SOCIAL MEDIA and TAX—Advantage for some users

Friends, let this season be one of joy and wisdom. Each new year, many struggle to pay off debts accumulated during December. Some even resort to desperate measures to give gifts without considering the consequences. Remember: once the month and the day are over, financial responsibilities remain. True generosity is sustainable—it uplifts without leaving scars. A thoughtful approach ensures that generosity today does not become a burden tomorrow.

For some users, especially entrepreneurs and content creators, social media engagement during the festive season can bring tangible benefits. Strategic use of platforms not only expands reach but may also qualify as a business expense, offering tax advantages. Leveraging these opportunities requires careful planning and documentation, but the rewards can extend well beyond the holiday period.

🎄 SUBSCRIPTION AND SUBSCRIBING

The best part of working for yourself is discovering new expenses that you can write off to lower your taxes. Remembering accuracy and transparency is beneficial. They are your best defense against attracting unwanted attention.

• Subscribing: The act of signing up or committing to a service, platform, or resource. It is the first decision to engage (choice to upgrade).
• Subscription: The ongoing arrangement or contract that follows subscribing. It shows the sustained relationship—whether monthly, annually, or seasonally—between the user and the provider.

In short, subscribing is the choice, while a subscription is the continuing responsibility.

Although subscriptions are a legitimate tax deduction. Generally, you can write off any expense that is necessary for a business. But subscriptions are not always a necessary part of someone’s business. With many online businesses, it is a need-to-know knowledge to lower your taxes, whether you can write off subscriptions.

If you can claim certain publications and subscriptions the Canada Revenue Agency—CRA, or the IRS will not make it easy. To claim these subscriptions, they must be essential to your business to be deductible.

A Life Insurance representative may pay for a membership. This is for continued insurance education. They may also pay for the internet for work purposes. This fee can be written off. But if you a self-employed did the same because you are interested in becoming a Life Insurance agent. That expense is not taxable. All subscriptions or membership fees must be essential to your business. You must have received your licenses from a recognized institution to claim the deductible fees.

Another example. Say you are a Hair Salon owner and you have Spotify or Netflix running in the background. This qualifies you to write off your subscriptions. Let’s say you also use these subscriptions for personal use, which amounts to 60 hours. Then you will subtract 100, which leaves 40 hours of Spotify, times four weeks, equals 160 hours per month. Then the total hours will be 160 X 12 =1,920 for the year. The tax deductible for Netflix will be 60% divided by 100 X 119.88 cost =71.93

OTHER ONLINE SERVICES

For other online services, you can deduct your website’s Hosting services and Domain registration fees. If, like me, you have forgotten to do so in past years you can then do an adjustment. Any website design cost are tax-deductible expense in Canada. To reduce taxable income, remember to keep detailed records of all linked expenses such as invoices, contracts, and receipts.

With any Photoshop, to post pictures, stock photos or graphics for your websites or Instagram, you can claim 100 percent. This deduction can be claimed in ‘other expense’ or on Form 1040.

Your home office can be a deduction. There are two ways to calculate the deduction. The one that sees a higher deduction is more complicated than this one. To calculate your home office, use $5 per square foot to a maximum of 300 square feet. To a maximum deduction of $1500.

To find tax deductions you can use, there is an app called FlyFin an A.I that would scan your linked expenses to find every tax deduction you can use.

There are other deductions. This post is just a reminder to online business owners and paid subscribers. It must be related to your business.

Thanks for reading. If you know of others who may need to know this information, do share. Please subscribe to my website. http://www.bettertheend.ca

Interested in learning more about online business? Visit the link: https://fb.watch/DMotH-B5jb/