Understanding Taxes for Self-Employed YouTubers

I don't understand it still and all and I read a lot of the comments and they don't help me out that much
 
If anybody has a way around this system, please share your fruits with me, also, I've changed my mind, I don't want to be a youtuber anymore.. lol. (sarcasm intended, is that even sarcasm? :tongue:)
 
I don't really understand taxes either, you aren't the only one! If you have any questions though I can try my best to help! :)
 
I really don't understand any of this. I'm under 18 and I want to start making money, but this whole tax problem is stressing me out. I'm in the UK, could anyone help? I don't know what any of it means. :(
 
I have a question since my channel actually involves multiple people.

My channel is run by me and 3 other friends which is 4 people in total and since we all equally contribute, we've agreed to split any income we get 4 ways.

However, the W9 with our network is under my name and SSN since I don't have a business yet. Since we don't get a lot of traffic on our channel just yet, I haven't thought about taxes too much.

Let's say we start getting bigger and begin making $600+ a year. Would it be more beneficial to start a business like an LLC in order to split the wages among the 4 of us for tax purposes? I know it's a terrible idea to split the income under my name and I'm the one who's eating all the taxes.

My channel isn't getting anywhere near enough traffic to get a decent amount of money, but I want to be prepared for the future. Let's just say a really big opportunity might be heading our way and *if* we get it, then we'll definitely start getting more traffic and making more money.
 
What happens if write offs outweigh income. Like I earn $750 but spent $2500 on business expenses?

I want to write off Internet bills, cell phone bills, and even was told by some bigger gaming channels I could write off PC parts and games I've bought on steam.
 
WeiseGamer said:
What happens if write offs outweigh income. Like I earn $750 but spent $2500 on business expenses?

I want to write off Internet bills, cell phone bills, and even was told by some bigger gaming channels I could write off PC parts and games I've bought on steam.
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To a degree, if write-offs exceed income, you're operating at a loss and you may get a tax refund (not all your money is refunded, but some may be). However you have to be careful as to what you write-off. If YouTube is your *only* source of income, then internet expenses can count as a write-off. Cell phone bill would not count unless you can prove that you primarily use it for business (calling YouTube, calling collab partners, etc.). ... you can only write-off items that are directly tied to your business (and I would strongly recommend filing for an LLC if you plan to do a lot of write-offs and get a business bank account in the business name to pay any business related expenses ... keeping business and personal expenses separate will make it easier to prove, in case you're ever audited).
 
Kleineganz said:
To a degree, if write-offs exceed income, you're operating at a loss and you may get a tax refund (not all your money is refunded, but some may be). However you have to be careful as to what you write-off. If YouTube is your *only* source of income, then internet expenses can count as a write-off. Cell phone bill would not count unless you can prove that you primarily use it for business (calling YouTube, calling collab partners, etc.). ... you can only write-off items that are directly tied to your business (and I would strongly recommend filing for an LLC if you plan to do a lot of write-offs and get a business bank account in the business name to pay any business related expenses ... keeping business and personal expenses separate will make it easier to prove, in case you're ever audited).
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I have an FEIN as a sole proprietor, and would move to LLC depending on income.

As for internet costs, I use like 500GB of bandwidth a month on average (proven through comcast account history) and I can easily show my channel has a lot of HD videos which is the majority of this. Running under a home office, I believe I can take the sq footage of my actual office as a write off from my rent paid as well, no?

As for cell phones, maybe I got a bit hasty, but I use my smart phone to track analytics and keep up on social media advertising (my twitter/facebook accounts).

Come on government :)
 
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