# Tax season doesn't have to be a nightmare

Adobe, Figma, Notion, coffee shops, client hardware: Lums tracks every deductible expense automatically so April is just another month.

## Every freelancer dreads tax season. But it's avoidable.

The real problem isn't April. It's the 11 months before it when nothing gets tracked.

### "Where did it all go?"

Client invoices, SaaS subscriptions, equipment purchases, café wifi days: everything blends into one messy account by year end.

### "What can I actually write off?"

Is the second monitor deductible? The standing desk? The coffee shop? Without context, you're guessing and likely leaving money on the table.

### "Tax season is killing me every year."

Reconstructing 12 months of transactions from bank statements every March is a full-weekend ordeal. It doesn't have to be.

### "I don't have time for this."

You're managing 3–6 clients, sending invoices, hitting deadlines. Financial admin shouldn't be a part-time job on top of everything else.

## Make tax prep a 10-minute task

Here's how Alex, with 4 clients, Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Notion, and a standing desk, turned tax season into a non-event.

1. ### Create a tax-deductible tag
   Give every deductible expense a single label that makes them instantly filterable at any time of year.
   Ask Lums: "Create a tag called 'tax-deductible' in green."

2. ### Build rules for known deductible merchants
   Set it up once. Every Adobe, Figma, Notion, and coffee shop charge gets tagged automatically from now on.
   Ask Lums: "Create rules to automatically tag 'tax-deductible' for: Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Notion, Slack, Apple hardware, Amazon hardware, and all coffee shop transactions."

3. ### Do a one-time cleanup of the past year
   Ask Lums to surface potential business expenses from the last 12 months. Review and tag in one session and you're done forever.
   Ask Lums: "Show me all transactions from the last 12 months that might be business expenses: software, equipment, and coffee shops. I'll tell you which ones to tag."

4. ### Tag reimbursable client expenses separately
   Some expenses belong to clients. Track what you're owed so nothing falls through the cracks.
   Ask Lums: "Create a tag called 'reimbursable' and apply it to these transactions from last month."

5. ### Pull your deduction summary at year end
   One query. Everything tagged. Your accountant gets a clean list, not a pile of bank statements.
   Ask Lums: "Show me all transactions tagged 'tax-deductible' for 2025. What's the total? Break it down by category."

## Questions every freelance designer should be asking

"Show me all transactions tagged 'tax-deductible' for 2025. What's the total?"

"How much did I spend on software subscriptions in 2025?"

"How much did I spend on home office and equipment?"

"What's the total amount tagged 'reimbursable' that I haven't recovered yet?"

"Create a rule: whenever the merchant contains 'Adobe', automatically add the tags 'business-expense' and 'tax-deductible'."

"Show me all income from the last 6 months grouped by client."

"What's my average monthly income this year?"

"Compare my total income vs. total spending over the last 6 months."

## Ask your money anything

Connect your bank, start asking questions. No setup, no dashboards, just answers backed by your actual data.