Common Creator Tax Deductions (and Where to Take Them)

Two of the most common concerns I see from bloggers and other creators, especially around tax time, are how to keep track of income and expenses and how to know which expenses are deductible.

As a former tax auditor, I can tell you that the IRS doesn’t care how simple or complicated your bookkeeping system is. The IRS cares that your books are complete and accurate.

If you can keep complete and accurate records of income and expenses written in a notebook or typed into an Excel spreadsheet, go for it. Especially when you’re starting out, you probably don’t need professional bookkeeping software like QuickBooks. You just need a way to record all your income and expenses.

Now, you do need to classify the same expense in the same way across all your records. For example, if you buy an SD card to store photos or videos created for your business, you can’t classify it as supplies one month and equipment another month. So, while most expense categories are straightforward, you need to have guidelines for expenses that could reasonably fall into more than one category.

If you’re a sole proprietor and are taxed as such, you’ll report information about your business on Schedule C. In this post we’ll look at the major expense categories on the Schedule C and go over some of the expenses that fall into each category.

Again, some of this is subjective. Just make sure you’re consistent when classifying expenses for your business.

Be sure to keep receipts, either printed or digital, for all of your business transactions. The best bookkeeping records in the world won’t save you during an audit if you can’t verify the information in them.

Schedule C Part II

Business expenses are reported in Part II of the Schedule C. Let’s go through these line-by-line, even though some don’t apply to online creators.

Line 8: Advertising

Line 8 is where you report the total amount you spent on paid advertising for your business. Let’s explore this a bit because there’s a difference between promotion and advertising.

A lot of creators post on social media and on platforms like Pinterest. They don’t have to pay to post on these platforms, so this is free promotion. They might pay someone to edit their videos or design their Pinterest pins. Those are business expenses, for sure, but they aren’t advertising expenses in the way advertising is used here.

Here advertising means paying specifically to advertise your business to your target market. For example, boosting a post on Facebook is paid advertising. Paying to promote a Pinterest pin is paid advertising. And, of course, creating ads and paying for them to be shown on a platform is paid advertising.

Line 9: Car and Truck Expenses

Line 9 is where you report auto expenses you incur while operating your business. Most content creators and online business owners won’t have car and truck expenses.

Line 10: Commissions and Fees

Line 10 is where you deduct commissions you pay to others. For example, say you sell an online course. You allow people who’ve taken the course to become affiliates. The affiliates receive either a percentage of the sales price or a flat fee for every course they sell. These are commissions. You can deduct commissions paid to your affiliates as a cost of doing business.

Line 11: Contract Labor

Line 11 is where you deduct expenses for independent contractors, people you pay for services used directly in your business. This can include freelance writers, web and graphic designers and social media managers.

The key here is that the services provided by the independent contractors are provided for your business, not for you as a business owner. For example, a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper doesn’t provide services for your business, but rather for you as a business owners. The same is true for a lawyer.

Expenses provided to you as a business owner are deducted on Line 17, Legal and Professional Services, not on Line 11.

You may be required to send a non-employee compensation form, known as a 1099-NEC, to people you pay and to the IRS. Recent legislation changed the reporting requirements for 1099-NECs. You can learn more about that in my 2025 tax updates post.

Line 12: Depletion

Depletion is basically depreciation for natural resources, like timber and natural gas deposits. Not something creator business owners need to worry about.

Line 13: Depreciation and Section 179

You’re allowed to deduct the cost of assets you buy for your business. Typically, you take this deduction over time through depreciation. The IRS has published depreciation schedules for different types of business assets.

Section 179 is a special rule that allows you to deduct the full cost of some business assets in the year you buy them.

Many of the assets creators purchase for their business fall under Section 179. Items like computers, cameras, lights and other recording equipment generally fall under Section 179. You report these costs on Schedule C, Line 13.

If you’re not sure equipment you’ve bought is fully deductible under Section 179, ask a tax professional. Or join CBC. We have a discussion forum where you can ask questions like this.

Line 14: Employee Benefit Programs

Line 14 is where you deduct benefits you provide to employees, other than retirement plan contributions. This includes things like life insurance or daycare assistance.

Most creators don’t have employees and those that do typically don’t provide benefit programs. However, if you make contributions to a daycare assistance program (also known as a dependent care program) as a self-employed person, you may be able to deduct some or all of that cost on Line 14.

Line 15: Insurance (Other than Health)

You can deduct health insurance premiums you pay as a self-employed business owner, but not on Schedule C. Instead, you deduct your health insurance premiums on Schedule 1. This is where you’ll deduct the cost of your family’s health insurance premiums, too, if you provide health insurance coverage for them through your business.

Line 15, then, refers to insurance premiums you pay besides health insurance. For example, professional liability insurance for your business or insurance to cover the loss of your business equipment.

Line 16: Interest

Line 16 is where you report interest paid for business assets. There are two types of interest you report here: mortgage interest and other interest.

Mortgage interest on Line 16 refers to interest you pay on loans for buildings used in your business, like a storefront or a warehouse.

If you work from home and have a space you use exclusively for your business, you can deduct a portion of your mortgage interest as a business expense. However, you don’t report that here.

Instead you report home office mortgage interest on Form 8829 (Expenses for Business Use of Your Home), Line 10. Then you report the results from Form 8829 on Line 30 of Schedule C.

This is very important! If you work from home, be sure not to double-deduct part of your mortgage interest by listing it on both Form 8829 and on Schedule C, Line 16. That will be a big red flag to the IRS.

The “other interest” reported on Line 16b is interest you pay on other business-related loans. For example, if you took out a loan to start your business or to buy business equipment, you report interest paid on those loans on Line 16b.

Line 17: Legal and Professional Services

As mentioned earlier, Line 17 is where you report expenses for services provided to you as a business owner. This includes bookkeeping and tax preparation services. It also includes any legal services related to your business. Generally, you’ll need to send a 1099-NEC to each of these service providers at the end of the tax year (and to the IRS, too).

Line 18: Office Expenses

Line 18 is where you deduct the cost of basic office supplies like printer ink and paper, pens and pencils, post-it notes and so forth.

Line 19: Pension and Profit-Sharing Plans

Line 19 refers to retirement plan contributions, but only those you make on behalf of your employees. If you make contributions to your own self-employed retirement plan, like a SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k), you report those on Schedule 1, not on Schedule C.

Remember: you deduct self-employed health insurance premiums and contributions to self-employed retirement plans on Schedule 1, not on Schedule C.

Line 20: Rent or Lease

There are two parts to Line 20: vehicles and other business property.

Businesses that lease vehicles for business use can deduct that expense. But, as with all business expenses, the expense must be considered ordinary and necessary. Most online and creator businesses won’t have an ordinary and necessary reason to lease a vehicle. (Sorry.)

Business owners can also deduct rent they pay for storefront or office space on Line 20b.

If you’re a renter who works from home, you can deduct a portion of your rent for any space you use exclusively for business. Again, though, you’ll report that on Form 8829, not on Schedule C.

Line 21: Repairs and Maintenance

This is where you deduct the cost of any business-related repairs or maintenance. Generally speaking, this doesn’t apply to most creators, since we don’t typically have the kind of assets that require repair or maintenance.

Line 22: Supplies (Not Part of COGS)

COGS is the abbreviation for cost of goods sold. Line 22 is where you deduct the cost of supplies that aren’t part of COGS.

For example, say you sell handmade jewelry on Etsy. The beads, clasps and other items you buy to make the jewelry are supplies. Since they go into the finished product you sell, these supplies are part of your cost of goods sold.

Line 22 refers to supplies you buy for your business that aren’t part of your finished product. It’s a bit of catch-all category that includes anything not part of COGS and anything not considered basic office supplies (which are reported on Line 18).

It’s usual practice to report small tools and office equipment on Line 22. Things like staplers, desk lamps and trash cans, for example. And, in the Etsy example above, small hand tools used in making jewelry.

The IRS has what’s called a de minimis rule for office equipment. The rule states that any equipment, which can include furniture like desks, chairs and storage cabinets, that costs less than $2,500 can be deducted in full the year you buy it.

So, if you buy a new desk or desk chair or file cabinet, you can deduct it on Line 22 if it costs less than $2,500. But be careful here. The de minimis rule applies per invoice or per item. So purchase the items separately to avoid exceeding the $2,500 invoice limit.

Line 23: Taxes and Licenses

Many of the taxes you pay as a business owner, aside from income tax, are deductible. On Line 23 you can deduct sales tax you paid to state and local taxing agencies and the required federal employment taxes you paid for employees. You can also deduct any taxes you paid to the federal unemployment fund (FUTA) on behalf of employees.

Line 23 is also where you deduct the cost of any required business licenses. License requirements vary by state and locality; some cities require online businesses to have a local license in addition to any required state licenses. Be sure to check with your local and state authorities to make sure you have the required licenses for your business.

Line 24: Travel and Meals

Line 24 is where you deduct the cost of business-related travel, meals and entertainment.

Be aware that the rules around these deductions, especially around meals and entertainment, have been changing a lot over the last 10 years. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) revised rules for meals and entertainment, but these were amended during and after Covid. And recent legislation (the One Big Beautiful Bill) has revised the laws again.

We go over current travel and meal and entertainment expense deductions in more detail inside the CBC membership.

Line 25: Utilities

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Just be aware that if you work from home and deduct a portion of your utility costs as a business expense, you’ll report that on Form 8829, not here on Schedule C.

Line 26: Wages

If you have employees, you can deduct what you pay them as wages. But Line 26 is for employee wages only. You can’t deduct “wages” you’ve paid yourself via owner draws.

And be sure not to double-deduct payments to independent contractors. Those are not wages. They’re non-employee compensation and are reported on Line 11, Contract Labor.

Line 27: Other Expenses

There are two parts to Line 27. The first part, concerning energy efficient commercial buildings, probably won’t apply to content creators.

The second part of Line 27 is for “other expenses.” This is a general category for expenses that don’t fit into the standard categories listed on Schedule C.

And really, the standard categories are based on traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. So a lot of the expenses creator-based businesses incur may not fit well into any of them.

For example, website hosting and video hosting. Those aren’t really professional services like a bookkeeper or an attorney and there’s no other category where they really seem to fit. Or subscriptions to things like Canva or video editing software.

You can list those things under “Other Expenses” on Line 48, then add them together and put the total on Line 27b. But, as mentioned, consistency is key. Make sure you categorize the same expenses the same way from year-to-year. And keep your receipts.

To help you categorize and track expenses, I’ve created a simple income and expense tracking spreadsheet. It has all of the major Schedule C categories as well as common expenses for creator businesses, like monthly subscription services.

The spreadsheet isn’t a full bookkeeping system. It’s meant for those who have fairly simple business transactions and who file a Schedule C. It also assumes you don’t carry inventory and use the cash basis accounting system.

If your business is fairly simple and you can’t afford (or just don’t want to use) a bookkeeping software like QuickBooks, the spreadsheet will help you track income and expenses so you can determine your profit or loss each month and at the end of the year.

The income and expense spreadsheet, as well as tutorial videos, are available for free to members of the Creator Business Club. There’s also more information on taxes, including the Schedule C and Form 1040, inside CBC. If you’re interested in joining us, you can learn more here.