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Tax Deductions for Etsy Sellers: The Complete 1099 Guide

You spent Saturday morning at the craft store with a cart full of vinyl sheets, ribbon spools, and cardstock for gift tags – $84 on the receipt, shoved into a tote because there wasn’t a free hand for a wallet. That receipt joins the ones already crumpled in the car’s cup holder, and eventually a shoebox that used to hold shoes. By the time an Etsy shop crosses a few thousand dollars a year, the math gets uncomfortable – a listing fee here, a transaction fee there, shipping that costs more than quoted – and somewhere in the pile of unsorted receipts is a nagging question: is this a real business for tax purposes, or just an expensive hobby with a storefront?

Tax Deductions for Freelance Designers: A 1099 Guide

Your Adobe renewal hits the card the same week a client pays a deposit and a font foundry runs a sale you can’t resist. Freelance design income doesn’t arrive on a schedule, and neither do the expenses that keep your studio running. But every one of those charges – if it’s ordinary and necessary for your design work – is a legitimate business deduction that lowers what you owe the IRS on income reported through Schedule C.

Tax Deductions for IT Contractors: A 1099 Guide

Between the home lab humming in the closet, the AWS bill that creeps up every time you forget to tear down a test environment, and the certification you renew every couple of years just to keep pace with a stack that won’t sit still, freelance IT and development work generates a steady stream of business expenses most contractors only half-track. All of it flows through Schedule C, and all of it is a chance to lower what you owe.

Tax Deductions for Musicians and Artists: A 1099 Guide

A new set of pickups, a repair on the van that hauls your gear to three gigs a week, a few folded bills slipped into your case after a cash gig – none of it shows up on a pay stub, because there isn’t one. Between wedding gigs, session work, teaching a few private students, and the occasional art commission on the side, income as a working musician or artist arrives in a dozen different forms and amounts, and almost none of it has taxes withheld. The part most gigging musicians don’t fully use: a lot of what you spend to keep working – gear, lessons, studio time, the gas to get to the gig – is deductible against that income.

Tax Deductions for Personal Trainers: A 1099 Guide

One session is on the gym floor at 6am, the next is at a client’s house across town at lunch, and the certification you need to renew this year isn’t going to pay for itself. Independent personal trainers and coaches – whether working out of a gym as a 1099 contractor or building a mobile client roster – carry a specific mix of recurring and one-off expenses that flow straight through Schedule C.

Tax Deductions for Photographers: A 1099 Guide

A camera body and a couple of lenses can cost more than most people’s cars, and that’s before lighting, backdrops, and the second shooter you bring in for a wedding. Then comes the editing marathon – culling and retouching hundreds of images while the next booking is already on the calendar. Photography is gear-intensive, travel-heavy work, and nearly all of that spending flows through Schedule C as deductible business expense.

Tax Deductions for Real Estate Agents: A 1099 Guide

Between three showings, a listing photo shoot, and an open house across town, most agents put more miles on their car in a week than plenty of people put on in a month – and that’s before counting MLS dues, sign installs, and the marketing spend that goes out before a single commission comes in. As an independent contractor working under a brokerage, that income and those costs flow through your own Schedule C, not the brokerage’s books.

Tax Deductions for Rideshare and Delivery Drivers: A 1099 Guide

The app shows you earned $187 today. What it doesn’t show is the tank of gas, the wiper blades you’ll replace next month from all those extra miles, or the cut the platform already took before the number hit your screen. Rideshare and delivery driving looks like simple hourly work, but for tax purposes you’re running a small business – and the IRS treats your Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, or Instacart earnings as self-employment income reported on Schedule C, not wages.

The QBI Deduction for Freelancers: What Changed in 2026

The Qualified Business Income deduction – QBI, or Section 199A – is one of the most valuable tax breaks available to freelancers, and also one of the least understood. Most 1099 workers have heard the term without knowing whether it applies to them or how much it’s actually worth. Here’s what QBI is, what changed for 2026, and what it looks like on real numbers.

Uber and Deliveroo Driver Taxes in the UK: How MTD Applies to Gig Drivers

Driving for Uber, Bolt, Deliveroo, or Just Eat doesn’t feel like running a business in the way a shop or a consultancy does — there’s no office, no invoices, just the app telling you where to go next. But HMRC sees it differently: if you’re picking up fares or drops as a self-employed driver or courier, you’re a sole trader, and Uber driver taxes in the UK now come with the same Making Tax Digital obligations as any other self-employed income once you’re over the threshold. Here’s how it applies.