Tax afterthought

  • Thread starter Thread starter cusebassman
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cusebassman

Freakin' sweet
If I record an album of my own material, get it copyrighted, pressed for a certain price per disk, and then sell the things (be it physical copies on CD or online), do I report a percentage of the profit to the IRS and pay taxes on it? More appropriately, should I (some will say "No the gov't is evil" and then I go to jail :))

I don't have a CD, let alone anything I will be selling any time soon, but I was just workin on the taxes and it came to mind... search didn't yield much.
 
yes, you need to claim the income. but you can also deduct the expenses.
 
mm good call... figured it had to be claimed just like every other penny you find on the sidewalk, but it never seems to come up here... maybe its that intuitive :)

Stupid questions for all!!!
 
Just like you're supposed to report every cent that you make selling your music, you can also deduct every cent that you spend on your music. That mic you traded the bluesmobile for? Deductible. Disc pressing? Deductible. They're all "business expenses."

The flip side of things is that the less significant your music is to your income, the less likely it is to matter. Not reporting this stuff only becomes a problem if you get audited (or if someone takes issue with the ethics of not paying taxes!)
 
I guess it also depends on how much you absolutely love filling out tax forms...

I would have to sell a hell of a lot of music to "turn a profit" over how much I've spent on gear...

Over in the "How much have you spent on gear" thread, I think I totalled my recording gear alone at 8500 bucks...

So, at 10 bucks an album, I'd have to sell 850 before I turn a so-called profit. Probably never gonna happen (even after I finish the damn thing :))
 
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