At least in Germany there are so many ways to get deductions that you really want "do your taxes". Even as a regular employee. Especially while I was employed a

At least in Germany there are so many ways to get deductions that you really want "do your taxes". Even as a regular employee. Especially while I was employed at a consulting company. Even as a regular employee you can claim part of your commute (IIRC you could claim the distance from your home to work). Then as a contractor (though I was not self employed but a regular employee of the consulting company) I could claim the entire thing IIRC meaning both traveling to and from work and even better, if going between clients in a single day that can be claimed. You could only claim the 'shortest path' unless you could prove 'significant time savings' by taking a longer route. The deduction was based on the distance driven. Also a daily amount for food was claimable for example but even as a contractor only for IIRC up to 3 months. And there's more like this and probably stuff I wasn't even aware of and left on the table.