On-Demand Workshop
Keep What You Earn
Keep more of what you earn. What counts as income, when the tax is due, what can be deducted, what gets denied, and the records that decide it.
Key learning outcomes
- State whether your music activity is a trade or business and name the evidence that proves it.
- Name the structure your career operates under today and the specific event that would justify changing it.
- List every source that pays you, what form it arrives on, and which ones arrive with no form at all.
- Calculate what to set aside from each payment and name your four due dates.
Workshop Description
Tax is the one part of a music career that punishes you for being paid well. Nothing is withheld, the money arrives in bursts from a dozen different places, and the bill for all of it lands months after the money is gone.
This workshop takes the year apart. What counts as income, when you owe the tax on it, what can be deducted and what will be denied, what records decide the answer, and how to set money aside as it arrives instead of finding out in April.
It is guidance rather than tax advice. Every situation turns on its own facts, and anything binding needs advice from your own tax professional.
Who this is for. Recording artists, songwriters, record producers and music executives who are paid as self-employed people, whether or not they have formed a company.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- State whether your music activity is a trade or business and name the evidence that proves it.
- Name the structure your career operates under today and the specific event that would justify changing it.
- List every source that pays you, what form it arrives on, and which ones arrive with no form at all.
- Calculate what to set aside from each payment and name your four due dates.
- Say which year an advance is taxed in and explain why recoupment does not change the answer.
- Build the record set that answers the first document request without a search.
- Locate your tax home and say which nights on the road are deductible.
- Apply the meal limit and the gift cap without guessing.
- Predict which of your claimed expenses would be disallowed, and stop claiming them.
- Decide whether your home studio qualifies, and choose the right treatment for every cost you capitalized this year.
- Track merch from purchase to sale so that gross receipts and cost of goods sold both survive a second look.
- Produce one written system that carries your whole tax year without a scramble in April.
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Understanding How the IRS Sees Your Music Career
State whether your music activity is a trade or business and name the evidence that proves it.
Lesson 2: Choosing Your Business Structure
Name the structure your career operates under today and the specific event that would justify changing it.
Lesson 3: Mapping Every Stream of Income
List every source that pays you, what form it arrives on, and which ones arrive with no form at all.
Lesson 4: Self-Employment Tax and Quarterly Payments
Calculate what to set aside from each payment and name your four due dates.
Lesson 5: Advances, Recoupment and the Year You Owe the Tax
Say which year an advance is taxed in and explain why recoupment does not change the answer.
Lesson 6: The Records That Decide Everything
Build the record set that answers the first document request without a search.
Lesson 7: Touring, Travel and Your Tax Home
Locate your tax home and say which nights on the road are deductible.
Lesson 8: Meals, Gifts and Promotion
Apply the meal limit and the gift cap without guessing.
Lesson 9: The Deductions That Get Denied
Predict which of your claimed expenses would be disallowed, and stop claiming them.
Lesson 10: The Home Studio, Equipment and What Must Be Capitalized
Decide whether your home studio qualifies, and choose the right treatment for every cost you capitalized this year.
Lesson 11: Merchandise, Inventory and Cash
Track merch from purchase to sale so that gross receipts and cost of goods sold both survive a second look.
Lesson 12: Final Project: Build Your Tax Year System
Produce one written system that carries your whole tax year without a scramble in April.
What is included
- Every module, streaming, for one year from the day you buy it.
- The Free Community, Online Discussions and the member directory.
- No subscription. You are not charged again and nothing renews.
Who teaches it
Dwight Hunter, JD, EA
Tax Strategist, Exodus Business Management Group.
Dwight Hunter is a tax strategist who helps high net worth entertainers, athletes, med spa owners, physicians, and various entrepreneurs reduce tax liability and preserve wealth. He brings experience from Intuit, BDO, Merrill Lynch, and Washington Mutual, giving him a strong foundation across tax, finance and advisory services.
He holds a Juris Doctor from Georgia State University College of Law and is an Enrolled Agent, authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS.