Piano Studio Income Tax Time: These are a few of my favourite claims

Piano teachers seem to be a frugal bunch.

But don’t go without studio upgrades because of the belief that you can’t afford them.

Upgrades mean you can charge more for your time. And everything you buy directly for your business can be claimed against your income, which lowers the tax you owe.

What’s stopping you? Get the stuff.

While I mention many products in this post, I’m not receiving any endorsement funds.

1. Multi-purpose advertising: Branded student bags

My branded student bags say ‘Notekidds Rebekah Maxner Piano Music.’

For the first time I’ve splurged and ordered branded bags for my students. They can use them to carry their music books back and forth to their lessons. Each student gets one!

I made a bulk order and expect it will last the rest of my teaching career.

There are two options on how to handle student bags.

Include the bag in your registration package and charge each student a one-time fee. In this case you would claim the expense of purchasing the bags, as well as the income from selling them.
Count it, as I do, as advertising, and don’t charge students. In this case you would claim the expense only, as there would be no income.

My plan is to chalk this up to advertising, as my students will be carrying them around. It is my hope that others might see the bags and therefore learn about me as a piano teacher. For this reason, I’ve claimed the cost of the bags as advertising and won’t charge my students for them. If they someday stop lessons, I’m hoping they’ll keep on using the bag, perhaps for shopping. After all, those words on the bag could still shine a light on my business well into the future.

2. Teaching supplies: Printing on Vinyl

My candy jar practice incentive (available as a printable soon), printed on vinyl. I opted to print the jars on card stock with lamination, as I wanted to use sticky tack for the candies and wanted a surface conducive to that.

There are so many teaching resources and printables available today. I have a slew of printables available in my Piano at Play blog’s Printables section, and so many others are producing, too.

In my studio I try to be mostly ‘screen free’. Kids spend enough time on screens elsewhere. Instead, I opt for beautiful learning manipulatives that are visual and tactile.

When it comes to printing, I used to print on card stock and sometimes laminate. But recently, my printer offered the option of printing on vinyl. It costs a little more than printing on card stock, but it’s worth it! And you avoid the additional cost of lamination.

On vinyl, the colours pop and it’s indestructible. You will never have to print again! And you can claim all your printing when it comes to tax time!

3. Tech: Dampp-Chaser

Besides tuning my piano once a year, I’ve invested in the Dampp-Chaser system. I got my first one in 1997. With my recent piano overhaul, I replaced my original Dampp-Chaser with a new one.

The dehumidifier/humidifier system works to keep the temperature and humidity in your piano as constant as possible. This enables your piano to stay in tune all year. That’s not just a professional advantage, it’s a must.

And, since it’s for business, it can be claimed at tax time!

4. Tech: Rechargeable battery generator

In piano lessons, as with all music-related activities, the show must go on.

In the olden days of power outages, I’d run all over my house to gather candles. Even though that looked pretty, it was fairly dangerous with the open flame teetering all over my piano.

Candles lit during a lesson when the power went out.

That’s why I’ve invested in a rechargeable battery generator, the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Portable Power Station. It’s portable, light enough for me to lift and quick to set up when the need arises. And it’s much safer.

I’ve used it on many occasions in my Canadian winters when we’ve experienced power outages.

Unlike gas generators, this can be kept inside, makes no noise, you don’t need to fill it with gas, it doesn’t smell, and you don’t need an electric cable that runs out a door to the outside. It’s much, much faster to set up.

Rechargeable battery generator in use during a power outage. We had lessons at my Clavinova while my acoustic Baldwin was being refurbished.

And my husband just pointed out to me that technically it’s not a generator because it doesn’t ‘generate’ energy. It’s a battery that can be recharged by plugging it into your wall. We recharge it with solar energy from a little portable panel we have. It’s just one way I run an eco-friendly studio.

The biggest bonus of all: I claimed it on my income tax return.

5. Equipment: Carpet cleaner

When I renovated my studio, I chose to put carpet on the floor. I like the sound-dampening effect of the carpet, and when my students and I work on the floor, it’s more comfortable. This is our only carpeted room in our home.

I chose a closely-woven carpet, the kind you might see in a very nice curiosity shop, because I didn’t want it to become laden with lots of microbes and dust.

With carpet there comes the issue of keeping it clean.

That’s why I’ve invested in a wet vac that cleans deeper than my vacuum’s carpet attachment.

Every few weeks we go over this floor with the Bissell and when we’re done, the water comes out black and the carpet comes out looking brand new.

Plus, I claimed it on my income tax!

6. Equipment: Electronic keyboard

I firmly believe the OG great composers would have loved electronic keyboards, especially Bach.

My current keyboard is a Yamaha Clavinova. It has 88 weighted keys, three pedals and an amazing array of sounds. I bought it from a local friend who was downsizing, for the yard sale price of $500. Because she runs a business, she wrote a receipt for the purchase and I was able to claim it against my income.

Here’s my beginner improvising with E. piano.

Student improvisation on E. piano, Yamaha Clavinova.

For purists, let’s remember that the acoustic piano is only one invention in a long, illustrious family tree of keyboard instruments. Today’s piano students are inspired by the clavichord, harpsichord and organ. And other more modern sounds, too!

Here’s my beginner student playing the rote twelve bar blues piece, Train is Chugging, on the Yamaha Clavinova ‘chapel organ’.

Beginner rote twelve bar blues piece, Train is Chugging, on chapel organ, Yamaha Clavinova.

Keyboards offer a change of pace, a novel sound, offer a way to get a student to play something multiple times in a row while trying different sounds. It keeps up the interest with busy little minds.

Whether you buy new or used, I highly recommend adding an electronic keyboard to your studio. And, you’ll be able to claim it!

7. Premium Service: YouTube Premium

YouTube is full of music.

Harpsichord music

Clavichord music

Performances by all the great pianists

People in 18th-century dress dancing the minuet, set to 18th-century minuets

Accordion music

Broadway musical tunes, opera numbers and famous symphonies

Christmas music

Original recordings of ragtime, blues, jazz, rock, pop, and the list goes on.

When I need to play period music examples in my lessons, I open YouTube on my laptop, search, and press play.

Why am I confident I can do this without wasting lesson time on bothersome ads (or leaving it to chance which ads my students might be exposed to)?

Because I pay for YouTube Premium, which makes YouTube ad-free. And I claim it as a business expense.

Bonus: I also listen to all my music this way outside of lessons. My time is worth a lot and I don’t want my music listening to be interrupted by ads. To be an effective and informed music teacher, it requires preparation, both by practicing and by simply listening.

8. Premium Service: Rock Out Loud

For a nominal monthly fee, Rock Out Loud provides an excellent platform for online lessons and I pay monthly.

It’s simple and free for families to use. For student phones and iPads, there’s a free app. For Laptops (what I prefer my students to use), they simply log in with a link to your “music room” for free.

The sound is amazing. I toggle between two views (side piano view and overhead view of my hands and piano keys).

What’s the sound quality? Here’s a sound check we did this past December for my Christmas Ceilidh. My two students who live out-of-province were going to ‘beam in’ with Rock Out Loud. During their lesson, we tested the sound. I texted them this video to show them what they’d look and sound like during our event:

Rock Out Loud sound quality.

I teach only about eight to twelve lessons online a month, but I wouldn’t do without it. When my students have the sniffles or if I’m not feeling well, we go online and it’s great!

What’s even better than the sound is that I get to claim the expense on my income tax.

10. Perk: Lava Lamp

I’ll admit, I bought my Lava Lamp years before I thought to put it in my piano studio, and never claimed it against my income. But that doesn’t mean you can’t!

It’s great for brain breaks. Every once in a while a student will stop everything and we’ll end up just watching the lava blooping up and down. In that moment, I just go with the flow. In that moment, it seems they need a complete mental break, and the lamp gives us a common interest for light chitchat.

I love it in my piano studio and always turn it on early enough so that it’s warmed up and going for my students. They love it, too!

Over the years I’ve had an original brand Lava Lamp and one that was a knockoff. The lava in the knockoff doesn’t flow up and down, it gets stuck. The Lava Lamp brand is definitely the best.

The more upgrades you get for your studio, the more value and options you have on your studio ‘menu’. Invest in yourself boldly. Then, charge more for your lessons!

Happy investing! Happy claiming!