Tracking subscriptions as a freelancer, for tax as well as cost

Two lists that should be one

Freelancers usually keep a subscription list for cost control and a separate expense record for tax, built from scratch each year from statements.

They are nearly the same list. The difference is three fields: business-use percentage, VAT or sales tax treatment, and whether an invoice exists.

Adding those three at entry time is seconds. Reconstructing them in March from twelve months of statements is a day.

Separate at the card, not at year end

One card for business subscriptions, one for personal. The single highest-value administrative decision here. It makes the statement itself the first draft of the expense record, and it removes the annual exercise of deciding what was what.

Mixed-use tools need a percentage. A phone plan, a cloud storage account, an AI subscription used for both. Record a defensible figure when you set it up rather than estimating later — and keep whatever you based it on.

Keep the invoice, not just the charge. Most providers email one or make it downloadable from the billing page. A bank line is not an invoice, and in most jurisdictions the invoice is what is required.

What to record per subscription

Beyond the usual provider, amount, interval and renewal date:

Business use percentage. 100, 0, or a considered number.

Currency as charged. Not converted. Cross-border SaaS billed in USD moves with the exchange rate, and a converted figure will not match your accounts.

Tax treatment. Whether it is a domestic supply, whether reverse charge applies, whether the provider has your tax number. This varies enough by jurisdiction that the field matters more than any specific rule stated here.

Which client or project, if you rebill. A tool bought for one engagement is a different thing from overhead.

The categories that catch people out

Annual plans spanning a tax year. Charged once in January for twelve months, part of which falls in the next period. Treatment varies; the point is to record the term rather than only the charge date.

Tools bought for one project. Often rebillable, often forgotten, and often left running after the project ends — which is both a cost problem and an expense-record problem.

Usage-based charges alongside a subscription. API access billed separately from a consumer plan. Easy to accumulate and easy to miss, because they arrive as variable amounts rather than a recurring line.

The AI stack. The fastest-accumulating category, with the most overlap. Worth a quarterly rather than annual look.

What makes year end quick

Export the whole list as CSV, with the business-use column. Most accountants would rather have that than a folder of receipts.

A second export of just the business-use rows, if your tool filters. Five minutes instead of an evening.

Renewal reminders on the annual plans. Not for tax — because an annual charge you did not intend is the single most expensive subscription surprise, and thirty days' notice is the common contractual requirement.

SubTracker exports everything as CSV or JSON at any time on the free plan, and categories are user-defined so a business tag is one field.

Der Kompromiss, der dahintersteht

Abo-Werkzeuge zerfallen in zwei Bauweisen, und fast jeder praktische Unterschied folgt daraus.

Bank-verbundene Werkzeuge lesen über einen Aggregator wie Plaid, TrueLayer oder Tink deine Transaktionshistorie und erkennen daraus wiederkehrende Belastungen. Einrichtung: unter einer Minute. Der Preis ist, dass ein Dritter eine laufend aktualisierte Kopie davon hält, wo du überall Geld ausgibst — nicht nur deine Abos, solange die Verbindung offen ist.

Manuelle Werkzeuge stellen diese Verbindung nie her. Du trägst jedes Abo einmal ein, rund zehn Minuten für eine typische Liste. Der Dienst kennt Anbieter, Betrag und Verlängerungsdatum — mehr nicht, weil mehr nie erhoben wurde.

Keines ist grundsätzlich richtig. Wenn du nicht weisst, wofür du zahlst, löst Bankverbindung ein Problem, das manuelle Eingabe nicht anfassen kann. Wenn du deine Liste kennst, zahlst du einen dauerhaften Preis für neun gesparte Minuten.

Was es kostet

Der kostenlose Plan verfolgt unbegrenzt viele Abos, ohne Karte und ohne Ablauf — mit CSV-Import, Kalender-Feed und vollständigem Export. Erinnerungen und Preis-Alarme sind Plus für $5.90/Monat. Family kostet $9.90/Monat und umfasst einen geteilten Workspace für bis zu zehn Personen.