Unfortunately, my day job is to argue with tax auditors. I only deal with U.S. taxes so I can't address other countries.
First and foremost, these are suggestions and you should hire an accountant to ask questions and review things. I'll cover the big stuff (and won't cover home office deductions or apportionment and things like meals or travel) That being said -
If you are an individual (ie your photography income is being sold by you as an individual as opposed to through business entity you have formed) then your income and expenses flow through Schedule C of your 1040.
Here's the kicker. If you have W-2 income or income primarily generated from another source, then your microstock income is considered passive. This means that you cannot deduct expenses to the extent that they exceed your income. If you made $10, then you can only deduct $10 in expenses. "Passive Losses" can be carried forward to the following year for a period of time (I can't remember if it is 5 or 7 years). Talk to an accountant about passive activity rules.
Individuals are cash basis tax payers. If you have an account balance at a stock agency, and you are unable to take that cash in hand, then you do not need to recognize the income until you hit payout and receive the cash in hand. That being said, you can't manipulate your income by not taking a payout and keeping that $5,000 account balance in your account at Shutterstock until next year because it will be an advantage to you - on an audit, an auditor will be reviewing the rules of "constructive income" - talk to an accountant about this.
The area that you can manipulate is depreciated costs over actual expenses. That 30d that you bought this year can be depreciated to slow your "depreciation expense" (losses) in the current year and carry them forward. Say this year you have $100 in income, and you can only take advantage of $100 in expenses but you know next year you'll make more money - you can depreciate your equipment over time at various rates (either MACRS or Straight Line) depending on how you want to spread that loss. Once you make an election, you can't change from year to year. Bring this up to your accountant.
If your photography income is your "full time job" then you have to be aware of the rules related to "Hobby Losses". Essentially, you have to be profitable 5 out of 7 years or the IRS will consider your losses a hobby loss, reclass those expenses from active, to the passive activity treatment, and you will have to pay the difference. Talk to your accountant about hobby losses.
everything else gets a bit complicated to address over the forum but in a nutshell, those are things you should be thinking about.
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