Most voiceover artists and voice actors have some kind of home studio, and can use it to significantly reduce income taxes. If you use your home for any kind of activity that generates income, you are more than likely legally entitled to working-from-home tax deductions.

Let’s go over some of the basic requirements you’ll need to meet in order to reduce your working from home taxes.

• You need to claim this income when you file your yearly taxes.
• You need to generate income in a space, or using equipment, that you pay for with your own funds.

Working From Home Taxes

Before we get started, I need to say that I’m not an accountant or tax expert and please seek professional accounting and tax advice prior to filing your taxes. However, I’ve been legally reducing my taxes for years and generally know what will and won’t fly.

Every country is different when it comes to income tax. Here in Canada, we can do some things that people in the US can’t do, and vice versa.

The general principles are the same in most cases. Use your income from voiceover work to invest in upgrades and training for your voiceover business. Say for example you made $900 on a voiceover job. You then take $500 of that and get some voiceover training or coaching. Well now on paper, your income from that job has been reduced by $500 to $400. You will now only pay income tax on $400 rather than the full amount.

You can do the same thing with equipment like microphones, computers, and headphones. Even things like acoustic foam and studio lighting. If you use it as part of your business, you can deduct it from your taxes.

Some larger items are considered to be depreciating assets. This means you can deduct a certain percentage of the item’s value off your income tax each year until the item is fully depreciated. The amount and number of years you can claim varies by region. For example, if you bought a new computer in 2020 for $2000, you may be able to claim 30% of that value each year until it’s fully depreciated. So in 2020, 2021, and 2022 you could claim $600 each year, and in 2023 you could claim the remaining $200. Percentages can be different for certain categories of equipment.

Take a look at my post on the best equipment for beginners. All these items can be used to your advantage come tax time.

What does this all mean for your bottom line?

Well, let’s say you generate $30,000 in voiceover income working from home while also working a regular full time job. You purchased some training and coaching, maybe you attended a weekend conference and also bought a new microphone and a new hard drive for your computer.

You can deduct all of that from your income. In this example, all those expenses added up to $10,000 for the year. Now according to the government, you only made $20,000 for the year. If you live in an area with a 20% personal income tax rate, you just saved yourself $2000 in taxes for the year, plus you got some new equipment and some personal and professional improvement training.

Another thing you can do is to claim a portion of your rent, utilities, internet bill, and cell phone bill. If you use it for business purposes, you can absolutely claim it on your working-from-home taxes.

What do you need to start doing?

If you’re not getting receipts for absolutely everything, START NOW! If you go out to lunch with a client, it’s possible that can be used as a tax deduction. Plus your gas for driving there, and a maintenance allowance for your vehicle based on the cost per km/mile.

But in order to be tax compliant and legal, you need to keep records of all this. You can’t just come up with a number at the end of the year and hope it’s probably somewhere close to correct. The government doesn’t like that.

Another crucial step would be to talk to a professional accountant or tax specialist. If it costs you $200 to have your taxes professionally prepared and it saves you $2000, then your accountant has just paid for his or herself. A good accountant should be able to do that, otherwise they’re not worth your time or money.

TurboTax is one of the most popular programs for filing your own taxes. See the most recent version here on Amazon.

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