The Supreme Court confirmed that the self-employed will be able to deduct meals or even gifts

The Supreme Court has declared that the self-employed workers may deduct the expenses of meals, dinners or even gifts to clients or suppliers, contrary to the criteria that the Tax Agency had been marking in this regard.

The Supreme Court has established jurisprudence with ruling 458/2021, on one of the most controversial expenses to deduct for self-employed workers. The judicial authority thus positioned itself against the criteria of the Treasury, which, as a general rule, rejects any deduction that is not directly related to the business and requires a strict justification of the expense.

However, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, the self-employed workers already have the right to deduct any expenses derived from meals, dinners or even gifts, to clients or suppliers without the need for that action of attention to derive in a justified income for the business. At first glance, the range of expenses that a professional can deduct to reduce what they pay in taxes to the Treasury may seem large, but, at the moment of truth, very few can be deducted. This is because the Tax Agency asks the self-employed worker for strict justifications that pass, for example, for showing an invoice for an income that the expense that he wanted to deduct had occurred in his activity. Hence, the Supreme Court's ruling represents a "great advance" for the self-employed, since many of the expenses they have are not directly related, but are indirect costs, but, after all, costs for the business. The Supreme Court ruling has marked a before and after both in the criteria of the Treasury, and in the taxation of self-employed workers. Although in the ruling that the jurisprudence has established, no modus operandi has been established to justify this type of expenses before the Tax Agency, what it has done is to make life much easier for the self-employed.