STOP! Creators — Don’t File Taxes Until You Watch This

How much money have you given away to the IRS without even knowing it? Because most creators, even the experienced ones, leave hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on the table each year.Not because they're doing anything wrong, but because nobody ever taught them what they can actually deduct. And today I'm going to fix that. I'm going to explain it all in today's episode.But listen, if you want real help real fast, do me a favor, go to content creators accountant.com help now again, that's content creators accountant.com hapnow and I'll get you set up right away. Okay, we're starting with some quick wins right now. Five deductions that you can check today that could save you real money this year. Are you ready?Let's go. Here are five deductions creators miss every single year. And they're so easy to fix. These are short, they're simple. And hey, it's immediate value.Number one thing, your studio gear, big picture.If it helps you record, if it helps you edit, shoot, or produce things like your camera, those camera lenses, the lights behind you, your microphone, that laptop that you're using, that editing monitor, tripod, backdrops. Bottom line is this, if you use it for content, it's typically deductible. Here's a great example. A creator spent twelve hundred dollars on a lens.Hey, that's not a lot to spend on. These lenses are expensive. But they didn't deduct it because he thought he was. He just wasn't big enough yet. Wrong answer. He saved $384 that day.So that's the first thing. Second thing, your subscriptions and creators, forget about these all the time.And honestly, we've got a ton of these things like Adobe or Canva, Epidemic sound. Hey, if you have Descript or TubeBuddy, any AI tools, man, I got too many AI tools to note. Notion, cloud storage and and scheduling tools.Again, big picture. If it helps your content, it counts. Number three, here's what a lot of people think and forget about. Your phone and your phone bill.You film with it, you edit with it, you post, you live stream, you even respond to comments. Percentage of that is deductible. Here's number four, your Internet. Let's be honest, creators run online businesses.If the Internet supports your work, and it does, you can deduct a portion of it. And number five, content travel.If you travel for content creation, for collaborations, or maybe you go to filming locations, maybe you attend conferences or you do vlogging, or you're actually renting studio Space, Your travel may qualify. I worked with a creator who flew to Atlanta to film three collaborations. Ended up saving $642 he didn't know he was allowed to keep.Okay, that's your face value. Top five things. I wanted you to get some helpful information before we even talk about who I am. So now let's introduce the show. Creator on fire.Hey, friend. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm the content creators accountant. I'm a licensed accountant.I've been doing this for 30 years, helping creators and other small business owners keep more of what they earn and build businesses they actually work with. But listen, I'm also a creator myself, so I understand the creator world because I live in it.I buy the gear, I deal with those subscriptions, I record the shows, and I fight with lighting and audio just like you. So what you're about to learn today comes from both sides. My accountant side and the creator side. And I'm going to promise you this right now.I'm not going to use jargon. I'm not going to speak over your head. I'm going to make this simple, clear, and useful. So let's keep going.Before we get into a full checklist, and I'm going to give you that today, I want you to hear something important. The moment you hit upload, you became a business. Not when you get monetized. A lot of people say, well, I'm not a business route if I'm not monetized.That's not true. Not when you make real money. If you've got money coming in the door, the last time I checked, that's real money and not when you get an llc.That's a great thing to do. We talked about that in a couple of shows back. But you are a business once you hit upload.And that moment you create content with the intention of growing it, sharing it, or earning, you stepped into business territory. And here's the best part of that. The tax code rewards people who treat their work like a business. This is really a mindset.Shift those small creators, you might be one of those people right now, can still take big deductions. Listen, Whether you've got 10 subscribers or 10 million subscribers, the rules apply. All you need is intention and documentation.That's really all there is. So let's break this down into six easy to understand buckets. Everything you spend will fall into one of these buckets. Let me walk you through them.Bucket number one, gear and equipment. Ask yourself this question, does this directly help me create or Improve my content? That's the big question. If the answer is yes, guess what?It belongs here. Cameras, lenses, lighting, microphones, gimbals, tripods, hard drives for your computer.Those editing computers themselves probably hadn't thought about this one. Studio desks. Maybe you've got a standing desk like I have the backdrops behind you, and even those acoustic panels you put on the wall.These are your tools. This is all part of your toolbox. And tools are deductible. Second, bucket software and apps creators use software all day long.I can't even list all the ones I've got. You've got editing tools, AI tools. I don't know how many AI tools I'm using at this point.Music licensing, graphic design tools, scheduling tools, SEO tools. Where do you store the stuff? Cloud storage, notion or project tools? How about your email marketing?How about the podcast hosting, domain names, and even website hosting? One creator I coached save over 1800 bucks just by tracking his subscriptions. He had a lot of them. Here's bucket number three.A lot of people don't think about this one. Either the home studio or your workspace.If you've got dedicated space that you use to create or manage your business, you may qualify for things like a home office deduction. You might be able to take a portion of your utilities or even a portion of your rent or mortgage interest.If you have that area clean, you might be able to deduct that any repairs you make. I mentioned this earlier. Internet fees and even dedicated furniture. Hey, we want our sets to look nice, right?This is powerful and it's often overlooked. Here's bucket number four. Marketing and growth. This is the. I'll call it the grow your channel bucket.Things like advertisements, those branding packages you buy. How about those thumbnail designs, the analytical tools that you buy? SEO services, collaborations. Yes, you can deduct your coaches.I got too many coaches to list any courses you take, even newsletter tools. If it helps you grow your audience, it's a business expense. Here's bucket number five. Travel and collaborations.If you travel with clear intent to create content or collaborate. Now I'm going to. I'm going to take a step here and say, make sure that's the intent. That's what the IRS really looks at. What is the intent?But things like flights and hotels, Airbnb. Hey, even mileage to and from the hotel or to and from the airport. Meals with a business purpose. Those conference fees.A lot of us like to attend conferences. Maybe you take an Uber or a Lyft, and even your Travel supplies. Here's the thing, though. Just document the purpose and make sure you keep that stuff.And bucket number six, contractors and services. A lot of creators don't think about this, but creators build small teams without even realizing it. Your editors, your VAs, those graphic designers.A lot of us have social media managers, copywriters, legal services. Yes. Accounting services. That's right. Music producers and thumbnail specialists. If someone supports your business, you can usually deduct their cost.Now, here's the best part. We. We put all this together in a downloadable checklist, and I'm going to share with you how to get that in just a few minutes.But let's make this real. Here are some real creator stories of people that I've worked with. One TikToker had 24 subscriptions she didn't even know she was paying for.Yes, you heard me right, 24. We sorted it out. She saved $1800 a year and deducted the tool she actually used. Another podcaster traveled to Atlanta to.To collaborate with two YouTubers. He assumed it was personal travel. It wasn't. Guess what? We deducted the flights. We deducted the hotels.We even deducted the meals, the local travel, and even the studio rental. Saved him $642 in tax savings. Now, let me tell you my story. I told you, I'm a content creator just like you.Let me share some of the things that I deduct each and every year, just like you. I've got studio expenses, nice studio around me. I've got a production team, I've got subscription. Yeah, like I said, way too many AI apps.All the gear. Listen, I never met gear I didn't like. I seem to get myself in trouble with my wife as those Amazon boxes keep arriving.But I just tell her, oh, you don't. You didn't see that. I got utilities for my Internet, my phone, and even part of the electric bill.I've also attended industry conferences, and I took a deduction for those hotels, those meals and travel. And yes, like I mentioned earlier, I have a few coaches. I deduct those services as well.Yes, it's a long list, but it saves me serious money on my taxes. Now, let's shift a little bit and talk about the deductions that almost nobody talks about.I'm just going to throw some out there because a lot of people don't think about this. About furniture that you use, shelving, soundproofing. You talked about those acoustic things, wall treatments. Maybe you've got some props.We talked about car mileage Travel for inspiration. Yeah. I've got one particular YouTuber that we're writing off travel. He's going to look at stuff that he can film in the future.A portion of your air conditioning or your heat. Any paid collaborations? Maybe you read some books to learn about what you're going to talk about in your show.Research tools, cloud backup, theme music, and even editing plugins. Again, if it supports your creator business, it may qualify.Now, I know this is complicated, but I put together an effective system that you can use to simplify everything. It's called the Creator for Framework and this is how it works. C R E A T O R I'm going to break these down for you.Number one thing, C categorize your expenses, what category these fit into R Record everything in real time as you do it. Take a picture of that receipt number E. Establish separate accounts. Yes, I'm like a broken record on that.Have separate accounts for your business and your personal number A audit subscriptions monthly. So many of us are buying into these subscriptions, we don't realize what we have. T track your mileage and travel. Travel.Oh, organize those receipts digitally so you can have them at the end of the year and R review quarterly with a pro. See this system that I've talked about that create tour. This system reduces stress and increases clarity.So imagine if you will, we're sitting together and you say, Ralph, what should I do first? Man, you gave me a long list. Here's your first step. I want you to track your top three. Your gear, your software and your marketing.Just those small step because small steps create momentum. Now let's talk about some of the creator tax mistakes I've seen because listen to. I'm going to tell you some horror stories right now.Here's mistake number one and this one is brutal. It's mixing business and personal spending. I've heard a lot of people say, well, Ralph, I just got one card for everything. It's simple.It's simple until tax season punches you in the gut. Let me give you a real story. A YouTuber I work with, we'll call her Melissa. Had her best year ever.I mean, she had brand deals and super chats and affiliate income. Money was finally flowing in. But here's the problem. Melissa ran everything through one debit card.Her groceries, her gas, the Amazon, the office gear, the dog, toys, you name it. When tax time came, here's what she did. She handed me a 14 page bank statement, said, Ralph, can you just figure out what's business?No, I can't here's the problem. The IRS doesn't short your transactions for you. They don't assume anything is a business expense. That's the problem.She didn't have ability to document the intent. We ended up losing over $8,700 in deductions simply because the business expenses couldn't be clearly proven. She wasn't committing fraud.She wasn't being dishonest. She simply had bad structure. And here's the kicker. She needed only one dedicated business checking account to avoid all of this mess.Just a tiny habit that had a massive consequence. Listen to this one. Mistake number two, keeping no receipts. Now, this one feels like old school.Somebody said to me, but, Ralph, all my stuff is online. Doesn't the bank statement count? Let me tell you about David. Now, David's a photographer who blew up on TikTok. He had $32,000 in equipment purchases.Yeah, that stuff's expensive. The lenses, the lighting, the travel, the software you got the works.But when he got audited, the IRS asked for proof of business purpose for each item, because that's what the IRS is going to say. And here's the problem. David had no receipts, no invoices, no notes, and zero documentation.Now, he did have one spreadsheet that he made in January because he said, Ralph, I want to stay organized. Well, here's the problem. The IRS disallowed almost half of those deductions. You may be saying, Ralph, wait a second. You said he had a bank statement.Here's the problem. The bank statement only proves that you paid for something, not what it was or why you bought it. Think about this. A $1900 charge at best Buy.Yes, it could be a camera, but could also be a PS5. And that's why receipts are crucial, because receipts answer this. What was it? Who was it for? What was it from? When was it purchased, and why.It qualifies as a business expense. David now uses a simple rule that you can steal. Here, write this down right now, snap the receipt, drop it in a folder, and done.10 seconds protects thousands. And here's mistake number three. Setting up your entity incorrectly.This is one of the brutal ones because the damage isn't obvious until it's too late. Let me tell you about a twitch streamer. We'll call him Marco. He formed an LLC because somebody on Reddit said he should.That's why he loved Reddit and he said, Ralph, I read this. And then a friend told him, hey, Marco, if you've got an llc, you gotta elect S Corporation status because that's how you save on taxes, dude.Guess what? He did both without ever talking to an accountant. And by the time he came to me, listen to this one.He had missed payroll deadlines, he owed back taxes, he had penalties. He hadn't taken an officer's salary. He was co mingling funds all in one account. And guess what?The entity structure that he had made zero sense for his income level. He actually paid more in taxes as an S corp because he didn't make enough to justify the structure.If he remained a simple LLC, he would have saved $6200 that year alone. But here's the bigger issue.His bookkeeping was technically non compliant because he was supposed to be paying himself a reasonable salary and he wasn't. And when he didn't do that, that put him on the IRS radar. See, entity structure isn't about being fancy.A lot of people think, oh, I got this fancy structure. That's not what it's about. It's about matching where your business is right now, not where you hope it'll be.See, creators often feel like, well, everyone has an LLC, so should I or real businesses become S Corps? A lot of people think more complex is more legitimate. I'm going to scream this from rooftops. No, that's not true.The right entity at the wrong time becomes a liability, not a benefit. And fixing these things can change your entire financial life. All right, so here's your assignment for this week. What I want you to do.If you want to get this serious, open a business checking account and download that checklist I talked about earlier. You can get that at Content Creators accountant.com tax checklist. Again, that's Content Creators accountant.com Tax Checklist.Then I want you to do this. Track those three expenses, cancel those unused subscriptions, and start a simple receipt folder.This alone, these things will put you ahead of most creators. And in 30 days, you are going to have clarity. You're going to have cleaner records. You know what to deduct.You stop overpaying and you start thinking like a business owner. And I mentioned this earlier, if we are working together, I could help you with all this. I can help you choose that right structure.I can help you reduce your taxes the best way I can help you organize your systems. Protect yourself legally and and build a plan that supports your creativity. Imagine this. No more fear, no more guessing. No overwhelm.Just clarity, confidence, control and peace. And if that sounds like what you need, schedule a free 15 minute call with me by going to content creators accountant.com. help me. Yes, that's right.Help me Content Creators accountant.com. help me and I'll help you, friend. You pour so much into your content. You deserve to keep more of what you earn. And now you know this. You can do this.I'm so proud of you. I believe in you. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm the content creator's accountant. God bless you and I'll see you in the next episode.