How to handle taxes for my profitable concert review video blog?

Yes, you're definitely running a business now, and you need to report this income! The good news is you can deduct a lot of your expenses too. For your income level, you'll need to file Schedule C with your tax return to report your business income and expenses. Since you're making over $400 net profit, you'll also need to pay self-employment tax (that's basically Social Security and Medicare taxes for self-employed folks). You should absolutely be making quarterly estimated tax payments at this point. With $2,800 monthly, you're looking at about $33,600 annually - which definitely requires quarterly payments to avoid underpayment penalties. As for deductions - yes, concert tickets that you're reviewing are legitimate business expenses. Same with camera equipment, editing software, and other tools needed for your blog. For the room in your home, you can claim a home office deduction if that space is used exclusively for your business. Keep detailed records of everything - receipts, mileage if you drive to concerts, etc.

After dealing with similar tax confusion when my hobby photography turned into a side business, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it literally saved me from a tax disaster. I was misclassifying a bunch of expenses and had no idea how to handle quarterly payments either. What's cool is you just upload your receipts and income statements, and it analyzes everything automatically. It figured out which of my camera equipment purchases were fully deductible vs. what needed to be depreciated over time. It even caught some deductions I had completely missed - like a portion of my internet bill since my business is primarily online. For a videographer like you, it would definitely help sort out which expenses are fully business-related versus personal, especially with things like concert tickets where the IRS might look more closely.

I was totally wrong about taxr.ai! After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway because I was desperate with my own Etsy business tax situation. It doesn't magically decide what's business vs personal, but it asks really specific questions that helped me figure out which expenses were legitimate business deductions. The best part was when I uploaded my messy bank statements - it organized everything and flagged potential business expenses I hadn't even considered. It saved me hours of sorting through transactions and probably found at least $2,000 in deductions I would have missed. For anyone else running a creative business like the OP's video blog, this tool is seriously worth checking out, especially if you're visual and not a numbers person.

If you need actual tax advice directly from the IRS (which I definitely recommend for self-employment questions), good luck getting through to them on the phone. I spent HOURS on hold trying to get clarification about my YouTube income last year. Then I found https://claimyr.com which is basically this service that gets you through to a real IRS person, usually within 15 minutes instead of waiting for hours. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was dubious that it would actually work, but when I needed to confirm how to handle income from foreign viewers (I get AdSense revenue from multiple countries), they got me through to someone who actually knew the answer. Saved me tons of stress when filing.

I have to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, my accountant actually recommended the same service when I mentioned my IRS problems. I needed to resolve an issue with my business tax ID that was preventing me from filing correctly. I tried it, and no joke, I was talking to an actual IRS agent in about 12 minutes. The issue that had been hanging over my head for MONTHS got resolved in one 20-minute call. The agent even gave me her direct extension for follow-up questions. For self-employed people like us who can't afford to sit on hold for 3+ hours during our working day, this service is a complete game-changer. I'm now recommending it to all my freelancer friends.

Don't forget to track your mileage to concerts too! I run a similar blog but for local food, and mileage to restaurants for reviews is deductible. The standard mileage deduction for 2025 is supposed to be around 67 cents per mile for business use, which adds up fast! I also recommend separating your business and personal finances ASAP if you haven't already. Get a business credit card and maybe even a simple business checking account. Makes tax time so much easier and looks way more legitimate if you ever get audited.

One thing nobody mentioned yet - make sure you're keeping the receipts for concert tickets separate from other entertainment expenses. The IRS looks closely at entertainment deductions and they're tricky for content creators. For your concert tickets, you should document: 1. Date and venue 2. What content you produced from it (link to the review) 3. How it directly relates to your business I learned this the hard way when I got audited for my travel blog. They questioned every meal and event ticket until I could prove it was directly tied to content I published.

Great advice from everyone here! I'm actually a CPA and wanted to add a few important points that might help Diego and others in similar situations. First, since you're making $2,800/month consistently, you definitely need to make quarterly estimated tax payments. The general rule is if you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes, you need to pay quarterly. Calculate 25-30% of your net profit and pay that quarterly to avoid underpayment penalties. For the home office deduction, be careful - it needs to be a space used EXCLUSIVELY for business. If you edit in your living room sometimes, that doesn't qualify. But if you have a dedicated room or corner that's only for filming/editing, you can deduct that percentage of your rent, utilities, etc. Also, consider setting up an LLC or S-Corp election once your income grows more. Right now you're paying both sides of Social Security/Medicare tax (15.3% total), but there are legitimate ways to reduce some of that burden as your business grows. Keep meticulous records of everything - the IRS loves to audit content creators because the line between business and personal expenses can be blurry. Document the business purpose for every expense, especially entertainment-related ones like concert tickets.