For 99% of us, blogging is not the road to riches. So why not try and save as much money in the process as we can? If you are blogging, and have bought a computer solely for that purpose, blog from home, and are pursuing some monetization mechanism for your blog, you can most likely declare yourself a home business! By doing that, you can claim tax deductions on your newly established home business.
There are several requirements for eligibility though:
Requirement #1: Regular and exclusive use. You must regularly use part of your home exclusively for a trade or business.
Requirement #2: Principal place of business. You must also be able to show that you use your home as your principal place of business.
Learn more.
Originally posted on January 29, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
Note you should have made, not all your readers are in the US.
Not sure what the situation is there, but you can’t claim loses here (in Australia), but you can defer them as an offset against profits in the following years (upto 5 for memory). Also there are “hobby” provisions which means that you don’t have to declare income from a hobby…although it ceases to become a hobby at $20k when it must be declared, so for most bloggers in Australia at least that would be the easiest way to go…although you’ve probably not got a similar setup in the States, after all, you guys tax winnings from lottories at what not (which to me is CRAZY!)
You’re right Duncan, I’m sorry I should have pointed out that this is for the U.S. only.
Thanks for the additional info.
For more information on how to figure out how to deduct utilities, mortgage, etc. on your home office, see IRS Form 8829.
Form – http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8829.pdf
Instructions – http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8829/ch01.html
It’s a little involved, but if you really do blog as a business venture, it’s worth figuring out. Any good tax person, especially one that works with small or home-based businesses, can help you figure this out as well.
Here is some Tax information for Canadians if you are a sole proprietorship or with someone else as a partnership.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/business/topics/solepartner/menu-e.html
Blogging can also be legally written on your tax form as your Job Title now in Canada.
Definately, just make sure your office/computer is not in your bedroom (where you sleep). You can only take a tax deduction for home offices not in a bedroom. Good Luck!