Schedule C, translated

When you file as a freelancer or sole proprietor, your business expenses go on Schedule C, and Part II of that form is a list of 23 lines with IRS-precise names. Office expenses and supplies are two different lines. Meals are half deductible and entertainment has been zero since 2018. Mortgage interest and other interest are separate lines, and federal income tax is never deductible no matter what the internet says. Ask two accountants where a domain name goes and you may get two answers.

Expense seeds every new account with exactly those categories, in the form's order, so a receipt lands in the bucket your return uses.

There is a public page that walks the list now: each line number, what belongs there in plain language, and the traps. It is the page I wanted when I started filing, written for someone who has never read a Schedule C.

You can rename, add, or remove categories in settings when your work does not map cleanly onto the form. Clients and projects are a better way to think about your own work than IRS line numbers are. The reason to start from the form's vocabulary is April: the yearly totals line up and nothing needs re-bucketing.