This is general information for US creators, not tax advice. Rules change, states differ, and your situation is yours. Use this to understand the shape of the thing, then confirm the numbers with a tax professional before you file.
Brands pay you directly, which is the whole point of running your own deals. It also means no one is withholding tax for you. The money that lands in your account is gross, and a share of it belongs to the IRS whether a form ever shows up or not. This guide covers the four things that catch creators: the 1099 you may not receive, the self-employment tax you did not know about, the quarterly payments nobody mentioned, and the deductions that make the whole thing hurt less.
You are a business, whether you filed anything or not
The moment a brand pays you for content, you are self-employed in the eyes of the IRS. That is true with no LLC, no business name, and no paperwork. It has two consequences:
- Your profit (income minus business expenses) is taxed as income, at your normal bracket.
- On top of that, you owe self-employment tax of 15.3 percent on that profit, which is the Social Security and Medicare contribution an employer would normally split with you. Half of it is deductible against your income, which softens it slightly.
The combined effective rate for a creator in a middle bracket usually lands between 25 and 35 percent of profit. That is the number to set aside.
The 1099-NEC, and why it is not the point
A 1099-NEC is the form a business files when it pays a non-employee. For payments made in 2026, the threshold rose to $2,000 per payer per year, from the long-standing $600. Below that a brand is not required to file one, and many brands file late or not at all regardless.
Do not build your bookkeeping around the forms. Build it around your own record of payments. A creator with twelve $400 deals from twelve brands may receive zero 1099s and still owes tax on $4,800. The forms, when they arrive, are a cross-check, and if one is wrong, ask the brand to correct it rather than reporting the wrong number.
Payment apps report separately. Payments through platforms like PayPal for goods and services can generate a 1099-K, which for 2026 is back to the $20,000 and 200-transaction threshold. Direct bank transfers generate nothing. Again: your own record is the source of truth.
Quarterly estimates
Because nothing is withheld, the IRS expects you to pay as you go. If you will owe $1,000 or more for the year, you pay estimated tax in four installments, due in mid-April, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-January. Miss them and you pay a modest penalty at filing time; it is not catastrophic, but it is avoidable.
The simplest method: set aside 25 to 30 percent of every brand payment into a separate savings account on the day it lands, and pay each quarter from that account. If your income is lumpy, the IRS allows an annualized method that matches the payments to when you actually earned; a tax professional can set that up.
What you can deduct
Expenses that are ordinary and necessary for making content are deductible against your income, which lowers both income tax and self-employment tax. The table is the part of this guide worth saving.
| Category | Deductible | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Camera, phone, lights, tripods, mics | Yes | Equipment used mostly for content. Larger items may be depreciated or expensed under the small-business rules. |
| Phone and internet | The business share | If 60 percent of your phone use is content, 60 percent of the bill. Keep the estimate reasonable and consistent. |
| Software and subscriptions | Yes | Editing apps, cloud storage, scheduling tools, and Plug Pro. |
| Props, sets, wardrobe bought for shoots | Usually | Items bought specifically for content. Everyday clothes and makeup you would own anyway are not deductible. |
| Product you buy to feature | Yes, if for a deal | Product bought to make deliverables for a paid deal. Product you would have bought anyway is a gray area; be honest. |
| Home studio space | The dedicated share | A room or area used regularly and exclusively for content qualifies for the home office deduction, by square footage or the simplified method. |
| Travel to shoots and brand events | Yes | Mileage, flights, and hotels for content work. Commuting-style local trips are trickier; log them. |
| Contractors: editors, photographers, assistants | Yes | Keep invoices. You may need to send a 1099-NEC yourself once you pay any one of them $2,000 in a year. |
| Education: courses, books, workshops | Yes | For skills you use in the business. |
| Business fees | Yes | Payment processing fees, LLC filing fees, a business bank account, tax preparation. |
| Half of self-employment tax | Yes | Taken automatically on the return. |
| Health insurance premiums | Often | If you are not eligible for an employer plan through a spouse; a separate deduction, not on Schedule C. |
The rule underneath all of it: the expense exists because the business exists. If you would have bought it anyway, it is not a business expense, and the deductions that get creators audited are the ones that stretch that rule.
Keep the records as you go, not in April
Every payment: who paid, how much, for what, when. Every expense: what, how much, why it is business. A spreadsheet works; the invoice and pay-page history on your deal records works better because it already knows what each payment was for. Photograph paper receipts the day you get them. The creator sorting a shoebox of receipts in January is the one who overpays, because half of them are unreadable and the other half she cannot place.
State taxes and sales tax
Most states with an income tax want their own estimates on the same schedule. A few cities do too. Sales tax generally does not apply to creating content for a brand, but a handful of states treat some digital deliverables differently; if you sell products or presets directly to consumers, that is a separate question. Confirm both with someone who knows your state.
When to get help
A tax professional pays for themselves the year you cross roughly $30,000 in creator income, and earlier if you have gifted product at volume (see are PR packages taxable? for where the line sits), contractors, or income from more than one state. Bring them clean records and the questions above, and the appointment is short.
The short version
Set aside a quarter to a third of every brand payment the day it lands. Pay quarterly. Track every payment and every expense as they happen, on the deal record if you can. Deduct what exists because the business exists. And treat 1099s as a cross-check, never as the reason you owe.