Tax Tips for Visual Artists
The taxman cometh, and are you getting all the deductions you deserve? If you make money by selling your artwork (and as a member of Artist Rising, I hope you are), you’re entitled to deduct some of the expenses associated with creating, showing and selling your artwork, including:
- Your yearly Artist Rising Premium or Select Studio membership fees
- Any overnight travel expenses incurred when you show your artwork
- Any art supplies purchased, including paints, canvases or printing costs
- Costs to maintain your home art studio space, including utilities and rent
- And much, much more.
However, this does require that you do a little homework. You will need to file a Schedule C with your 1040 tax forms (a.k.a. filing the “long form”). You’ll also need to keep records for your business, including keeping receipts and keeping track of your sales.
There’s a lot to know about this topic, so here are some links to articles that are worth a look:
- Taxation & Tax Deductions for the Self-Employed Visual Artist
- 7 Tax Tips for Artists from Ezine
- Designers Dozen: Tax Saving Tips for the Graphic Artist from June Walker’s blog
- Tax Tips for Artists from Arts Resource Network, including info about recordkeeping tips to keep the auditors at bay
- The Internal Revenue Service’s One-Stop Site for Small Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals
If you have any great tax tips to pass on to your fellow artists, please post a comment below. Good luck and happy deduction-hunting.
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