Jamie Fishback

The Actor and His Taxes

// March 27th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Acting

So, I finished my taxes a few weeks ago, and man did I learn a lot this year. I finally decided that a lot happened in 2008 that I needed to hire a CPA (Certified Public Accountant, not Celebrity Personal Assistant); I had gotten married, gotten laid off, became a web developer contractor, and more craziness.

I wanted to just pass on some information that I learned over the past couple of years of doing acting taxes and what I learned new from the CPA.

1. If you aren’t deducting stuff as an actor, you need to be, this is your business, and you should be treating it as such
2. Make sure you keep all your receipts and keep detailed track of where you are spending money when it comes to acting
3. The easiest way to show that your acting is a business is to have a separate checking account where you spend money only for acting
4. If you are using your phone, computer, or any other “shared” equipment, you can only deduct part of it
5. If you have an office, it must only be used for acting, otherwise it is not tax deductable
6. Make sure you keep accurate track of mileage on your car, mileage to and from anything acting related is deductible

Update April 1, 2009:
Here are some great resources that were shown to me.
1. Dana Kaminski’s blog on Actors and Tax Deductions.
2. Chuck Sloan & Associates CPA explain taxes in laymen terms.

This is just a few things that you should consider, obviously I am not a CPA so make sure you do your own research. And, as always, if you have any other things that you know, comment and I will be sure to add them later