Gear, Software, and Physical Setup
If you bought it to make videos, it's almost certainly deductible. This includes cameras, lenses, microphones, lighting kits, tripods, capture cards, drives for storage, and computers used for editing. Items under a few hundred dollars can usually be expensed in full the year you buy them. Bigger purchases like a $2,000 camera body may need to be depreciated over several years using Form 4562, or you can often elect Section 179 to deduct the full cost immediately if the gear is used mostly for business.
Software and subscriptions count too: editing suites like Premiere or Final Cut, thumbnail tools, stock music libraries, cloud storage, scheduling apps, and even a portion of your phone bill if you use it to shoot or manage content. Keep the recurring charges organized because these small monthly fees add up to real deductions across a year.
If you film in a dedicated room at home, the home office deduction lets you deduct a percentage of rent or mortgage interest, utilities, and internet based on the square footage used exclusively for content work. You can use the simplified method (a flat rate per square foot, up to 300 square feet) or calculate actual expenses. Either way, the space has to be used regularly and exclusively for filming or editing, not your bedroom that doubles as a set.
Production, Talent, and Business Costs
Props, wardrobe for on-camera use, backdrops, merch samples, and materials for giveaways are deductible as long as they're tied to content, not personal use. If you travel to a conference, brand shoot, or collab location, the flight, hotel, and 50% of meals are deductible business travel, provided the trip is primarily for work.
Many creators pay editors, thumbnail designers, virtual assistants, or co-hosts. Anyone you pay $600 or more in a year as a contractor should get a 1099-NEC from you, and their fees are a straight deduction on Schedule C. Agency commissions, talent management fees, and legal or contract review costs for brand deals also count.
Don't overlook the smaller stuff: platform fees taken by YouTube, TikTok, or Patreon before payout, payment processor fees from Stripe or PayPal, bank fees on a business account, and the cost of accounting software or a tax preparer. Advertising you pay for, like boosting a post or running ads to grow a channel, is deductible as well.
Where This Actually Shows Up
All of these expenses get totaled on Schedule C, which nets against the income reported on the 1099-NEC and 1099-K forms you receive from AdSense, brand sponsors, and payment processors. Your net profit after expenses is what actually gets taxed, and it's also the number Schedule SE uses to calculate self-employment tax.
Because income arrives from five platforms and expenses get charged across multiple cards and accounts, the biggest risk isn't missing a deduction category, it's losing the receipts and matching them to the right 1099 later. Track purchases as they happen, save digital receipts in one place, and separate business spending from personal spending in a dedicated account. That's what turns a stack of scattered 1099s into an accurate quarterly estimate instead of a guess.