Deduction guide
Tutor / coach taxes: what you can actually deduct
Tutoring, lessons, coaching, test prep. If you got a 1099 for this work, here's what counts — and what PrivateBooks sets up for you automatically.
Worth knowing
These are the write-offs people in this line of work most often miss — or claim wrongly. Anything marked in orange is an edge case worth raising with a preparer rather than assuming.
Home office — the tutor's classic
Teach from a space used regularly and ONLY for work? A share of rent and utilities can be deductible — use the home-office helper, don't book rent as an expense. No rent of your own (dorm, parents' place)? Then there's nothing to deduct here, and that's fine.
$5 / sq ft simplified
Platform fees
Wyzant, Preply, and similar platforms take a percentage of every lesson. That cut is a commission expense — it lowers your taxable profit, so don't skip it.
15–25% typical cut
Books & teaching materials
Workbooks, curriculum, test-prep books (SAT, ACT), sheet music, and the supplies you teach with are deductible. Your own professional reading usually counts too.
keep receipts tracked
Certifications & courses
Training that maintains or improves skills for the teaching you already do is generally deductible. A brand-new career's education is different — worth asking about at tax time.
at tax time career change
What PrivateBooks pre-loads
Pick Tutor / coach during guided setup and your books start with these categories, each already mapped to its real Schedule C line — no chart of accounts to invent:
| Category | Schedule C line |
|---|---|
| Platform fees (Wyzant, Preply) | Line 10 — Commissions and fees |
| Teaching materials & books | Line 22 — Supplies |
| Lesson software (Zoom, Meet) | Line 27b — Other (software & subscriptions) |
| Courses & certifications | Line 27b — Other (education & training) |
| Phone & internet (work %) | Line 27b — Other (phone & internet) |
| Travel to students | Line 9 — Car and truck expenses |
| Advertising & profile boosts | Line 8 — Advertising |
Merchants it recognises automatically
On top of the 578 built-in sorting rules, this pack adds rules for Bitpaper, Desmos, Miro, Outschool, Preply, Superprof, Tutor.Com, Varsity Tutors, Wyzant — so those transactions land in the right category the moment you import a statement. Anything it isn't sure about goes to Review instead of being guessed at.
Do you even have to file?
If you netted $400 or more from self-employment in a year, you generally have to file and pay self-employment tax — even if nobody sent you a 1099, and even if you also have a W-2 job. Nothing was withheld from this income, which is why setting money aside matters.
Educational pointers, not tax advice. Tax rules change and your situation is specific — worth asking about at tax time. The free IRS-sponsored VITA program helps people under its income threshold at no cost.