Ex-Big Four CPA led, AI-enabled tax services for modern businesses & individuals.
Content creators
Valim is a US CPA firm for YouTubers, streamers, podcasters and influencers, with a licensed CPA signing every return. We match every 1099 your platforms and brands send against your payout records, then prepare your federal and state returns. We also plan your taxes between returns, all year.
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Valim for content creators
We report income from any platform, including Instagram, podcast networks, Substack, Ko-fi, Fansly and LTK. Brand deals and affiliate commissions go on the return too, from each 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC or 1099-K, or from your own records.
A 1099-K shows your gross payments, before fees and refunds. A platform and its payment processor can also both report the same money. We subtract the fees and refunds, and report each payout only once.
Fan tips can qualify for the deduction for qualified tips. Treasury’s tipped occupation code 209 covers digital content creators, such as streamers and social media influencers. We claim the deduction on your return for tips that meet its tests.
We plan all four Form 1040-ES payments for the year. If a brand deal lands late in the year, the annualized income installment method bases each payment on your income to date. Your earlier payments can then stay lower.
We check if your profit is high enough for an S corp election to save you tax. If it is, we pick when to make the election. After you elect, we prepare the S corp’s Form 1120-S along with your Form 1040.
We prepare your return from your bookkeeper’s numbers or your own payout reports. If a spreadsheet of payouts is all you have, bookkeeping and a clean-up can be added to your filing.
The instant quote fixes your fee before any work, however many platforms paid you. The fee holds for 7 days, and Valim never bills by the hour.
Upload your 1099s and payout reports to our online portal, where our automation reads the figures. Nothing is filed until your CPA has prepared and signed your return.
Any IRS or state notice on a return we prepared gets your CPA’s reply within your fee, even one about a 1099 mismatch.
From $195
This plan files your Form 1040 with Schedules C and SE, and it covers any level of complexity.
Priced in your quote
Your CPA works as your personal tax advisor all year. Talk to them before a big decision, such as signing a large brand deal or becoming an S corp.
An S corp’s own Form 1120-S is priced as a business return, from $495.
Google asks every YouTube Partner Program creator for US tax info, and withholds from US creators who do not give it.
LIVE gifts become Diamonds, which cannot be cashed out, and TikTok counts them as one factor in the rewards it pays you.
Twitch collects your tax details in an Amazon tax interview, and can withhold from your payouts if that information is missing or expired.
Patreon itself files the 1099-K for US creators who pass the threshold, with a separate form for each creator page.
OnlyFans’ terms leave all tax filing and payment to the creator, and they describe no US income tax withholding.
Yes, for payments made from 2026. The $600 rule was the threshold for Form 1099-NEC and most 1099-MISC income, and it is now $2,000. That figure can rise with inflation from 2027. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the change. It also cancelled a planned $600 threshold for Form 1099-K before it ever applied. A payment app must file a 1099-K only for more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year. Income under either threshold is still taxable.
A self-employed creator pays two federal taxes on profit: self-employment tax and income tax. Self-employment tax is 15.3%, charged on 92.35% of your net profit. Its Social Security part stops at a yearly cap. A 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies once wages and self-employment income together pass $200,000 ($250,000 joint, $125,000 married filing separately). Income tax follows your bracket rates, after you deduct half of that 15.3% tax. You can often also deduct up to 20% of your qualified business income (QBI).
The $2,500 expense rule is the de minimis safe harbor. It lets you deduct an item costing $2,500 or less, such as a camera, in the year you buy it, instead of depreciating it. The limit applies per invoice or per item, not per year, and inventory never qualifies. You elect it each year with a statement attached to a return filed on time. You also need a policy, set at the start of the year, of expensing such items on your books.
Yes. Under US tax law, podcast sponsorships, YouTube ad revenue, Patreon memberships and brand deals are all income, with or without a 1099. Once your net earnings from self-employment reach $400 in a year, you must file a return and pay self-employment tax. As a sole proprietor, you report that income on Schedule C with your Form 1040.
You can deduct your creator business’s ordinary and necessary costs on Schedule C, such as cameras, software and editors. Personal costs are not deductible, so a phone you also use privately counts only for its business share. A home office can qualify, and business meals are generally 50% deductible. For 2025 through 2028, qualifying voluntary fan tips may be deducted up to $25,000 a year under the deduction for qualified tips. The deduction phases out above $150,000 of modified AGI, or $300,000 on a joint return.
YouTube, Twitch and Patreon all send US creators a 1099 when earnings cross a threshold, but on different forms. Google sends a 1099-MISC for YouTube, Patreon sends a 1099-K, and Twitch can send both a 1099-MISC and a 1099-NEC. TikTok Shop sellers over the 1099-K threshold get one, while TikTok’s own pages do not say which form reports Creator Rewards. A 1099-MISC reports royalties from just $10, far below the threshold for other income.
You can’t count on it, since card processors report card payments on a Form 1099-K whatever the amount. A payment app may also send one even when you fall below the federal threshold. Gifts and repayments from friends and family should not be on the form. Missing the form changes nothing about the tax you owe.
Yes, when a product is payment for your content. A product sent for a post, a review or other agreed content is income at its fair market value. A true gift, sent with no expectation of anything in return, is not income. The IRS has issued no specific guidance on a PR package that arrives unasked, so its treatment depends on the facts.
Reviewed and updated September 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.