Hey Musicreators,

Let’s talk about everyone’s favourite topic: taxes!!! 💸

I’ll admit it, it’s not the most exciting conversation but it could save you thousands of $$$.

(P.S. This might not apply directly to you if you aren’t making any income from your music yet but it’ll be useful to be well prepared when the time comes. If you want to first learn how to get paid for your music skills, click here.)

Yesterday, I had to pay my taxes from 2024.

The amount? A big whopping $21,601.11 CAD.

You might be shocked at that amount but the good news is - I actually saved $10,000!!!!

How? Let me explain through 6 tax lessons I learned along my journey.

1 - Save 30% of your monthly income to be safe and put it directly into a savings account

Every month, when I calculate my monthly income, I instantly send 30% of it into a tax savings account.

This is money I do NOT touch.

Over the last year, I saved about $31,000 CAD in a savings account specifically to pay my taxes when the time came.

So once I paid my taxes, I actually got a $10,000 bonus pay day!!! :D

2 - Reinvest into your business

What am I going to do with the extra $10k? A few things:

1. First, I will pay myself a little bonus for my hard work!
2. Then, I will reinvest the majority of it into the business. It could be hiring another team member, paying for ads or buying new gear etc.
3. Finally, I will save and invest some of it for my personal finances.

3 - Pay your taxes on time to avoid any interest charges

This is a big one! I learned (the hard way) that the deadline, in Canada, was April 30th, whereas I thought it was June 15th.

Luckily, because I was prepared, I was able to pay it on time and avoid any interest charges.

Moral of the story? Check well in advance about the deadlines for taxes!!!

4 - Hire an accountant

Taxes scare me.

I don’t want any problems with the government, so I decided to hire an accountant to files the taxes for me.

This way, I’m sure that I am not missing anything and that it is as optimized as possible.

Plus, it’s tax deductible so it’s a win-win!

5 - Keep all your business expenses receipts (in case you get audited)

When you file your taxes as a business owner, you can claim business expenses in order to reduce your taxable income, which is great!

It includes things like:

• Office gear
• Subscriptions
• Freelancers
• Education
• etc...

Anything that helps you make money basically.

But make sure to keep ALL receipts for everything you are claiming as you might get audited.

If that happens, you want to be safe as penalties will not be fun!

6 - Use RRSP/401(k) to reduce your taxes

If you are in USA/Canada, you can use tax advantage accounts such as the RRSP or 401(k) to reduce your taxable income.

Again, look into it yourself to see how it works in your country but it is a good thing to know and pay attention to.

Now while I was doing my finances, I made this graph to visually see the evolution of my music business since 2022.

Not bad eh?! ;)

I can’t wait to see the progress in 2025!

Keep learning,

Aurelie

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P.S.

We have 2 spots left inside the MusiCreator Accelerator Mentorship. Apply here to scale your music income from $0 to $3-5k/month by working directly with me.

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