Can I claim a Papaya if I use it on a photoshoot?
Ahh…potentially!
Any ‘eligible’ deduction comes down to whether it is incurred for the purpose of producing an income.
When creating content, photoshoots for your own products and services, or as an influencer in the online world, almost anything used directly to produce a product or service could be deemed as a deduction. So long as that product or service produces income.
Let’s use a Papaya as an example of a potential business deduction, because well…who doesn’t love Papaya?
In this instance you need to look at whether the expense of purchasing the papaya is directly related to helping you earn an income.
What business do you run?
What will using a papaya achieve?
Is there any relationship between using the papaya for your marketing or content creation and its relevance to your business?
Papaya
We can come at this from a number of ways…
Say you’re a business owner who designs stationery. And on this particular occasion you used the colours of a freshly cut open Papaya as the basis for your palate for producing your 2021 diary. While working on the design you’ve had to purchase several papaya’s because well, they go bad.
Come the day you need to promote this diary, how fun would it be to include a photo of a papaya beside it, tooting your own horn on what a fabulous idea this was, and how your diary will remind everyone of a beautiful tropical fruit (excellent strategy by the way).
So by the time you get to this point, you would have purchased several papayas along the way, during the design/product creation and now for the photoshoot… so what have you been doing with the fruit at the end of each day, because we all know how quick this delicious fruit can turn… you ate it of course… what an awesome perk!
The Papaya was purchased in each instance for the purpose of assisting you in earning an income, from the inception of the design idea, throughout the curation process down to the marketing campaign. This gorgeous fruit has been a business expense, and you would have been keeping your receipts…right?
The Jacket
Let's move away from fruit for a moment.
Say you’re creating content for socials, advertising a snow puffer jacket. It may be your own design, or perhaps it is via a paid contract. Only problem is, you live in an apartment building…surrounded by a concrete jungle, with no snow in sight. So, you pack up your car, grab your partner and drive to the nearest mountain. Why not make a weekend out of it?
You have an awesome weekend getaway and get amazing images of you in the jacket in the snow. Perfection…we can claim this entire weekend yeah?
... yes and no.
Whenever you engage in an activity that has a certain private lean to it, you need to take a step back and think to yourself WWTATOT (what would the Australian Taxation Office think).
Could you have completed this contract somewhere a little closer to home?
Did you need to stay the entire weekend to complete a photoshoot?
That 3-course meal you had on your first night, is it related to promoting the jacket?
Do your expenses out weight the income you’re earning?
You conclude, that to capture the jacket’s function and aesthetics to the best of your ability, you needed to shoot it in different types of lighting, and in a variety of settings. That requires you to “live” in the jacket for the weekend, capturing different activities and how it will best serve the brands customers.
Now your partner, what purpose did they serve? Are they being paid to take your photos? Or are they more of a tag along to enjoy the spoils of your hard work ;)
In these instances, if you are not confident the entire weekends worth of expenses are directly related to the photoshoot, we would prefer to err on the side of caution. It would be suggested to apportion a percentage of the weekends cost to personal use and or weed out any directly personal costs.
Do you need help with working out how this is applicable to your business activities? Reach out, we’d love to chat!