Tax Deduction Log (Free Printable PDF)

Eight columns: the date, the category, what the cost was for, who you paid, how you paid, the amount, the part you are claiming and a tick for the receipt. The two money columns sit side by side on purpose - plenty of costs are only partly business, and writing the full amount and the claimed amount next to each other is what stops that distinction being invented from memory in a hurry months later.

The header takes your name or business, the tax year or period, who the log is being prepared for and where the paper receipts are kept, which is the field people are most grateful for in the following January. Underneath the table, a summary panel counts the lines, the total spent, the total being claimed, the receipts filed and the receipts still missing, and a ruled panel beside it holds questions for whoever prepares the return.

The sheet records facts and nothing else. It names no country, prints no rate, no allowance and no threshold, and makes no claim about what is deductible, because that depends entirely on where you file and on your own circumstances. What it gives you is a complete, dated list that matches the pile of receipts, which is what an accountant actually wants and what turns a shoebox into twenty minutes of work. One page, US Letter or A4.