you can't tax rock n' roll, maaan!

Remembering to do this when you just want to play the show and get drunk seems so laaaame, though.

Do it, but make sure you know what you're doing. There was a piece several years back in a Best Music Writing 200? book by musicians who suffered an audit because of bad advice/stuff they misunderstood/possibly stuff the auditor misunderstood.

Apparently it's much worse if you're a bandleader and paying other musicians.

I do this, I probably do it wrong, it saves me a ton of money since I make barely any money doing actual music (I do make money doing other "creative consultation" though) and can write off what I spend on studio time (which is sometimes a lot). I mean at one pont maybe it's going to pay off. It would be nice if ASCAP would have sent me a statement for the last quarter of the year; they were very happy to send me them when nothing I'd done made any money, but then our album came out and I didn't hear a thing.

Standard deduction will make all yr hard work meaningless.

what do you mean?

It only makes sense to itemize if the deduction it brings is larger than the standard deduction.

1) i think it is, for me, and 2) i think the standard deduction wasn't getting applied directly to my musician (self-employment) income, but maybe to my overall income? i don't know, i'm no expert on this shit (which is why i went to someone this year), but the standard deduction wasn't really helping me out.

Roughly speaking, how large is yr itemization gonna be, do you expect?

i dunno, $1k-ish?

Probably not gonna be worth it, then.

The applicable basic standard deduction amounts for tax year 2007 are as follows:
Filing status Amount
Single $5,350
Married Filing Jointly $10,700
Married Filing Separately $5,350
Head of household $7,850
Qualifying widow(er) $10,700

yeah, but that's not $5,350 applied directly to my 1099-misc income! that's on everything, right? it's only the musician income that causes hassles, because none of that is taxed during the year. and any itemized deductions i make reduce that income directly, i think?

I'm not sure how that works. We've already exceeded my tax knowledge.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking Jordan, but ultimately income is treated as income, so whether you're deducting from your musician income or your total income shouldn't ultimately matter, I don't think (please don't hold me to this, I'm no accountant). As I understand it, what they basically want to know is 1) How much did you make total last year from everything ----> 2) how much tax did you already pay ------> 3) how much tax do you still have to pay based on what's left. So if your total itemized deductions for the year are going to be less than your standard deduction, just take your standard deduction.

i guess this is the point that confuses me. i think you're right, except that expenses incurred during your work as a musician can be deducted from that income (in my case, what is on my 1099-misc form) before it all gets tossed in the pile. again, i'm not at all sure about this, but it's the impression i got from an accountant friend and the woman at h&r block (who i didn't like at all, but she seemed to know what she was doing). hope i don't get audited.

But why would it make a difference where you deduct, i.e. why does it matter whether you deduct musician expenses from income "before it gets tossed on the pile?" Aren't you still just subtracting the same amount from your total income?

I mean lets say, hypothetically, you earned $30,000 from a day job and $10,000 from music, and you're taxed at 20%.

So income = $40,000.

Your total tax owed = $8,000

You've paid your 20% taxes on the $30,000 from the day job in withholdings (we're simplifying and pretending the withholdings were precisely right). So you've paid $6,000. That means you owe $2,000. You'd get the same result, by the way, if you just took your musician income and taxed it at 20%.

So let's say your musician expenses are $2000. Deduct that from the $10,000 in musician income and your musician income is now $8000. Which means you owe $1600 in taxes. You'd get the same result if you deducted the $2000 from your TOTAL income. $40,000 - $2000 = $38,000. $38,000 x .2 = $7,600. $7,600 - $6000 (tax already paid) = $1600 still owed.

Now if you take a $5000 standard deduction instead, your taxable income is only $35,000. $35,000 x .2 = $7000. You've already paid $6000. So now you only owe $1000 instead of $1600. Dig it?

If you're not sure whether this is accurate, just try doing your return both ways and see what comes out better.

i just want to play drums ;_;

then take your standard deduction already so you go back to playing drums.

i filed my taxes a few days ago, so i'm just trying to figure this shit out after the fact + for next year. your post makes total sense, but still, i'm pretty sure the woman i went to said that there's more to it than just taking the standard vs itemized deduction.

sorry to kill board