For performers, cam models and creators who film at home

A bedroom with a ring light is not a studio.

Garret keeps the evidence the home-studio deduction stands on: the studio’s area and the days it was used each month, any other use written down and that month left out, and one dated, fingerprinted photo a month showing it set up for work. Then it works the simplified method and actual expenses side by side and says which gives more.

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Opens in this browser with an invented performer already in it. No account, no email address, nothing installed.

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The problem

One test decides it: used only for the work.

IRS Publication 587 says the space must be used exclusively and regularly for the business. A guest room that is also the set fails, and so does a living room on show nights. The deduction can be taken at $5 a square foot up to 300, or as actual expenses on Form 8829. It is one of the most-examined lines on a Schedule C, and a photo a month is what answers the examiner.

Exclusive

and regular use for the business: the test the space has to meet.

IRS Publication 587 →

$5 a sq ft

the simplified method, up to 300 square feet.

IRS Publication 587 →

15 days

a month used fewer than this counts as zero under the simplified method.

Will not choose a method the file cannot back.

Not a reminder. Choose this method refuses, with the reason named, while a month that counts has no dated photo, the areas or the income are missing, or regular use is not confirmed. A month with any other use of the room is left out of both methods. There is no override.

How it works

Months, photos, the year

Write down each month

The studio’s area, the days used, and any other use of the room — which leaves that month out.

Add a photo a month

Dated, showing the room set up for work. It stays on your disk; Garret keeps its fingerprint.

Work the year

The simplified method and Form 8829 actual expenses side by side, the income limit, the carry-forward, and which gives more.

What it will never do

It keeps the evidence. It does not file the return.

Garret works both methods. Your return is yours or your accountant’s.

No photos kept.Each photo stays on your disk. Garret keeps its name, size and fingerprint.

No filing.Nothing goes to the IRS.

It is not an accountant.Not tax advice. Your accountant signs the return.

It never touches a payment.The licence is for software.

Pricing

Priced per year

A few dollars against one of the most-examined lines on the form.

Most performers

One studio

$19/year

One home studio, one tax year.

Month-by-month use
A fingerprinted photo a month
Both methods worked

Two studios

$29/year

A move mid-year, or two homes.

Everything in One studio
A file per studio
Export for your accountant

Yearly licence. Your bank statement says Garret Software. Refunded in full on request within 30 days. Your licence key is emailed to you within two working days of payment.

Checkout is our own bitcoin server, not a card processor — nobody we had to apply to and nobody who can close the account. The button takes you straight to it. Give your email address there — that is where your key is sent.

Questions

The ones we actually get asked

What if a guest slept in the studio?

Write it down. That month is left out of both methods, which is safer than claiming it.

Which method is better?

It depends on your rent or mortgage and the room’s share of the home. Garret works both and shows which gives more.

Why a photo every month?

Because exclusive use is what an examiner asks about, and a dated photo of the room set up for work is the answer.

Is this tax advice?

No. It is the evidence you wish you had kept.

What do I actually get when I pay?

The demo on this page is the whole program, running on invented records. Paying gets you a licence key — one line of text, emailed to the address you give at checkout within two working days. Paste it into the program and from then on it keeps your own records. Until then, nothing you type into it is kept.

The key is checked inside the page, on your own machine. It never calls us, so there is still no account and nothing about your business goes anywhere. If you ever stop paying, your records stay exactly where they are, read-only, and Export still hands you every one of them.

Open the demo before the year ends

The invented performer films in a rented flat’s 160 square-foot spare room. One month a guest slept in it, one month has no photo, and one was used only nine days. Actual expenses come out ahead because the rent is high.

Open the demo See pricing