Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
Salary Transparent Street founder and host Hannah Williams described building her company from viral videos about pay transparency into a full-blown business as “trial by fire” and a series of “horror nightmare situations.”
But the most frightening part of building a creator business? Tax season.
“I was terrified every month that the IRS was going to call and show up at my door,” Williams told me in an interview this week. “I would get partnerships that were worth my annual salary and just be freaking out. I was actually really scared to spend, because I didn’t want to be in a position where we were delinquent [in paying out taxes].”
Ahead of the April 15 filing deadline, creators have taken to social media to share their shock at the amount they owe in taxes. Filing taxes can be extra complicated for creators given their nontraditional streams of income and wide array of potential deductions. The challenge is emblematic of the broader structural hurdles for those looking to navigate the economy as a new class of small-business owners: A quarter of creators cited taxes as their top business stressor, and nearly the same number said they had made tax mistakes that cost them, according to an H&R Block survey.
Some creators “maybe didn’t even intend to become a small-business owner. They just wanted to make some awesome content, or do something fun and cool, and then next thing they know, they’re a small-business owner and [facing] everything that comes along with that,” said Andy Phillips, the vice president of the Tax Institute at H&R Block. Sensing both the confusion and the economic opportunity of the creator economy, which is valued at over $250 billion, the company launched a “Creator Suite” to help creators file and also hosted a creator summit this year.
For Williams, even opening a bank account proved difficult, she said, recalling how bank officials questioned if she was a CPA or gambler when she tried to explain how she was making money by creating financial content online. Her TikTok account now boasts more than 1.5 million followers, but Williams said the growth was hard to keep up with and that hidden costs, such as health care, insurance and taxes, quickly added up.
“We were making so much that the state of Virginia, where we were incorporated at the time, needed us to file monthly taxes,” she said. For her, Salary Transparency Street’s acquisition by NowThis earlier this year has been a godsend that has helped alleviate some of the negative side of the account’s financial success, including losing sight of her original mission, cruel comments and burnout.
Williams said her company made approximately $1.4 million in gross revenue last year. In past years she paid herself a salary of $150,000, receiving less than $100,000 in take-home pay after taxes and maxing out her 401(k). Despite being part of what she referred to as “the 1 percent” of high-earning creators, she cautioned that based on her salary research, the creator space is made up of “a lot of loud outliers and really quiet averages” — and it’s hard for the majority of creators to make substantial income from creating content.
The shock of a high tax bill isn’t limited to big earners either. It can hit particularly hard for smaller or newer accounts who may not be aware of the challenges of filing as a creator or have actual cash on hand to account for an unexpected bill.
“Anything I signed, produced and posted pretty much in the last quarter of the year [2025], I won’t see that deposited till 2026,” said Rachel in a real way, a creator who focuses on corporate culture. For her, the biggest surprise was learning that clothing and PR sent to her by brands counts as income for tax purposes, even if she is not being paid to promote or post about the products.
Here are some starting tips for creators based on info from the tax experts and creators I spoke with this week. You should always consult a tax professional for your specific situation:
If you pay for travel as part of creating content, you can deduct it as a business expense. However, on your trips, you need to keep track of which expenses are business versus pleasure.
Equipment used in content creation, such as microphones, lights or props, are likely deductible as a business expense.
Using a business checking account separate from your personal finances makes it much easier to track potential deductibles.
Hiring an accountant to develop a tax plan throughout the year, not just for tax day, is helpful when growing from a social media account to a full business.
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by WP Creator, a new business outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about WP Creator.
