Beauty and Fashion Tech provides news and reviews of cosmetics, skin care, and beauty products, along with information about fashion accessories. The blog is published by Carleen, an Illinois attorney and freelance writer. Posts are written by Carleen and various staff and guest writers. Initially from Nebraska, Carleen moved to the Chicago area in 2006. Beauty and Fashion Tech provides her with a nice diversion from writing solely about legal matters.
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Hi Carleen,
I read one of your comment on Problogger’s post at http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/06/13/7-things-that-every-blogger-should-know-about-tax/ about taxation (and yes, I know I shouldn’t count your comment as a law and all that
)
You mention about having to declare free products sent to be reviewed as income.. you said no because they are gifts.. have you double checked this to taxation? I’m in the dilemma as well because I just found out that they are supposed to be declared (or not??)
so I felt really shocked and sad about this
I got heaps of products which valued around $11,000 for the last year
I’ve been trying to call Australian taxation office as well to find out more, some get confused as well and I’ve been getting mixed answers..
Mike
Hi Michael, here in the US the common view among most attorneys and accountants that I have talked to is that if you make no agreements in regard to the products so that they are sent to your for your conisderation for media coverage, but with no contacts requiring a review or editorial input etc, that the products are gifts/commercial samples and, as such, are not taxable income. If, however, you make a contract that treats the product as compensation, then it would be taxable income. For example, if you promise a review with specific anchor text in the links by a specific date etc in exchange for the product, then that product suddenly looks a lot more like compensation instead. With that said, Australia could have totally different rules and, unfortuantely, I don’t know anything about the law there. You might try contacting a local accountant with your question.
Carleen you have an awesome site just checked out your girlgloss website and i was wondering why don’t you just combine the sites together and just have it under a different category? Really enjoy reading your stuff! You go girl!!!
<3
Thanks! That is so nice! I started Girl Gloss years back as a lip product site and then broadened it. The sites would have been better off combined back then, but then they each ended up with their own advertisers and own loyal readers with some cross over, so now it ends up better with them separate. So I just keep them that way.