What expenses can I deduct from my tax bill as a YouTuber?

Tax deductible expenses for youtubers/influencers can be challenging. To know what qualifies as an expense for your business as a content creator. Do you ever feel confused about an expense because you’re unsure of your eligibility to claim it?

Or perhaps you use something personally and are unsure how to handle this situation? Continue reading if this sounds familiar!

What am I entitled to as a YouTuber and content creator?

The costs of producing excellent content and keeping up your social media presence are considerable. It can be simple to overlook those expenses along the way, but if you don’t claim all of your allowable expenses, this will cost you later on. As you grow in popularity, taxes can be a significant cost to your earnings.

In the end, you will always have to pay tax to HMRC on your profits, whether you work as a sole trader or through a limited company. However, profits are more than just the money you made last year. Income minus tax-deductible expenses equals profits.

A tax-deductible expense is what? Simply put, if HMRC has not expressly disallowed it, this can be any expense you incur that is solely and exclusively related to operating your channels.

To give you an idea of the kinds of expenses you should be keeping track of, I’ve summarised some below that would be typical of the creative industry:

1. Tools (Phone, filming equipment, camera, insurance)
2. Online education programmes
3. Travel expenses (Including mileage)
4. Subscriptions (Stock photographs, premium apps etc.)
5. Bills (Utility bills, broadband – that accounts for your work from home costs)
6. Office costs (Office chair, desk, rent etc.)
7. Costs of accounting
8. Software (Email marketing, image editing)
9. Items you purchased for review but weren’t given as gifts
10. Promotion (Paid advertising, website, giveaways)

What if there is private use?

You can only claim expenses that are connected to your business with HMRC. However, this does not mean that you cannot deduct costs for items that you use on a personal level as well.

If the cost can be divided into “business” and “private” components, the business component is deductible for tax purposes. HMRC will accept this as an allowable business expense as long as the split was made on a reasonable basis.

For instance, if you estimate that 30% of the time you use your personal mobile phone for business calls, you will be able to deduct 30% of the phone bills from your profit, which will lower your tax liability.

Remember that anything that properly represents a cost to your business can be expensed. Take a look at HMRC’s guidelines for more information on what they will accept.

How do tax deductions work?

All you have to do is keep a record of everything you spend on your business. HMRC will need to see all of this when it comes to doing your tax return. You will pay tax on your yearly earnings but you can deduct your business expense from the total. This means that the portion of your income that you pay tax on (your taxable income) is less.

To calculate how much you should pay for the 2022/23 tax year, take a look at the current tax rates here.

Appoint TaxQube to deal with your taxes

If you are earning at least 4,000 a month, you can appoint our firm to handle your finances. Being a regulated firm of chartered accountants, we are able to help you in dealing with your tax affairs as well as submitting any pending tax rebate claims on your behalf.

Unlike other firms, we do not charge anything from your tax rebates which could be in thousands, you keep 100% of your tax savings. We help you maximise your claims as we have seen cases where people miss out by doing it themselves or using a non-tax specialist firm.

We only charge a monthly retainer fee which gives you access to an accredited accountant to help you manage your taxes and finances. Contact us for a free of charge consultation.