How Youtubers and Bloggers Income Taxable in India?

In the recent years, Bloggers and Youtubers are the new full time profession in India. These bloggers and Youtubers are earning in lakhs per month but they may not have a clear idea about the taxation system in India which is imposed on their income & services. So in this guide, let’s talk about the Blogging & Youtubers Profession & how their income is taxable in India.

(Kindly note that this is a guest post)

What is Blogging Profession in India ?

Bloggers are mainly freelancers or Individuals who share their knowledge & passion through the words by way of a full fledged website or Photos etc & earn mainly through ads & affiliate marketing (refer other products & service) etc.

In the recent times there are many  popular bloggers coming from India like Harsh Agarwal from shoutmeloud, Shraddha Sharma from YourStory who make million from the blogs. These bloggers are creating a web platform where they write about the niche topics and engage with the millions of audience. Even some bloggers share their income report openly, for ex – shoutmeloud earn on an avg Rs 20-25 lakh per month for the same.

How Bloggers Make Money ?

Google Adsense & other Ad Networks – In the starting most of the blogger apply for the Google Adsense Account (a Google Product which work as mediator and supply ads from advertisers to all network websites & share the revenue with the networks sites).

For ex – if you reading this article then there are some ads between the article or bottom or top or sidebar of the web page, Most of the ads shown by the Google adsense account on the basis of user past activity or interest etc. So when users click on these ads, Google adsense share the per click revenue which is earned from the Advertiser with website owner. So there are a lot of Ad networks like media.net (India Billionaire divyank turakhia company), Infolinks, revenuehits etc.

Affiliate Marketing – Apart from the Google Adsense bloggers earn mostly from the Affiliate Marketing. In simple terms, affiliate marketing is way, where you refer any company products or services by placing unique links on your blog, after the success of the conversion like a sale or signup etc., the blogger gets a fixed percentage of Commission for the same. Even leading ecommerce companies like Amazon or Flipkart booked 20-25% revenue through affiliate marketing way.

Sponsored Post/Ads Placement – Apart from adsense or affiliate marketing, Bloggers are earn through Sponsored Post/Ads Placement. In this medium, companies contact directly to niche based bloggers and offer them sponsorship on paid review or place ads banner on the website sidebar or in any article.

What is Youtubers Profession in India ?

After the blogging, Youtubers is the new trending Profession in the Online Market. Youtubers are also niche based creative people who create the channel on particular niche like comedy, entertainment, education, tech, fashion, stock market etc and create a large audience as subscribers. After the cheap 4g data packs in India, YouTube become 2nd large website to engage the audience after the google and before Facebook. So in this trend many popular youtubers coming from India like BBkivine, Amitbhadana, Technical Guruji, Ashish Chanchalani etc where they have million engaged audience. As per the socialblade, most of the very popular you-tubers in India on avg earns 5 lakh INR per month.

How Youtubers make Money ?

Youtuber’s also make money in the same way of blogging. First of all after creating the channel you have to fulfill the Google Adsense or YouTube Adsense eligibility criteria. After that Google adsense shows the ads during your video & share the revenue with the Youtubers from advertiser based on the clicks.

Apart from this Youtuber also makes money through affiliate marketing & sponsorship where they promote any products or unboxing any product & people buy products or service through affiliate links.

Taxation Impact on the Bloggers & Youtubers Income 

Now Let’s talk about how the income from both these professions attract tax. There are 2 type of taxation which will be imposed on any business or on these 2 professions;

1) Indirect Tax i.e GST 

If we talk about the GST Implementation on the Bloggers then in most of the cases GST is not applicable on Bloggers or Youtubers. Because they are earning from the Google Adsense which is the supplier of the Ads & advertiser contact only to google adsense to place the ads, not the bloggers.

Even each month without raising any invoice by bloggers, Google adsense transfers income to bloggers account. So you can say only Google adsense or Advertiser exchange the invoice or bills & charge the GST for the same. In this scenario Only Google adsense raise the invoice with the GST to the advertiser.

But if we talk about the Private placement of the Ads where advertiser contact directly to bloggers & paid them for the service, then GST is applicable when their Ads invoice is more than 40 lakh rupees in a year (As per new Rule from 1st April 2019). Even in case of affiliate marketing, companies raise the GST Invoice for the same.

So if any blogger wants GST Credit on their invoice like Web Hosting, Internet charges, Advertisement charges, affiliate commission etc then they can apply for the GST Registration for the same.

2) Direct Tax i.e Income Tax on Bloggers & Youtubers

Bloggers & Youtuber earn thousands per month which will be credited in their saving bank account. So all these income chargeable under income tax as Sole Proprietorship unless they are not registered as legal entity like Private Limited Company or LLP or Partnership etc.

Bloggers & Youtber business are covered under the service based business so as per the Income Tax Act 1961, if their gross income is more than 1Cr+ in a year then they are liable for the Tax Audit under the section 44AB. Even they are liable for the TDS Provision which will be deducted by the Google & Advertiser.

How Income Tax is Imposed on Blogging Income?

Income Tax will be imposed on Blogging Net Income which will be considered after the deduct several expenses. In the simplified words, similar to any kind of normal service based business, income tax imposed is on Net Profit (Sales + Other Income –  All Expenses = Net Profit).

Similarly, from the Blogging income there are various expenses which can be deducted i.e.,

  1. Domain Hosting Expenses
  2. Email Marketing or any other Video Editing Software Expenses
  3. Rent Expenses for Office
  4. Telephone/Internet/Electricity Expenses
  5. Payment to any other party or freelancer expenses
  6. Patrol or convenience charges expenses
  7. Depreciation on the Assets like Laptop or Mobile or Camera etc. 
  8. Any other expenses which are incurred for the purpose of generating revenue.

Apart from these expenses from the income there are some deductions regarding the specific investment is allowed. Investment from the popular Investment forms like LIC, Mutual Funds, PPF Account, Health insurance etc are allowed as a deduction from the Net Income.

Requirements During the Filing of Income Tax Return as Blogger

5 Steps Filing Income Tax as Blogger How Youtubers and Bloggers Income Taxable in India
5 Steps for Filing Income Tax as a Blogger
  1. Blogger or Youtubers need the Pan Card to file their income tax return, even these days some Youtuber are under 18 age but they can still apply for Pan Card Online in simplified way with Aadhaar card on ekyc basis.
  2. After getting pan card, you have to create the Account on the Income Tax Official Website.
  3. Now You have to Choose the ITR-3 Form or ITR-4 Form. Here you need some technical knowledge on the same. (Suggest you always hire a Tax Expert if you have income more than 3 lakh+)
  4. Even if your TDS is more than your tax liability then you can claim your refund from the government in your bank account.

Trust this guide is useful for all Bloggers or Youtubers to understand the importance of the Taxation system in India. If you have any query you can submit your query in the below comments section.

This is a Guest Post by Anil of PAN card apply online Portal.

About the Author

Anil Kumar myudyogaadhar

Anil Kumar is a Legal Content Writer at ePANapply & myudyogaadhar.com. Anil has 3 year + experience in the legal domain related to company incorporation & tax matters etc.

Kindly note that ReLakhs.com is not associated with epanapply.com. This is a guest post and NOT a sponsored one. We have not received any monetary benefit for publishing this article. The content of this post is intended for general information / educational purposes only. 

Also note that Relakhs.com gets its revenues from Google Adsense and selling Ad space only. We do not associate with any Financial Product or Service provider for affiliate marketing, commission based business, revenue sharing model or for paid/sponsored content.

(Post first published on : 03-September-2019)

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  • Rajesh says:

    Thanks for sharing such an informative blog. Enjoying reading it.

  • ArthikDisha says:

    Thanks to both Sreekanth and Anil for bringing forth everything about blogging and youtube earnings before the readers. I appreciate this effort of both of you since this post might inspire thousands of new bloggers to try hands-on blogging in their own niche. An inspiring post for lots of newcomers who can earn along with catching their passion. Thanks.

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