Deductible expenses for the self-employed under simplified direct assessment: the complete list

One of the advantages of being self-employed (autónomo) compared with an employee is that you can deduct the expenses necessary to carry out your activity before being taxed. That reduces the taxable base and, therefore, what you pay in IRPF (Spanish personal income tax).

But “expenses necessary for the activity” has a specific definition in tax law, and not everything that might seem deductible actually is. This guide gathers the most common deductible expenses under simplified direct assessment (estimación directa simplificada), with the nuances worth knowing.

The general principle: necessity, justification and correlation

For an expense to be deductible it has to meet three basic conditions:

Necessary for the activity. There must be a direct relationship between the expense and the generation of income from the activity. It’s not enough for it to be useful; it must be necessary in the context of what you do.

Documentarily justified. You need a complete invoice with your details: NIF (tax ID), name or company name, description of the good or service, taxable base, IVA rate, IVA amount (which is the deductible input IVA on your quarterly return, which you can estimate with the quarterly IVA calculator). A till receipt or a bank statement is not enough to deduct.

Recorded in the accounts. The expense must appear in the expense ledger for the year in which it’s deducted.

If any of the three requirements is missing, the expense is not deductible, or at least not defensible in an inspection.

Deductible expenses by category

Utilities for the premises used for the activity

If you have premises dedicated exclusively to the activity (an office, a workshop, a commercial space), the utilities for those premises are 100% deductible: electricity, water, gas, internet, landline.

If you work from home, the deductible percentage of the utilities is calculated based on the proportion of the property dedicated to the activity, with a maximum of 30% of that proportion. In practice, this is usually a modest percentage of the total bill, but it’s better to take advantage of it than not.

Rent on the premises

If you rent the space where you carry out the activity, the rent is 100% deductible. If the space is mixed-use (you use part of your home), the same proportional criterion as utilities applies.

Office supplies and consumables

All material directly related to the activity: paper, ink, pens, folders, printer consumables. 100% deductible with an invoice.

Computer and electronic equipment

Computers, monitors, tablets, printers, external hard drives. If they’re worth more than 300 euros, they’re considered investment goods and are amortised over time (generally between 3 and 5 years for computer equipment) instead of being fully deducted in the year of purchase. You’ll find the details, with tables and exceptions, in the depreciation guide for the self-employed.

Below 300 euros, you can deduct them directly as an expense in the year.

Software and digital subscriptions

Subscriptions to tools you use for the activity are deductible: design software, project management tools, cloud storage, communication platforms. The condition is that they’re related to the activity and that you have an invoice.

External professional services

A gestoría or tax adviser (Spanish accountancy/admin firm), lawyers, consultants, designers, translators. All professional services contracted for the activity are deductible with an invoice.

Courses, books, subscriptions to technical or professional publications directly related to your sector. The connection to the activity must be clear and justifiable.

Professional civil liability insurance is 100% deductible. Health insurance gets special treatment: you can deduct up to 500 euros a year for the self-employed person, another 500 for the spouse, and 500 more for each child under 25. This limit is set by article 30.2.5ª of Law 35/2006 on personal income tax, which raises it to 1,500 euros for each person with a disability.

Advertising and marketing

Online advertising costs, design of promotional materials, web development, presence at trade fairs or sector events. Deductible with an invoice.

Financial expenses

Interest on loans tied to the activity, bank fees on the professional account. Not the loan’s principal repayments (which are a return of capital, not an expense), but the interest.

Professional association and sector association fees

If you belong to a professional association or a sector association as part of your activity, the fees are deductible.

The most controversial cases

The mobile phone

If you use the phone both for the activity and for personal use (another reason to properly separate the personal from the professional), the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) accepts a partial deduction, but doesn’t set a fixed percentage. The most common and reasonable approach is to declare 50% if usage is genuinely split, or a higher percentage if you can justify predominantly professional use.

Having a line exclusively for the business simplifies this point a lot: that line is 100% deductible.

The vehicle

This is the most contentious expense for the self-employed. The Agencia Tributaria is very restrictive with vehicle deductions, except in activities where the vehicle is the central element of the work (transport, deliveries, etc.).

For most service-based self-employed workers, deducting a mixed-use vehicle is practically unfeasible without facing the risk of an adjustment. It’s advisable to consult a gestor before deducting any expense related to a mixed-use vehicle.

The mixed-use computer

Similar to the phone. If the computer is also used by other members of the household, the Agencia Tributaria may question the full deduction. Having equipment dedicated exclusively to the activity eliminates that problem.

The main home

If you work from home, the proportional part of the rent corresponding to the work space is deductible, but it requires that space to be declared as assigned to the activity on the modelo 036. Without that prior declaration, the deduction has no backing.

What is not deductible

Personal and family living expenses (except in specific circumstances), general-use clothing (even if it’s “for work”), leisure expenses with no direct connection to the activity, fines and penalties, donations and gratuities.

Gifts to clients are partially deductible up to 1% of the net turnover for the tax period, provided they serve to promote the activity.

The value of having expenses well documented

The difference between a self-employed worker who keeps good records of expenses and one who doesn’t can be significant in IRPF terms. With 30,000 euros of income and 8,000 euros of correctly documented expenses, the taxable base is 22,000 euros. Without those expenses, it’s 30,000. The difference in IRPF can exceed 1,500 euros a year. To see how your deductible expenses affect your tax return result, use the IRPF simulator.

It’s not about inventing expenses or pushing questionable interpretations to the limit. It’s about not forgetting the expenses that genuinely are deductible just because you didn’t keep the invoice or didn’t record them in time.

How does Cuéntamo help with this?

The problem with deductible expenses is hardly ever knowing which ones qualify: it’s not losing them along the way. With Cuéntamo’s self-employed module, each expense is recorded with its IVA and IRPF treatment and flows automatically into the Agencia Tributaria expense ledger, with its taxable amount, its IVA rate, and the rest of the data in place. When the quarter comes around, you don’t have to rebuild anything.

To each expense you can attach the third party (their NIF/CIF tax ID) and store the invoice number, exactly what you need for the expense to hold up in an inspection. And if you get your transactions from the bank in a statement, you import and classify them in one go instead of typing them in one by one, which is when small expenses get forgotten.

To see how much you actually save by keeping good records, the IRPF simulator shows how your expenses affect your tax return result. And if you want to understand the other side, deductible input VAT, we explain it in calculating quarterly VAT without an accountant. Cuéntamo ties it all together.

Frequently asked questions

What requirements must an expense meet to be deductible?

Three: it must be necessary for the activity, justified with a complete invoice in your name, and recorded in the expense ledger for the year. If any of the three is missing, the expense isn’t deductible or won’t hold up in an inspection.

Can I deduct utilities if I work from home?

Yes, but only partially: the deductible percentage is calculated based on the proportion of the property dedicated to the activity, with a maximum of 30% of that proportion. In addition, that space must be declared as assigned to the activity on the modelo 036.

Is a mixed-use mobile phone deductible?

The Agencia Tributaria accepts a partial deduction but doesn’t set a fixed percentage. The most common approach is to declare 50% if usage is split, or more if you can justify predominantly professional use. A line used exclusively for the business is 100% deductible.

Can I deduct a car as a self-employed worker?

It’s the most contentious expense. The Agencia Tributaria is very restrictive, except in activities where the vehicle is the central element (transport, deliveries). For most service-based self-employed workers, deducting a mixed-use car is almost unfeasible: it’s worth consulting a gestor first.

How is a computer or IT equipment deducted?

If it costs more than 300 euros it’s considered an investment good and is amortised over time (generally between 3 and 5 years for computer equipment). Below 300 euros you can deduct it directly as an expense for the year. There are special cases, such as free depreciation for R&D, that let you deduct it in full even above 300 euros; but watch out, this only applies if your activity genuinely qualifies as R&D under the tax authority (a very strict test, with formal requirements). We cover them in the depreciation guide for the self-employed.

Figures for 2026. The deduction limit for client entertainment (1% of turnover) has been in force since 2015.

This article is checked against official sources and reviewed periodically. If you spot anything out of date, email us at [email protected].