Whether you do your own blog taxes, or you hire someone to do them for you, if you understand your blog tax deduction possibilities, it will save you money. The more you know, the more you can track correctly, and capitalize on legitimate tax saving opportunities. Let's get started!
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Blog Tax Deductions
1. Website Expenses - From the cost of your domain to your hosting and email service providers, it's all tax deductible. Here's a hint. While MailChimp may be free, I wish I would have started out using Convertkit. So much better!
2. Blog Project Supplies & Materials - A food blogger might buy ingredients, or a DIY blogger might buy craft supplies. Some of these purchases might have a personal component (ex. you eat the cake, or use the furniture you made over), which can make determining the tax deductible portion tricky. Have no fear, I have a more detailed post on this topic with lots of examples. These type of expenses can really add up, so make sure you keep detailed records and take a tax deduction when you can.
3. Travel - If you travel to a blogging conference, your ticket, hotel, and other travel costs are all tax deductible. If you drive your personal car for a business purpose, each mile you drive nets you a tax deduction.
4. Home Office - If you use any portion of your house regularly and exclusively for your business, you can get a tax deduction for the business use of your home. It's super easy too, go grab your tape measure!
5. Business Coach - Paying for a business coach? Tax deductible! Paying for a life coach? That's a little trickier.
6. Camera - Pictures and video are a necessary part of blogging. So the camera you use is tax deductible. If you also use the same camera for personal photos and videos (most likely), I recommend only deducting 50% of the cost on your tax return.
7. Advertising - Promoted Pins, Facebook Ads, and more are all tax deductible. It doesn't matter if your ad is successful or not, if you spent money trying to drive traffic to your website, or sell a product, those ad dollars are tax deductible.
8. Virtual Assistant - Need a little help running your blog business? Amounts you pay to your virtual assistant are all tax deductible.
9. Online Tools - The list of online tools an online business owner needs is staggering! From graphic design programs to schedulers, if it helps you run your blog business, then it's a blog tax deduction.
10. Everything Else - It's impossible to list every tax deduction possibility you might face as a blog business owner, so let me give you the general IRS rule. In order for an expense to be tax deductible, it needs to be ordinary and necessary. Ordinary in the sense that other bloggers are paying for these items too. Necessary in the sense that it aids you in running your business.
I know no one wants to talk about taxes, but hopefully that wasn't too bad! The more you know, the more money you save on taxes! The more blog tax deductions the better!
