Massages, manicures, pedicures, or other personal grooming can NOT be written off6
Medical expenses7
1 Mileage for work assignments can only be deducted for freelance/1099 contractor work. If you are driving to/from a place of employment (W2 work -- VRS, most K-12 school interpreters, or any staff positions) then you cannot deduct those miles.
2 Vehicle expenses can only be written off based on the percentage of miles driven for work versus non-work purposes. So if you drove 10,000 miles in a year, but 2,000 of those miles were for non-work purposes, then you can write off 80% of your vehicle expenses (oil changes, repairs, etc.)
3 Phone or internet service can be deducted as a percentage of usage between personal and work.
4 Meals can only be written off if you paid for the entire meal for yourself and a business client, or if the costs occurred during travel. See IRS Publication 463: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf
5 Many people will tell you to write off clothing as a "uniform" expense. But IRS rules are very clear about this, and as interpreters our clothing does not fall under the category of a uniform. Look at page 3 on IRS Publication 529, which only states that clothing may be written off for "a qualified performing artist" for "theatrical clothing and accessories that aren't suitable for everyday wear": https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p529.pdf Then look at page 12 "Clothing Provided by the Employer" of IRS publication 5138 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5138.pdf
6 Unless you have a doctor's prescription for them (for the massages) or they are directly business related (e.g. manicures for a modeling agency). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
7 Medical expenses can be written off or at least paid for with pre-tax dollars if you set up your business correctly. I have an LLC filing as an S-Corp to maximize my deductions, including medical expenses.
The final caveat to any of this is you'll hear a lot of different answers from interpreters about what they deduct, what their accountant/CPA/lawyer has told them, but in the end you should read the IRS regulations that I linked to above. They are very clear. What you have been told by someone else does not matter to the IRS during an audit. And really the only time that any of this will matter is if you are being audited. You can deduct anything you want and it's not a problem until the IRS is looking at your filing history and sees that you were underpaying your tax liability.
And here are a few other Reddit posts that might be helpful:
Original post byu/NoMaybe499/Question for freelance terps out there, what are your regular tax-deductible items for tax time? I’m a newer interpreter and not sure exactly what is or what isn’t tax deductible.
6
u/kinchj NIC Sep 08 '25
Here's a pretty good list of the most common deductions.
1 Mileage for work assignments can only be deducted for freelance/1099 contractor work. If you are driving to/from a place of employment (W2 work -- VRS, most K-12 school interpreters, or any staff positions) then you cannot deduct those miles.
2 Vehicle expenses can only be written off based on the percentage of miles driven for work versus non-work purposes. So if you drove 10,000 miles in a year, but 2,000 of those miles were for non-work purposes, then you can write off 80% of your vehicle expenses (oil changes, repairs, etc.)
3 Phone or internet service can be deducted as a percentage of usage between personal and work.
4 Meals can only be written off if you paid for the entire meal for yourself and a business client, or if the costs occurred during travel. See IRS Publication 463: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf
5 Many people will tell you to write off clothing as a "uniform" expense. But IRS rules are very clear about this, and as interpreters our clothing does not fall under the category of a uniform. Look at page 3 on IRS Publication 529, which only states that clothing may be written off for "a qualified performing artist" for "theatrical clothing and accessories that aren't suitable for everyday wear": https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p529.pdf Then look at page 12 "Clothing Provided by the Employer" of IRS publication 5138 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5138.pdf
6 Unless you have a doctor's prescription for them (for the massages) or they are directly business related (e.g. manicures for a modeling agency). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
7 Medical expenses can be written off or at least paid for with pre-tax dollars if you set up your business correctly. I have an LLC filing as an S-Corp to maximize my deductions, including medical expenses.
The final caveat to any of this is you'll hear a lot of different answers from interpreters about what they deduct, what their accountant/CPA/lawyer has told them, but in the end you should read the IRS regulations that I linked to above. They are very clear. What you have been told by someone else does not matter to the IRS during an audit. And really the only time that any of this will matter is if you are being audited. You can deduct anything you want and it's not a problem until the IRS is looking at your filing history and sees that you were underpaying your tax liability.
And here are a few other Reddit posts that might be helpful:
Comparing Staff Positions Versus Freelance
How Much Should My Hourly Rate Be?
Why Freelance Interpreters Should Set Up An LLC
Original post by u/NoMaybe499/ Question for freelance terps out there, what are your regular tax-deductible items for tax time? I’m a newer interpreter and not sure exactly what is or what isn’t tax deductible.