Freelancers' Questions: Who pays for postage, me or the client? Freelancer's Question: I've been working as a freelance media analyst for a few years on behalf of a single company, but for different accounts. One account requires me to analyse clippings from newspapers and magazines, which come in hard copy in batches of around 100. These batches can either be collected from the company's office, or the company sends them to me by post. The company deducts the postage they have to pay for sending me the batches directly from my invoice. I can understand that if I send the batches back, that I have to pay for postage. But how appropriate or fair is it that companies also charge their freelancers for the postage the company pays for sending the work out to the freelancer? Also, as the company deducts their postage directly from my invoice , I don't have a receipt for that, so I assume that I can't deduct it from my taxes. Is this correct, that I'm effectively barred from making such a deduction? Expert's Answer: Your client has taken the view that your business should suffer the cost of the postage. They have incurred the postage themselves and deducted this amount from your sales invoice. In effect, this makes their position tax-neutral as they are passing the cost to yourself to claim via your business. It is unusual that this cost has been passed on to you as the amounts are relatively insignificant and as