are marketing expenses tax deductible – As a freelancer or small business, from time to time you may dedicate a portion of your budget to advertising or improving your own brand:
- A new logo.
- A new website.
- Advertising in a digital magazine, a website or a blog.
- Social media ads.
It is possible to deduct these business expenses.
How are advertising expenses deductible?
Advertising expenses linked to your economic activity are tax deductible in the amount that these expenses are necessary to generate income.
They are deductible in:
- The income tax.
- The corporate tax.
As long as they meet the legally established requirements. Let’s see what these requirements are.
Legal requirements to deduct advertising expenses
The legal requirements to be able to deduct your advertising expenses in general are the following:
- They must be expenses linked to theeconomic activity carried out by the self-employed person, or as the Treasury says, that are “affected to it”.
- They must be duly justified by means of the corresponding invoices. Sometimes they can be worth receipts.
- They must be registered for accounting purposes: by the self-employed in their corresponding expense and investment record books (if applicable) and by companies and associations in their annual accounts.
If your expenses meet these requirements, they can be included in your declarations/settlements as deductibles.
Attention to customers or suppliers
This is a type of advertising spending that deserves a separate mention due to its particularity. Attention to customers or suppliers are advertising expenses that are made to promote the sale of your products or services.
For example : calendars, t-shirts, diaries, pens, key chains, magnets, caps and other gifts in which the name or logo of the company appears.
if you are autonomous
For personal income tax, the legislation establishes that all expenses related to public relations with customers and suppliers and that, in addition, are repeated over time, are deductible in the income statement.
If you are a company
If instead of being self-employed, you have a company, the corporate tax works the same as for personal income tax (in fact, this tax is levied the same, only one is for individuals and the other for companies) and these expenses are also deductible in the Corporate Tax.
In this case there is an additional requirement, the expenses are deductible up to a limit of 1% of the net amount of your company’s turnover in the same tax period.
And what about VAT?
On the other hand, the Value Added Tax Law indicates as non-deductible the VAT borne on the acquisition of goods or services intended for attention to clients, employees or third parties, with the exceptions of:
- Free samples and low value promotional items.
- Assets destined for the commercial traffic of the company and that, later, are destined to attention to clients, employees or third parties
Therefore, only advertising gifts delivered to customers and suppliers that visibly and indelibly bear the name of the company and are considered of little value will be deductible.
And as a curiosity, a good is of low value when the value of what is delivered to the same recipient in a calendar year does not exceed €200.
Conclusion
Do not miss the opportunity to deduct your advertising expenses . They are a necessary expense to get more customers, more sales and more income and therefore are deductible.
I hope you originate this article interesting and above all that you find it very useful.
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Deductible expenses for marketing freelancers
Deducting expenses is a constant topic of conversation among all kinds of freelancers (and rightly so). After all, they are one more way to save money each year. But it is that if you are self-employed, depending on the type of work you do, you will be able to opt for more or less deductions when making the income statement or the quarterly forms, even if you dedicate yourself to communication! But what expenses derived from marketing for freelancers are
The deductible expenses of the self-employed
First of all, let’s review a little general deductible expenses (which also affect freelance marketers). Every year, when you file your income tax return, the Treasury asks you to pay a certain amount of personal income tax on your income. Well, the deductible expenses are those that you can withdraw from your total income so that the percentage you pay for self-employment taxes in Spain is lower . In summary, by deducting expenses you save paying a good chunk of taxes that you can reinvest in your company.
Just in case, here’s an example:
This self-employed deduction is one of many that exist. Any freelancer is eligible for these deductions (including those in marketing), so it’s a good idea to remember some of the more common deductible expenses that also affect freelance marketers:
- The self-employed fee.
- Wages and salaries (in case you have a formidable team at your command).
- Other staff expenses (includes training, accident insurance, nice gifts for your workers…).
- Leases and royalties (rentals or leasing of an office or material for work).
- Necessary basic supplies (you can deduct the supplies you need to be able to work, both in the office and if you work at home).
- Repairs and conservation (to keep your equipment up to date).
Guidelines on deductible expenses:
- Deductible expenses of self-employed
- Self-employed vehicle expenses
- Deduct meals and allowances for the self-employed
- Expenses without invoice of the self-employed
VAT deductible expenses
In the similar way, it is significant to write down the VAT deductible expenses , since there you can also save a bit. Actually, the deductible VAT is the supported VAT (the one you have to save when you sell a product and then you have to go to the Treasury). Now, you can’t always deduct this type of VAT. For this, first of all, you have to registered the business census with model 036 . Now, VAT operations have to meet the following conditions: