Over To You: What Are Acceptable Tax Write-Offs For DJs?

Phil Morse | Founder & Tutor
Read time: < 1 min
Last updated 24 March, 2018

tax
Nobody wants to pay more tax on their hard-earned DJ wages than they have to – but is it really possible to claim back some of the things DJs try to claim?

Digital DJ Tips forum member DJ Vitico writes in with a great question, the answer to which varies depending where in the world you are. He says: “I’m wondering in the US can we claim our DJing expenses for tax deductions? Like buying a new laptop, record pool fees, buying new music gear, etc?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

I’ve known DJs try and claim their clothes as “costumes”, and their drinks as “sustinence” (yeah, a bottle of JD is, like, a really nutritious dinner, and so completely OK to put on expenses!).

Truth is, what you can and can’t claim as legitimate business expenses varies from country to country, and while nobody wants to pay more tax than they need to, it is also worth being careful that you’re not sailing so close to the wind that you can’t sleep at night for fear of a nasty letter and an unexpected hole cut in your pocket by the HMRC/IRS (insert your local tax authority here).

So rather than me answer, I’m going to throw this one over to our readers:

So, over to you! What is legitimately deductible from a DJ’s profit when it comes to doing annual accounts? If you have any experiences, good or bad, or are an accountant in the know, please let us know…

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