Invoicing Video/Editing Work That Is Pro Bono. . .

[Craig Seeman]

[Javier Pimentel] “I’m new to working as a freelancer/self employed and am looking into taking advantage of any write offs that I can. I am working for a company that is paying me and worked with another earlier in the year,”

Is this a hoppy or is this your profession?

[Javier Pimentel] ” I have done has been “pro bono”, though it’s more like spec work,”

Pro Bono is what you might do for charities, under funded not for profits or sometimes for a creative project understanding that no one is likely to make money. It’s not something you should ever do for for profit businesses IMHO.

[Javier Pimentel] “In the past years I just did free work and basically took a loss on those no pay gigs and wished that I could have at least recouped some of my expenses.”

“no pay” is not a successful business model. You may need an accountant who understands the tax codes relative to a video business and you need to understand what it means to you.

If your are self employed and this is your primary business you should be deducting your business expenses. If most of your “work” is not paying work it sounds more like a “hobby” to me. Speak to your accountant.

[Joel Servetz]

If this was done for a non-profit of any sort (charity, museum, house of worship, school, etc.) than just establish a value for your work and ask them to write you a letter acknowledging your “in-kind” donation of services. That’s your proof of the the value of your donation for tax purposes.

Joel Servetz
RGB Media Services, LLC
Sarasota, Fl
videobyjoel@aol.com
http://www.rgbmediaservices.com

[Steve Martin]

Craig is right. Speak to your accountant or CPA. If you don’t have one and want to run a business, you should get one so that you can help you get set-up properly.

Good luck!

Production is fun – but lets not forget: Nobody ever died on the video table!

[Steve Boultbee]

[Joel Servetz] “If this was done for a non-profit of any sort (charity, museum, house of worship, school, etc.) than just establish a value for your work and ask them to write you a letter acknowledging your “in-kind” donation of services. That’s your proof of the the value of your donation for tax purposes.”

The value of services rendered is NOT deductible for tax purposes. Any unreimbursed expenses incident to the services rendered would be. However, those expenses would already deductible as ordinary business expenses, so there’s no reason to take the charitable deduction for them where they’d be subject to some limits.