Yes. A creator equipment write-off covers a camera, a ring light and a phone you use to make content, but only the business share. A phone you also use personally gets split.

For 2026, items that cost $2,500 or less can usually be deducted in the year you buy them. More expensive gear can usually be deducted in the first year as well, but a camera you also use personally has to be used more than half the time for content.

How do I write off gear that costs $2,500 or less?

For 2026, gear that costs $2,500 or less per item or invoice can usually be deducted in full in the year you buy it under the de minimis safe harbor in Treas. Reg. 1.263(a)-1(f) (an IRS rule that lets a business deduct small equipment purchases instead of depreciating them), which you elect each year with a statement attached to your return. A solo creator normally has no applicable financial statement (an audited or government-filed financial statement), so the $2,500 per item or invoice ceiling in the IRS tangible property regulations FAQ is the one that applies. As a hypothetical, a $400 ring light, a $900 lens and a $2,400 camera body bought on separate invoices each fit under it. Gear a brand sends you in exchange for a post or video is income at its fair market value, and that is a separate question from deducting gear you bought yourself.

The deduction goes in Part V of Schedule C as an other expense, not on the depreciation line, per the Schedule C instructions. You attach a statement titled "Section 1.263(a)-1(f) de minimis safe harbor election" to your timely filed original return, including extensions, and it covers every qualifying purchase that year.

The election requires your own books to expense these items under a consistent policy in place at the start of the year, which in practice means recording small gear as an expense when you buy it. The gear also has to be an ordinary and necessary expense of making content (common and accepted in your field, and helpful for it) under Publication 334, and the personal share of a mixed-use item stays nondeductible.

What if my camera cost more than $2,500?

For 2026, a camera that cost more than $2,500 is written off through section 179 expensing (an election under Internal Revenue Code section 179 to deduct the cost in the year the gear is placed in service) or bonus depreciation (a first-year deduction of the full cost under section 168(k)), both reported on Form 4562 and carried to line 13 of your Schedule C. Depreciation begins when the gear is placed in service, which means the date it is ready and available for its use.

Section 179 lets you expense up to $2,560,000 of qualifying property in 2026, reduced once your 2026 purchases pass $4,090,000, figures from Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The section 179 deduction cannot exceed your business taxable income for the year, which Publication 946 figures by totaling the net income and losses of every business you actively run plus any wages from a job, and whatever you cannot use carries into the next year.

Bonus depreciation is a permanent 100 percent first-year deduction for property acquired after January 19, 2025 under Notice 2026-11, and it applies unless you elect out on a timely filed return.

A YouTube creator posted this question on the TurboTax Community in December 2024, before the channel had any income.

"I recently spent 15k for equipments for my new YouTube channel, channel has yet to make any income being new, can I deduct the full 15k to offset my personal income?"

"equipments purchase are things like camera, tripods, steady cam, laptop, memory card, lens, mainly video related."

— a TurboTax Community member, December 2024

For section 179, the answer turns on the business income limit. Wages from a job count toward that limit, so a creator with a day job is not limited to the channel's own profit, while section 179 cost above the limit carries forward to a later year.

Does it matter that I use my camera for personal stuff too?

Yes. A camera and video recording gear count as listed property (a category the IRS treats as easy to use personally, so business use has to be proven), so for 2026 the fast write-offs require more than 50 percent business use in the year the gear is placed in service, backed by adequate records. Publication 946 puts photographic and video recording equipment in the listed-property category because it is property of a type generally used for entertainment, recreation or amusement, and 26 U.S.C. 280F is the statute behind it.

Above 50 percent business use, section 179 and bonus depreciation stay available, and for a mixed-use item you multiply the cost by the business-use percentage. At 50 percent or below, both are off the table for that item. Publication 946 says you cannot take depreciation or a section 179 deduction on listed property unless you can prove business use with adequate records or sufficient evidence to support your own statements. A ring light, a microphone or a tripod follows the same business-share rule as the rest of your gear.

Can I write off my phone if I also use it personally?

Yes, but only the business share. A phone you also use personally is split between business and personal use, and only the business percentage is deductible on your 2026 return. Cell phones were removed from the listed-property category for tax years beginning after December 31, 2009 by Notice 2011-72, so the phone is ordinary mixed-use business property rather than listed property, though section 179 still requires more than 50 percent business use.

As a hypothetical, a $1,000 phone used 60 percent for filming, editing and posting gives a $600 business share. The same percentage applies to the service plan. I would base the estimate on a review of your own usage over a typical month, written down at the time rather than reconstructed at filing.

An August 2026 Tax Court memorandum opinion shows what happens without that record. In Suleiman Sami v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2026-69 (docket 8834-23), an influencer with about 520,000 TikTok followers kept four phones, one for social media, one for his transportation business and two as backups, with no record of business versus personal use.

The court allowed 25 percent of his cell-service cost and nothing for the phone hardware, and said an influencer enterprise is no different from any other for-profit enterprise, so the same general rules apply. A memorandum opinion decides one case rather than setting a rule, but the court applied ordinary substantiation rules, so a business-use percentage with no record behind it can get the same result on any creator's return.

What records should I keep for my gear?

For 2026 gear, keep the receipt or invoice, the date each item was ready for use, a business-use estimate for the camera and phone written at the time, and a consistent policy of expensing small purchases in place from the start of the year.

• Receipts or invoices for every item, because the $2,500 de minimis ceiling and the section 179 cost both turn on the invoice.
• The placed-in-service date for each item, meaning the date it was ready and available for use in your content work.
• A business-use record for the camera and the phone made at the time, a written estimate of the split rather than a number reconstructed later.
• A consistent book policy of expensing small purchases, in place at the start of the year, which the de minimis election requires.

If you want the full filing list for a creator return, the content creator tax checklist walks through it.

If you live in California, is the gear write-off the same?

No. For a California return, the section 179 deduction is capped at $25,000, with the phase-out starting at $200,000 of purchases, per the 2025 FTB Form 3885A instructions, the latest the FTB has posted, and California does not allow bonus depreciation. The same camera can produce a full federal write-off in 2026 and a smaller, spread-out California deduction.

N&T Tax & Advisory Group is based in Santa Clarita and prepares tax returns for content creators remotely anywhere in the US.