Can you claim content as a business expense on your taxes? The short answer is yes, done-for-you content counts as something you can invest in to improve the health of and grow your business. Therefore, you can write it off on your Profit and Loss statement at tax time.
Content as a business expense? Great! But how do you take the deduction?
As a self-employed business owner, you get to itemize content purchases, along with other online business expenses, on your Profit and Loss statement at tax time.
How does this work?
- Make a list of all the expenses you incur as a online business owner, including content purchases.
- List them on Schedule C, your Profit and Loss statement.
- Submit schedule C, along with form 1040, for accurate accounting at income tax time.
Done-for-you content qualifies as a business expense on your taxes
Content that you purchase with private label rights is incredibly budget-friendly. However, I know that my online business owning customers stress a bit about these purchases. I want to remind you, that this and other business-related purchases you make, are deductible as a business expense.
Where to find the total amount invested in done-for-you content
The easiest way is to check your PayPal records. Log in and run a report of activity for the full year (or for the quarter you’re currently doing a Profit & Loss for, if you’re estimating taxes owed for that quarter).
You’ll be able to see all the content purchases you made, in your PayPal records. Highlight all of these purchases, and calculate the total number. Add it to your P&L statement.
To account for all of it, print out your PayPal records of payments you made for the year.
What other business expenses can you claim on your Profit & Loss statement?
Take a look at the below list of online purchases that you likely make as a business owner who markets online. You can claim these, and similar purchases, as part of your Profit & Loss calculation when factoring in total income and taxes owed on that number.
- Domain names
- Web hosting
- Business coaching memberships
- Email marketing and list managers such as Aweber, Mail Chimp
- Online business tools, like digital product selling platform memberships, Canva, Adobe
- Paid social media memberships if used to run or marketing your business
- PayPal fees paid out
- Membership software, like AMember Pro
- Paid social media ads – such as on Facebook and LinkedIn, or apps like Twilio
- Computer security, maintenance and other types of tools
- Project management tools
- Office supplies
- Computer related purchases
- Internet bills
- Part of your phone plan used to conduct business or market your business (check with your accountant on this, or visit the IRS website for more info)
You should also save receipts, to have for your own record-keeping, or in case you’re ever audited.
How to Keep Good Records of Your Online Business Expenses
Here’s an easy way to keep track of business purchases made over the course of a year.
After you make an online purchase for, say, an online service, print the receipt as a PDF file and store it in a folder on your computer. The folder should be labeled with the year, so you can easily find it later.
Get a head start on your taxes in 2025!
Do you want to come out ahead of the game for the end of the year, when you report 2025’s income at tax time? Keep accurate records, and file everything, like receipts, and a running balance, on your computer.
- Set up labeled folders.
- Print receipts as they come up, or monthly, to save as PDF files for your records.
- Pay your taxes quarterly, using the convenience online payment option available on the IRS.gov website.
Here’s a great article from Investopedia, listing 16 tax deductions you can take as a small business owner.
Can a sole proprietor run a Profit & Loss statement?
Any type of business or self-employed person gets to factor in business expenses on their Profit & Loss statement to lower the total amount of taxes owed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small, mid-size, or large business – sole proprietor, or corporation.
Example: your website yields 30K per year, and you paid out $7K in business related purchases online.
Calculate this, to balance with your income earned, for a designated period (typically, a quarter of the year. So if you made $30K but purchased 7K worth of content and business tools, then account for this on your P&L. Your total income that you report gets lowered to $23K.
If you made $200K this year and also paid $50K for various online services, then report $150K on your tax form and itemize the list of expenses on Schedule C.
PLEASE NOTE, I AM NOT A TAX PROFESSIONAL. I CAN’T ANSWER QUESTIONS, and I don’t know how taxes work outside of the US. For more specific information and the latest small business tax filing rules, visit the IRS website at IRS.gov.
EXAMPLE: Deduct payments made for email marketing:
- Visit the website you use for email marketing.
- Log into your customer portal, and navigate to your ACCOUNT area.
- Find Billing and Payments, or some version of those words.
- Print PDF docs of all receipts from payments made in the past year.
- Save these to your computer and print out physical copies in case they’re requested.
Doing this will help you become more accurate in your tax reporting records, and lower the total amount of online business income reported, so you’re taxed less.
Okay, so where do you get done-for-you content?
Explore the offerings at my other website, Wordfeeder. We have two options for niche website owners:
- Order content ala carte from our PLR store, or
- Sign up for our monthly memberships that deliver a set amount of content each month. The member content accumulates in your account for 2 years before it’s archived to make way for fresh content.