It's 11:42 p.m. and your phone is lit up on the pillow. A brand manager is asking about a deliverable. Your comments are filling with people who care what you think. Your sister's text, the one you still haven't answered, sits two inches above all of it.

The same glass rectangle holds your income, your community, your family and your insomnia. It is the most important tool in your business, and it is also, unmistakably, yours. That overlap is why the question "can I write off my phone?" gets two wrong answers. One is "no, it's personal." The other is "yes, all of it, it's my whole business." The tax code takes neither side.

The rule underneath: you deduct the business share, not the bill

For self-employed people, the IRS allows deductions for expenses that are ordinary and necessary for your business. It also says personal expenses are not deductible. A phone plan or internet connection that serves both purposes sits across that line, so you split it. You deduct the portion that is business and leave the rest alone.

This is the same logic behind the mixed-use rules elsewhere in your return. But phones and internet have a few quirks worth knowing.

Phones are easier than they used to be. Cell phones were once "listed property," which carried strict recordkeeping rules like the ones for cars. Congress removed them from that category in 2010. You no longer need a minute-by-minute log. You still need a reasonable, honest allocation between business and personal use, and you need to be able to explain how you got it.

Internet is judged on use, not on where the router sits. Having a home office doesn't make the whole bill deductible, and not having one doesn't disqualify you. If you upload video, run your site, take client calls and manage your accounts over your connection, a share of the bill is a business cost. How the home office deduction treats your space is a separate question. Your internet bill is deducted as its own expense.

What a defensible percentage looks like

The IRS doesn't publish a standard number. It wants a method that is reasonable and consistent. "I just pick 100%" is not a method. Neither is a number that happens to wipe out your tax bill.

Here are three ways to build one, from simplest to strongest.

1. The time method. Over a typical two-week stretch, estimate the hours you use the device or connection for work versus everything else. If you spend about 6 of 10 waking screen-hours on business, 60% is a starting point. It's rough, but it's honest, and it's easy to explain.

2. The usage-data method. Your carrier and internet provider already track things. Look at your phone's screen-time report, your data usage and your call logs. Upload-heavy months tell a story. If you can point to the report and say "this is where the number came from," you're in good shape.

3. The separation method. The cleanest answer is to stop mixing. A second phone line, a dedicated business SIM or a separate internet connection for your studio makes the business share 100% by construction, because the thing exists only for work. This isn't required, and it costs money. But it removes the argument entirely, and it keeps your personal messages out of any future review.

A quick example, using plain arithmetic: a $95 monthly phone bill at a 60% business share gives you $57 a month, or $684 over a year. An $80 internet bill at 50% gives you $40 a month, or $480. Together that's $1,164 of deductions you would otherwise have paid tax on. At a combined federal income and self-employment tax rate somewhere around 30 to 40 percent, that can be a few hundred dollars back. It's real, but it's not a windfall, which is exactly why it should be done carefully rather than aggressively.

Where the deduction goes, and what it doesn't include

On Schedule C, phone and internet service commonly land in the utilities category. Your tax preparer or software will tell you the right line for your situation. A few things to keep straight:

  • The phone itself is a purchase, not a monthly bill. If you buy a new phone, the business-use share of the cost is treated like other equipment, and the same capitalize-or-expense questions apply that you'd face with a camera.
  • Installment plans can blur things. If you're paying off a handset over 24 months, track what part of that payment is device versus service.
  • Personal subscriptions don't become business ones. Streaming services you watch for fun stay personal, even if you also "get inspired" by them. The business-use test is about use, not about vibe.

Why the number you choose matters more than the number you hope for

There's an emotional trap here that's worth naming. When you've worked late, answered messages on a Sunday and built something from nothing, it can feel as though every minute on the device is work. Part of it is. But the same fatigue that makes everything feel like work is the reason an honest ratio is worth setting.

A percentage you can defend calmly is worth more than one you'd have to defend nervously. If your return is ever questioned, nobody is going to argue with your 55% when you can show where it came from. They will notice 100% with nothing behind it.

Your next moves

You can finish all of this in an afternoon.

  • Pull your last three phone and internet statements and write down the monthly totals. You can't allocate what you haven't named.
  • Open your phone's screen-time report for the past two weeks. Sort apps into business (editing, analytics, email, social platforms you post on for work) and personal. Note the rough split.
  • Pick a percentage and write one sentence explaining it, for example: "60% business, based on two weeks of screen-time data showing roughly 6 of 10 hours on work apps." Save it in the same folder as your tax records.
  • Decide whether a second line or separate SIM makes sense. If you're deducting more than half your phone, a dedicated business line is worth a price check. It may cost less than the time you'd spend defending a shared one.
  • Set a calendar reminder to re-check the percentage every six months. If your work shifts from filming to editing, or from posting to client calls, the number should move with it.

Making the habit stick

The hard part of a deduction like this is rarely the math. It's remembering to do it at all. Phone and internet bills are small, recurring and invisible. They pass through your account every month until you stop noticing them, and then at tax time you either forget them or guess.

That's the gap Aside was built for. It lets creators tag recurring costs like these as business or mixed-use as they happen, set the percentage once, and see the deductible amount build up through the year rather than reconstructing it from bank statements in April. If a calmer relationship with your records sounds useful, you can look at it at aside.lumenlabs.works. Either way, the spreadsheet or the notebook works just as well, as long as you start today and write the reasoning down.