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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