There’s a useful post by Bill over at BaseBlogging about Accounting for Bloggers where Bill interviews an accountant, Brian Borawski from Tigerblog, about tax implications and financial structures for bloggers. It’s probably more useful for US bloggers but might give those of us from other countries a few hints at the type of questions we should be asking our financial advisers.
About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I suppose I am very lucky to have an accountant as a Dad! :)
I plan on Incorporating my Internet Empire in Nevada or Delaware so I pay no corporate income taxes. :-)
What the hell is this!!!! #3
This has to be a sick joke and if not, then a serious crime has been committed. This is a clear physical threat on a person. Do whatever it takes Darren to catch this idiot.
Some people really need to get out more – hmm maybe they don’t have the key… I trust you’ll do what it takes to sort out this idiot. I am really hoping those are words of hot air and no harm has come to you or your property.
Sheesh – like I said on a certain blog beginning with J – this whole Chitika thing has gone mad. If that really is the motivation for this threat of physical violence (from a depraved sick mind, albeit) then I’ve never seen anything like it. “Money is the root of all kinds of evil” – and I stick by that. (this quote is often misunderstood as being anti-money, it’s not, it’s merely talking about the things people will do to get money.)
“Denounce your love for Chitika?” – what the…? This isn’t Satanic ritual. I think some people need to get their sense of proportions right.
Darren is not greedy or dishonest. He doesn’t have minions. He most likely will reap what he’s sown, but that’s not a negative thing. I don’t think you have any idea what Darren has sown in his or others lives, and you have no right to threaten based on any shred or scrap of misinformation you’ve heard or concocted for yourself.
Hmmm, Darren, this was a big rant and I was actually going to post a sensible short comment about tax. Err, if you delete the idiot’s comment, feel free to delete this one also. I’ll make the real comment below.
Fortunately my earnings are fairly easy to work out at present – I just declare myself self-employed, fill in some forms, and do a tax return at the end of each financial year. I put a percentage of earnings aside to cover tax/NI, and that’s sorted.
No doubt as and when my earnings and sources increase, I’ll need a better system – for the moment I don’t earn enough to warrant giving it away to an accountant!
Holy crap.
Thanks for the link Darren.
And as an aside, if anyone is trying to find Brian’s site, the link is http://tigerblog.net. I had it wrong in my post.
As far as incorporating in NV and Deleware, this not absolve you of paying corporate income taxes. It “might” absolve you of paying state income taxes, but I’m sure the state you’re located in would have something to say about that.
Sounds like bloggerkiller is a bit jealous. Do you really harbor that much animosity towards a guy with a blog? I mean unless he killed your sister or something, you need to get off of it.
Is somebody off their meds again? He didn’t even have the sense to have a live website at IKillBloggers.com. He’s missing so much AdSense revenue. Now who’s the chump?! What a vindictive twerp.
Do Blogger Have To Pay Taxes On Income?
If you are in the United States any income you derive from your blog has to be reported to the IRS. If you don’t report it you can be charged with tax evasion. So how can you offset some of…
I can see that I need to improve my organization system for keeping track of my affiliate revenue. I’m thinking of setting up a spreadsheet with a tab for each revenue source.
Thanks for the link Darren. In addition to being helpful for bloggers, this would also be relevant to all internet derived income as well.
I’m sure that a number of bloggers are either unaware, or uninterested, in the legal implications of tax law, and the consequences of not declaring income to the proper authorities.
Here in the UK it is up to the individual to declare any extra income earned outside of their normal (monitered and taxed) income. I would happily place bets on the majority of ‘extra-curricular’ income is not declared, a bit like sparkys and chippys doing foreigners on the side for cash. Unlike the trades, which can get away with cash payment, bloggers who take payment electronically are open to investigation however, so I believe that anyone who doesn’t declare their income is putting themselves at risk from investigation.
Of course, it would be impossible for each and every person with an adsense account to be investigated, but catching a few big fish may well encourage the smaller ones to own up to income earned. Similar in principle to the current pursuit of illegal file sharing system users.
That last statement by Dave (#15) is not necessarily true… If you think you can go unnoticed from reporting your earnings from Google (or Ebay) just because you think you are a small fish .. you are mistaken. You should keep in mind that even though you don’t report it .. someone else is reporting it – Google (and Ebay). It may take time but it will eventually catch up to you. There are ways to creatively minimize your taxable position, (keeping better receipts and record of your expenses for instance) .. than to not report it.
PS to Dave – I was referring to only the last part of his comment … Of course, it would be impossible for each and every person with an adsense account to be investigated, but catching a few big fish may well encourage the smaller ones to own up to income earned not the first part
Darren feel free to remove my post in ref to #3 if it makes the whole thing easier to sort.
Hart #15 & #16, I’d not considered the possibility of google et al reporting back to the authorities their payments to adsense publishers.
Of course, the sensible option may be to set aside x% of your income to cover tax costs as and when the authorities decide to knock on your door.
Yea its almost that time of year, Time to do taxes soon. This year I plan on doing my taxes with http://www.tax2020.com