W9 Forms for receiving affiliate payouts

Individual - Check "Exempt from withholding"? + Other questions

[skibum]

Assuming you have no issues with the IRS from anything else, do ya check that box or not?

Also, assuming you build sites and buy advertising for them and direct to merchants, what kind of deductions can you generally take?

*Net access
*Computer purchase
*Digi cam/video cam
*CPU accessories
*Hosting
*Subscriptions to the services you promote so you can provide better reviews?
*Advertising
*Software
*Business travel
*Meals
*Phone

How far can ya stretch business travel? If ya have an affiliate site for lets say Ski Vactions and ya go on one to get pictures and first hand experiences to write about, is it worth trying to write off some or all of it? How bout if the site hasn't made any money yet or isn't even finished but your overall business activities with the trip write offs wil still show a profit?

Can you write off part of your rent if you spend alots of time working from home?

It's not the primary source of income (got a job) so does that generally change anything as to what can be written off?

[Travoli]

I'm not an accountant or IRS agenet (disclaimer). My advice is to see a good accountant. They're great at answering these questions and knowing what you can/can't do legally.

Do you need to take original digital pictures for your website? If so, this sounds like a reasonable business expense. Stock photos are not unique content and are costly also, afterall.

Use part of your home as a full-time office? Sounds like that square-footage is a business-related expense.

Went to a ski resort to write your own expert review for your website? Sounds like a business trip.

Your business must be overall profitable and you can't spend more than you make.

But like I said, check with your accountant.

[Hawkgirl]

> Your business must be overall profitable and you can't spend more than you make.

Actually, I think you can spend more than you make for the first five years or something like that. There's some provision for running at a loss for a few years - I'm not remembering exactly what it is.

Skibum, I did freelance journalistic stuff a few years ago and was able to write off a few really excellent goodies, including:

the fancy digital camera

travel to/from events I was covering

participation in events (even several hundred dollars' worth)

This was not my primary source of income at the time and it was still write-offable. There's a catch about "hobby businesses" in the laws somewhere, but my accountant didn't think it applied to me so we didn't worry about it.

I'm told you can write off part of your rent for business expenses but it's tricky. You have to designate a certain amount of square footage to your 'office' and it can not be used for any other purpose ... and there are some other tricky bits to the rules. But it can be done.

I definitely recommend seeking professional advice on this one - and the good news is, a few hours' consultation with a good small business accountant will more than pay for itself. :)