Self Employment Tax Deductions for Graphic Designers

Working as a graphic designer has a lot of advantages, especially if you’re able to work from home as a freelancer with your own business.

This article will go over all the common tax deductions graphic designers can get on their tax returns, as well as the definitions you need to be able to tell which expenses can be used as tax write-offs, and which expenses can't.

‍

Why care about graphic designer tax deductions?

The short answer is graphic designers are eligible for a lot of tax deductions that can help them save money on business expenses and make the most of their business.

If you’re going to use these tax deductions it’s important to know what kinds of expenses you can deduct from your taxes and which expenses aren’t eligible.

We’ll cover everything you need to know, from the kinds of deductions that are available to how you can keep track of them and deduct them from your freelance graphic designer taxes.

‍

Common graphic designer tax deductions

Below is a list of common expenses that graphic designers can deduct from their taxes. As with anything financial or tax-related, there is some nuance to what and how much you can write off, so be sure to consult with an expert.

‍

Category	Tax deductible
Electronics When you set up your business any equipment you will use for more than a year is counted as a capital expense. Examples are cameras and tripods.
Software subscriptions Your computer and other electronics like a keyboard, printer, monitor, and mouse are all tax deductions for photographers.
Notebooks, pens, pencils If you use some part of your home exclusively as your office, you can deduct a portion of expenses like rent, utilities and mortgage interest.
Art supplies You may also have a studio or storage space, or an office out of your home, in which case you can deduct costs like rent, utilities, and insurance.
Website expenses You can deduct vehicle costs like mileage, gasoline expenses, parking, tolls, repairs, maintenance, a portion of car insurance, and perhaps even a portion of capital expenses like a new car purchase.
Office furniture costs If you travel to jobs, conferences or training sessions, you can deduct expenses like airfare, train, and bus tickets.
Conference and class costs Common photographer tax write-offs include software and computer programs like photo editing software.
Power bill You may also require electronic storage for your work, like external hard drives, or storage software such as Dropbox. Photography can require a lot of storage space.
Internet bill Any expense that attempts to generate business, including advertising and website hosting fees.
Water bill Costs of office supplies like business cards, brochures, and even pens and paper are considered tax deductions for photographers.
A portion of your rent If you pay rent on your home, and your office is located in your home, you can deduct a portion of that rent from your taxes, directly proportionate to the amount of space your office takes up in your home.
Property insurance If you have homeowner’s insurance or rental insurance, a portion of that insurance is covering your home office and the furniture inside. That means that you are also eligible for a partial deduction on the cost of your property insurance.
Gas Driving from place to place can get expensive. So save your gas receipts and deduct this travel cost every time you’re traveling for business. Note: Traveling back and forth from your regular place of employment cannot be deducted from your taxes.
Parking costs Parking in a city usually comes with high parking bills. Keep the receipts and deduct those costs from your taxes later.
Mileage Your car's value decreases with increased mileage, so mileage is tax deductible. It is a form of vehicle depreciation and you can deduct ti from your taxes anytime you drive your car for work travel. Gas and parking costs can be deducted even if you’re driving a rental car, as can the cost of the rental.
Tolls If you’re driving, gas and mileage aren’t the only costs you can expect. Tolls and other fees on your way to your destination can also be deducted, but not tickets or fines. So, drive safely, and go ahead and take the toll road if that's the fastest route.
Vehicle depreciation Driving your vehicle causes it to depreciate faster, especially if you're traveling long distance. If you find yourself driving thousands of miles for a presentation, conference, or training opportunity, go ahead and calculate your vehicle depreciation and deduct it from your expenses. Try our mileage tracker template to help with that.
Car maintenance Your regular car maintenance isn't usually tax-deductible unless your car needs the maintenance for business travel. An oil change and tire alignment right before you take a big trip can count.
Plane tickets If you're traveling long distances you might decide to fly instead of driving. Fortunately, the cost of your ticket is usually considered tax-deductible, just don't to fly first class every single time unless there’s a good reason to do so.
Hotel accommodation Business-related travel often means staying in a hotel, and those extra costs can make it even harder to afford to go to the next big conference or professional networking event. Fortunately, hotel expenses are tax-deductible as a necessary business expense but only for business-related travel.
Meals while traveling Packing food to take with you is an option, but most people go the easier route and grab food on the road. Regular meals while you’re traveling for business all count as business expenses. Just leave the cost of adult drinks and other extras off your meal business deduction.
Business meals If you’re meeting with clients at a restaurant, go ahead and deduct the meal from your taxes later. Just don’t offer to pay for drinks and expect to include those costs on your next tax return.
Meeting space rental Another miscellaneous cost for graphic designers that work from home are meeting space rentals for when you don’t want to bring clients to your home office, and you can’t go to their office either. Meeting spaces are often available for rental, and if your client doesn’t cover the cost then you can deduct it from your taxes.

‍

Category	Tax deductible
️ Creative assistant costs Creative assistants can include a wide number of professions, from editors to people who help with parts of your graphic design production. If you have to hire someone else to help with your graphic design business you can likely deduct some of the cost of their wages and benefits as necessary business costs.
Health insurance Any health insurance related costs can qualify as eligible tax write-offs for graphic designers, or design professionals in general.
Commissions & fees Legal fees for business, payment processing fees (PayPal, Stripe, and others).
Bonsai taxes (software) If you decide that an online platform like Bonsai will make life easier by helping you manage your tax filing and accounting, the associated costs are also tax deductible for graphic designers.
Undocumented business expenses You need to have a record of any expenses that you want to deduct on your tax return. Most of the time that means that you’ll need to have a receipt from the purchase. There are some ways to track down business expenses where the receipt was lost or damaged, but you do need to have proof of the purchase and how the item or service was used in case your tax return is audited.
Gas and mileage to your regular office Your regular office doesn’t qualify as a business travel destination. So, you can’t deduct the cost of mileage to your employer. You also can’t deduct the cost of travel to an office you’ve rented for yourself and use regularly. The only exception is that you can deduct toll costs, especially if the toll road is the only reasonable route to your place of business.
Non-business meals Working as a graphic designer doesn't mean that you can deduct every meal when you're on business. Client meals and travel meals count, but your regular lunchtime soup and salad doesn’t. Neither does your morning Starbucks or any other meal you purchase in the normal course of work.

How to qualify if a graphic design expense is deductible or not?

Now that we looked at the specific tax write-offs you might apply for, let's talk about what counts as a business expense for a graphic designer.

There are two important bars any tax write off must meet. The expense must be both ‘ordinary’ and ‘necessary’ for your business.

Ordinary means that the expense must be something graphic designers commonly require. That means that your computer, keyboard, mouse, and even a drawing tablet might be considered ordinary expenses.

Necessary is a little trickier to define but is less limiting than it seems at first. Necessary doesn’t mean that the expense needs to be critical for your business to continue, instead, it refers to anything that's generally helpful or useful for your business.

For example, you might not need to meet up with your clients at a restaurant to discuss an important upcoming project. But, because business meals are both ordinary and necessary (common and helpful) for graphic designers, the costs of the meal can be written off on your taxes.

‍

What graphic design expenses are NOT tax deductible?

There are of course some expenses that you can’t include on your annual tax return. We're including this category because there are plenty of things that aren't tax-deductible because they aren’t necessary for your business. The adult drinks we mentioned in the earlier sections on business and travel meals, those are unnecessary expenses. A desk fountain for your home office is probably also unnecessary even though the desk it sits on isn’t.

Just be reasonable about what you try to deduct and what you don't. If something is necessary, common, and business-related it's probably deductible. If it's a perk or extra you don't really need, and that doesn't contribute directly to your business success, it probably isn't.

‍

How can I use these graphic design tax deductions?

The first thing you need to do to avail graphic designer tax deductions is to keep track of them. You’ll also need a way to make sense of your possible deductions and to report them in a way that’s clear and easy to understand.

Here’s how you manage it:

 1. Using software

The easiest and most effective way to track and report your business deductions is to use business management and tax software like Bonsai Taxes. You input your business expenses and Bonsai handles organization and reporting so that it's easy to input your deductions.

There are plenty of options out there, but the combination of expense tracking and Bonsai’s tax calculator both make it one of the best options for freelance graphic designers and other creative professionals.

Sign up for a free trial of Bonsai today.

 2. Manually

The other option is to track and input your deductions manually, which means that you need to track your expenses and keep the deductions organized until Tax Day. You can also hire an accountant to help you understand your deductions and options, but both options take quite a bit of time and extra energy compared to tracking your expenses as you go.

‍

‍