Hi and happy March!
20+ Tax Deductions for Freelance Writers
One of the hard truths of freelancing is having to pay extra taxes.
One of the relievers, though, is all the tax write-offs or tax deductions. These are basically legitimate expenses of your work that can lower your taxable income. (More info here.)
Before we dive in, I want to be clear that I am far from a tax expert. Please take the information below with a grain of salt / don’t 100% trust this without checking! I also have an accountant do my taxes (and I recommend others do the same!) so if some of these things don’t count as a tax deduction, they know to not include it.
With that said, here are some (not all!) of the things that I believe are tax deductions for self-employed freelance writers if they use them for work purposes:
Zoom
Google Storage
A Medium membership
Any courses, books, newsletters, etc you use for learning/business
Money spent on doctor appointments, therapy appointments, etc & any medicine you take
Website maintenance / hosting
Office supplies (desk, chair, laptop, mouse, paper, stamps, printer, etc)
DocHub
Subscriptions to publications
Tithes / donations
Wifi
Gas, if you had to drive to an event or someplace for an article
Other money spent to help you do your work, promote your business, etc
I want to jump back to that fourth bullet for a bit: Yes, that includes a paid subscription to this newsletter and my other resources! ;) So yes, buying things isn’t fun, but it is (I believe!) a tax deduction! This is the reason why I buy courses and books for work that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Lastly, here are a couple of other links that share more items and might help:
Updates / Housekeeping
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, paid subscribers have the opportunity to promote themselves! We’ve got some writers there so far who are offering resources, community, and so much more. Connect with them here!
Writing/Freelancing Tips
Pitch Calls
GENERAL NOTES FOR THE PITCH CALLS BELOW:
If the story is about a marginalized community, you probably need to be in that community to write the piece.
Mentioning my name in your pitch won’t help, unfortunately!
Who Pays Writers can be a helpful site to get an idea of how much publications pay.
Pitch calls:
“Changing beats! Seeking conversation starters. Timely culture, history, health/wellness, and trend explainers/stories. Lover of all mythology, supernatural, strange history, fitness trend stories. Can intersect with travel. ~$1/w | send to starlight.williams@natgeo.com” / Thread here
“for may, @AptTherapy is looking for pitches related to mental health awareness month regarding your life at home. rates start at $200 and the deadline is 3/6 to send pitches to this form” / Thread here
“Hi everyone, I'm excited to say I'm now editing the Leadership desk @npquarterly. Always looking for pitches and sometimes looking for writers. Would-be freelancers, please feel free to reach out and let's talk!” / Thread here
Writer Jobs
Writing/Freelancing Resources
Encouragement
My Articles + Updates
Nothing super big this month! One thing though is I know that some people have had success writing tech articles for Mac O’Clock on Medium, so I wrote my first one. As of yesterday, it made $7.14 in 5 days and was a 2 minute read, which isn’t too bad! I’m going to keep my eye on that and probably write more articles like it.
Want More? Here Are Other Ways I Can Help
Don’t forget about my approved pitches document and Medium guide and coaching/editing services and writing checklist set and worksheet packet for writers!
More of my content: (1) my writing Twitter // (2) my portfolio // (3) my resource set // (4) my newsletter with tons of writing jobs and pitch calls // (5) my Instagram
(BTW, my Ko-Fi shop is here!)
This newsletter is free, but if you’d like to donate, my Venmo is @AshleyBroadwater, my PayPal is paypal.me/aebroad, my CashApp is $ashleybroadwater3, and my email for Zelle is ashleybroadwater346@gmail.com :) A huge thanks to donors!
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading this month’s newsletter. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions :)