; if you do not save an image, you must keep the original. VAT records are separate and stricter: paper invoices you issue should be kept in paper form and held within the State.

How long do I have to keep business receipts in Ireland? Six years under section 886 TCA 1997. The clock is treated as starting at the end of the year of assessment for anything supporting an allowance, deduction, relief or credit, extends to six years after the year a missing return was due, and runs on until the matter concludes where an investigation, appeal, claim or proceedings has already commenced. Revenue’s VAT guidance sets its own rule: six years, or until the matter at issue is finalised.

Can I claim the civil service mileage rates as a self-employed person in Ireland? Those rates — 20.56c to 90.63c per kilometre across four distance bands and three engine-capacity bands, effective 1 September 2022 and still current in 2026 — exist to let an employer reimburse employees and office holders tax free, and Revenue’s manual on them is titled and framed for office holders and employees. A sole trader instead deducts the business proportion of actual motor running costs and claims wear and tear on the car at 12.5% over eight years, restricted by business kilometres and by the emissions-based car cost limits. Keep a journey log to support the split.

Do I send my receipts to Revenue with my Form 11? No. You complete the Extract from Accounts panels on the return with your turnover and expense totals, and submit nothing else. The receipts, invoices and linking documents stay with you for six years, to be produced only if Revenue opens an assurance check or an audit.

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This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a qualified Irish tax professional.