Tax write off

I've been thinking of doing a small amount of the business end of photography. No not to make a lot of money really, but maybe to help fund my hobby a bit.
I was thinking one of the ways to help fund it would be to write off new gear on my taxes. But I'm wanting to know what I'd need to do to make this possible.
Do any of you write off your camera gear on your taxes? What kind of requirements need to be done to qualify legally? I'm totally new to all of this, but it seems like something worth looking into when this hobby is so expensive.

Any help would be most welcome.

In order to write off your gear, you need to establish a business as a business. Here where I live I would need to go down to the city office building and tell them I'm starting a new business and what kind of business it is. At that point you would file for a DBA ( doing business as). Once you acquired this, now your a business. Up to you as far as insurance for the business. But you need to start separating all expenses, incoming cash, etc... You can't include this with personal taxes. So at the end of the year you would bring all your info to an accountant and let them do their magic. One thing to consider is there probably going to write off most of your gear long term. So say the lens you just bought will last you 20 yrs. There going to write it off over a twenty year period. Most likely they would choose something not so spread out but you get the gist of it.

Keep in mind Bill that where I live may be different from other states, cities. And of course there may be a better way of doing it. But this is how I do it with my construction business so I would assume it would generally be the same aside from laws, insurances, etc... Not really sure if it's worth it just to write equipment off? Interested to here from other responses.

Sorry for the delay in my reply, but your post is going to take some serious thought. This is a lot more of a business than I was thinking about.
My mother wrote poetry and was able to write off some expenses on her personal taxes, and published a book.
I was thinking more of a website business selling photos. Not a great money maker, but maybe a help on my photography expenses. I'm pretty sure I'm not up to jumping into the deep end of the pool on this business idea.
The truth is I couldn't work a business, as in working for clients and such. No, I would just be interested in selling photos I take as I can. I can't do anything full time, or that would take that much commitment.
So a smaller option is what I'm looking for, if it's possible that is.

Since I have a "studio" I have written my camera gear off for years. But my accountant has told me that I need to start writing off my gear only against income directly related to photography. So I am scrambling to get more direct sales to justify the write-off. So this year I keep 2 sales records. One for woodwork and one for photo sales. You do not want to run afoul of the IRS. On the other hand accelerated equipment write-offs can allow you to deduct the cost of some equipment in a single year but you must have income to write it off against. Some latitude is given for new start-ups but you need a good accountant to sort it all out.

Unless you make a brazzillion dollars, you'd simply create a small business by doing whatever is necessary to file a DBA in your local town/county etc.

At that point, you would keep a simple set of books detailing your photg income and expenses... You'd file a Schedule 'C' with your Federal return and pay taxes on the photog income that exceeds your photog expenses.

You would most likely NOT do depreciation., but rather deduct the full amount of your camera expenses to the extent that it doesn't exceed your photog income taking a Section 179 deduction...

Good advice Fred. And a less complicated way of doing than what i have to use.

IRS is familiar with the desire to deduct a hobby as a business:

Business or Hobby? Answer Has Implications for Deductions


One of the main ideas is "Generally, an activity qualifies as a business if it is carried on with the reasonable expectation of earning a profit."

I have an actual LLC that is photography and web design that includes my Photography so my equipment (including computers etc) is depreciated. You need to have legitimate real income to operate as a business, otherwise there is nothing to deduct expenses against. The whole goal is to reduce ones tax liability.

I wasn't intending on doing anything unlawful, to cheat the system, or to in any way do anything dishonest! I was looking for a legal way to fund my photography by the sales of photos, increasing the chance of selling such photos as I'm able to achieve by upgrading at least one camera to a higher pixel count for larger prints! Thus improving both my equipment and my product!

But after reading that IRS statement Wayne posted the link to, I don't think I would qualify for tax write offs! I couldn't live off the profits, and intended to put any profits back into my photography needs. So deductions for my photography gear may not be doable.

But that hasn't changed the possibility of selling photos to help fund my photography needs, has it?

If it earns a profit, then it shouldn't have issues qualifying as a business. If not, IRS probably has questions. Of course, the income is to be reported either way. Don't forget as a sole proprietor, paying double (15%) social security comes out of the profits. However, that also allows deducting your medical insurance costs. And it needs income to cover the deductions.

I may have to forget the whole idea. My anxiety is going through the roof and making me nauseous just think about all the stuff it would take to manage this.
I guess I'm not even up to selling what photos I do manage to do well. Besides it doesn't sound like rewards would be worth the efforts and extreme stress it would put me through. I guess I was right when I thought of myself as just a hobbiest. I'm not up to going even simi-pro.

Thank you all very much for helping me with your hard earned knowledge. It has opened my eyes.

Bill16 said:

I may have to forget the whole idea. My anxiety is going through the roof and making me nauseous just think about all the stuff it would take to manage this.
I guess I'm not even up to selling what photos I do manage to do well. Besides it doesn't sound like rewards would be worth the efforts and extreme stress it would put me through. I guess I was right when I thought of myself as just a hobbiest. I'm not up to going even simi-pro.

Thank you all very much for helping me with your hard earned knowledge. It has opened my eyes.

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Relax Bill. It is not that difficult to do and you can start small. Throw all your receipts in a shoe box. Concentrate on selling your photos, keep a record of all your sales, keep those records in the shoebox also and at the end of the year let an accountant deal with it. Just take good photos, get them out where others can see them and the rest will follow. It will take awhile but it's very doable. Having someone buy a photo is a great experience.

RON said:

Relax Bill. It is not that difficult to do and you can start small. Throw all your receipts in a shoe box. Concentrate on selling your photos, keep a record of all your sales, keep those records in the shoebox also and at the end of the year let an accountant deal with it.

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There you go, the accountant is another deduction for you. I agree preparing the tax form is not much issue, but creating the income seems an unknown until you actually work out a plan that is doing it.

I don't know about a corporation, but your lawyers can explain it, and they will be more deductions.

Otherwise, to deduct expenses, you need a tax form. Unless a specific business like farming or rental property, that form is generally Schedule C. And Schedule C means sole proprietor (which is just a simple declaration, but you need a DBA filed with your state).

There are downsides. You probably have to collect and report state sales tax, or may have state income taxes too, more stuff to keep up with. Income probably will increase the income taxes on Social Security income too, which can be like double tax on some of that extra income. And the SS rate you pay doubles.

I've done sole proprietor for nearly 20 years (home based business, but not as photography) and had good income, and doing the tax was not a big deal. I just bought the H&R Block tax software (named At Home now), the Basic version for $20 each year. Then you just plug in the actual numbers. IRS has never asked a question. Gathering the data is the harder part, filling out the forms is only a couple of hours.

My point is, if you have tax software (Turbo Tax or At Home, etc), just explore in it by preparing a fake (throw away) return as if you had a business. Start with your normal tax year data, and then add to that by just entering some business income and expenses. You will know a lot more about it in a short time. Valid expenses have to relate to the business of course, but anything reasonable and valid seems accepted. The IRS does not require that you manage your business well, just that you show a taxable profit.