Hello. I am a part-time musician and I have merchandise as part of my business. Do I claim this as a business expense like I would paying other musicians to play with me?

[scamposanto]

I have cds, t-shirts, buttons, stickers etc. Can these be claimed as expenses? 

Also, for mileage. I kept track of my gigs but not where I was coming from. Can I set my home as the base for all of these gigs? 

[Vanessa · Accepted solution]

Yes, the price you are paying to purchase the cd's, buttons, t-shirts, etc can be claimed as an expense either under cost of goods sold (if you are selling them) or advertising (if you are handing out buttons or t-shirts)

Your mileage needs to be accurate and accounted for if you are not using a vehicle that is primarily a business vehicle.  If you went from home to Gig A to Gig B to home and it was 10 miles total, you could not count your mileage saying home to Gig A to home 10 miles then home to Gig B to home miles.  

If you haven't already, it might be a good idea to get a mileage tracker app for 2018.

[scamposanto]

I'm using my personal vehicle that I use for work, personal and to go to different gigs. So basically I cannot count miles from Home to any gig, but if I can from work or anywhere else and went to the gig, I could count those miles in 2017? I'm in the process of adding my trips manually for 2017 into Quickbooks. I just got the tracker app to help with 2018.