TLDR: If you are an employee, you can replace the 10% standard deduction with a deduction for your actual professional expenses, provided that they were actually incurred, documented and related to your work. The expenses concerned may include meals, travel, professional equipment, training, certain dual-residence expenses and certain specific costs.
Choosing between the standard deduction and actual expenses
The 10% standard deduction automatically applies to employees. You may choose instead to deduct your actual expenses, provided that they are professional, actually borne by you and documented.
The two regimes are alternatives. Your choice applies to all your taxable income falling under the category of salaries and wages for the year concerned. You therefore cannot retain the 10% deduction for part of this income and apply actual expenses to another part.
For assets used for more than one year, you deduct the depreciation incurred during the tax year, and not necessarily the asset’s total purchase price.
Supplies, telephone and professional equipment
You can deduct expenses directly related to carrying out your profession, including:
- supplies and printed materials;
- communication costs, including telephone and fax;
- furniture, equipment and tools;
- computer equipment when it is directly related to your activity and liable to depreciate.
Subscription and communication costs for a mobile phone are deductible when they are necessary for your professional activity. For the purchase of the phone, the deduction is limited to the depreciation actually incurred during the tax year.
In the event of mixed use, you must exclude the portion corresponding to your private use. For furniture, equipment and tools, the deduction is limited to the depreciation recorded during the year.
Training, documentation and business travel
You can deduct expenses incurred to improve your skills in your profession or develop your professional knowledge. This includes professional works, subscriptions to professional publications and professional training expenses.
Books, journals, magazines or newspapers that are not specifically professional in nature are not deductible.
Travel and accommodation expenses abroad may be deducted when the trip is required by your employer and is compulsory for you.
Meals, night work and dual residence
Your meals are in principle personal expenses. If the distance between your home and your workplace or your working hours prevent you from having lunch at home, you may deduct only the additional amount paid compared with the cost of a meal eaten at home.
Additional expenses related to night work may be deductible when they are incurred for that reason, including meal expenses and the cost of returning home by taxi.
You may also deduct additional accommodation and travel expenses related to a dual residence when your professional activity requires you to live in a place separate from your usual home. This situation must result from a constraint related to your employment and not from personal convenience.
For travel by vehicle, when you do not use the applicable scale, deductible actual expenses other than tolls, garage or parking costs and annual interest on a credit-financed purchase may not exceed the amount calculated using the vehicle with the maximum administrative power retained by that scale, for the same distance travelled.
Specific expenses related to your activity
You can deduct the fees of a lawyer or another legal officer when they are incurred as part of proceedings before the employment tribunal against your employer to obtain payment of wages.
Expenses, duties and borrowing interest related to the acquisition or subscription of shares or stock in the company in which you carry out your main professional activity may also be deductible. You must be able to document them, and the loan must be used exclusively for this acquisition or subscription.
The expenses concerned may include commissions, fees, registration duties, deed costs, application fees and insurance related to the financing. Deductible interest is limited to the portion of the loan proportionate to the annual remuneration received or expected when the loan was taken out.
Excluded expenses and professional-use rule
Taxes and duties directly related to your professional activity may be deductible. However, your income tax, personal taxes and local taxes relating to a main residence without professional use or to a second home are not deductible as actual professional expenses.
Criminal fines are not deductible professional expenses.
For each expense, you must retain only the portion corresponding to professional use. You must therefore reduce the deduction when the asset, equipment or tool is also used privately.