Can I claim expenses for business photography, branding, or websites?

Can I claim expenses for business photography, branding, or websites?

When you’re building a business—especially one that relies on visibility, trust, and first impressions—spending money on photography, branding, and a website can feel less like “optional marketing” and more like basic infrastructure. A professional set of product photos might be the difference between a sale and a bounce. A coherent visual identity can make you look established instead of improvised. A website can become your storefront, booking system, portfolio, or lead engine all in one.

So it’s natural to ask: can you claim these costs as business expenses? In many cases, yes—but the answer depends on what the expense is for, how it’s used, and how tax rules treat different types of spending. Some costs are straightforward running expenses. Others are treated as longer-term assets. Some are partly personal and need to be apportioned. And a few common mistakes—like claiming personal photo shoots as “branding,” or expensing an entire multi-year website rebuild in one go—can cause trouble later.

This article walks through how business photography, branding, and websites are commonly treated from a tax perspective, how to think about “allowable” versus “non-allowable” costs, and what good records and sensible allocations look like. It’s written in plain language, but it still aims to be practical and detailed enough that you can apply it to your real-world invoices and projects.

Start with the core principle: “wholly and exclusively” for business

Most tax systems use a similar baseline test for deducting business expenses: the cost must be incurred for the purpose of the trade or business, not for private benefit. The phrasing differs by country, but the idea is the same: if the expense is genuinely for your business activity, it’s more likely to be deductible. If it’s personal, it isn’t. If it’s mixed, you can often claim only the business portion.

That single principle is the anchor for nearly every decision you’ll make in this area. If your website exists to generate leads, sell products, showcase your portfolio, or provide customer support, the spending is generally business-related. If your photos are for your products, services, team, premises, or marketing materials, they’re generally business-related. If your branding is for your trading identity—logo, messaging, design system, brand guidelines—it’s generally business-related.

Where it gets tricky is when the same asset or service also benefits you personally. A photographer you hire for your “brand” might take some professional headshots you’ll use everywhere, but also take family photos during the same session. A website might include a blog that is partly business and partly personal hobby writing. A domain name might be used to host your business site and a personal email account for non-business use. When there’s mixed use, you typically need a fair and reasonable split.

Running expenses vs capital costs: why the category matters

Tax treatment often hinges on whether something is considered a “revenue” expense (a normal running cost) or a “capital” expense (creating or improving an asset that lasts beyond the current year). Revenue expenses are commonly deductible against profit in the period you incur them. Capital costs may need to be treated differently—sometimes through depreciation or capital allowances, sometimes as an intangible asset, sometimes by adding to the cost base of a business asset.

Photography, branding, and websites can fall on either side depending on what you are paying for. A single photoshoot for a seasonal campaign might look like a normal marketing cost. A full rebrand that creates a lasting identity and a whole new suite of brand assets may be treated more like a capital project in some contexts. A simple website refresh might be deductible, while a major build that creates a new digital platform could be treated as capital investment.

Not every tax system draws the line in exactly the same place, and guidance can be nuanced. But as a practical approach, you can often evaluate the expense using these questions:

1) Does this create something enduring? If the work creates an asset that will benefit the business for multiple years (like a comprehensive brand identity or a major website platform), it leans toward capital.

2) Is this routine maintenance or a major improvement? Ongoing hosting fees, small site updates, plug-in renewals, and regular marketing shoots tend to be revenue. A from-scratch build, significant new functionality, or a redesign that fundamentally changes your digital presence can lean capital.

3) Is this replacing something that already existed? Replacing like-for-like or keeping something operational often looks like revenue. Replacing with something substantially improved can look capital.

Even where a cost is capital, that does not automatically mean “you can’t claim it.” It often means “you claim it differently.” The difference affects timing and sometimes the amount.

Business photography: what is usually claimable

Business photography tends to be one of the more straightforward categories, because it usually relates directly to marketing or operational needs. Typical claimable photography expenses may include:

Product photography: images used for ecommerce listings, catalogs, brochures, menus, or social media marketing.

Service photography: photos showing you performing your service, results, “before and after,” equipment, or processes—commonly used by trades, creatives, consultants, and wellness providers.

Corporate headshots: professional photos of founders, directors, and team members used on the website, press kits, proposals, LinkedIn, and marketing collateral. These are often deductible when clearly for business identity and marketing.

Premises and location photography: images of your shop, studio, clinic, office, or venue used for marketing and customer information.

Event photography: conferences, launches, workshops, pop-ups, and trade shows when the photos are used for business promotion and reporting.

Photography used for internal business purposes: training materials, operational manuals, product instructions, and internal communications.

Associated costs may also be claimable if they are part of the business photography project, such as studio hire, prop hire (when the props are for product staging and not personal), location fees, lighting rental, and retouching/editing fees.

Photography: common grey areas and how to handle them

Some photography costs look business-related at first glance but can become problematic if the private benefit is substantial or the business purpose is weak. Here are common grey areas:

Personal portraits framed as “branding”: If the shoot is essentially personal (for example, lifestyle portraits for personal use) and only incidentally used by the business, it can be hard to justify as a business expense. If you genuinely need images that represent you as the face of the business—common for coaches, speakers, influencers, consultants, and creatives—then it can be defensible, but you should be prepared to show how the images are used commercially.

Mixed sessions: Sometimes a photographer does business headshots and also family photos, or business product photos plus personal portraits. In this case, a reasonable split is usually appropriate. If the invoice is not split, you can still apportion based on time, number of images delivered, or project scope—but you should document your rationale.

Clothing, grooming, and styling: This is an area where people often overclaim. Hair, makeup, personal grooming, and normal clothing are frequently viewed as personal. Specialist styling services hired specifically for a commercial shoot may be treated differently in some cases, but it depends on local rules and the facts. A conservative approach is to avoid claiming personal wardrobe purchases and routine grooming as business expenses unless there is a clear and defensible basis under your local guidance.

Equipment purchases: If you buy a camera, lenses, lighting, or backdrops, that usually creates a longer-term asset. The tax treatment may be capital rather than revenue, and you might claim it via depreciation or allowances rather than as an immediate expense. It’s also common for equipment to have mixed personal and business use, which requires apportionment.

Stock photos and image libraries: Subscriptions and licensing fees used for business marketing are often deductible as revenue expenses. Ensure your license covers commercial use.

Branding and design: what counts as a business expense

Branding covers a wide range of services, from a simple logo design to a full identity system with fonts, brand guidelines, messaging, packaging design, and market positioning. Many branding-related costs are incurred for marketing and customer acquisition, which makes them strongly business-oriented. Examples that are commonly treated as business-related spending include:

Logo design and brand identity: paying a designer or agency for a logo, color palette, typography system, iconography, and brand guidelines.

Brand strategy: workshops and consulting that define your positioning, target market, messaging framework, tone of voice, and value proposition.

Copywriting: website copy, brand messaging, product descriptions, taglines, brochures, and email sequences.

Packaging and label design: for physical products, including dielines, print-ready artwork, and product mockups.

Marketing collateral design: brochures, flyers, business cards, pitch decks, signage, menus, and social media templates.

Brand photography direction: art direction and creative direction that supports your branding (separate from the photographer’s fee).

Branding can be treated as either a revenue expense or a capital cost depending on how extensive it is and how your tax regime treats intangible assets and marketing expenditures. In everyday practice, many small businesses treat brand design and marketing collateral as deductible business expenses, especially where the work supports current-year marketing activity. Larger-scale rebrands, especially those that create enduring intangible value, can be more likely to be considered capital in some circumstances.

Branding: separating “identity creation” from ongoing marketing

If you want a practical way to categorize branding costs, it can help to split them into two buckets:

1) Identity creation and core assets: things that form your long-term identity—logo, brand guidelines, core typography, core messaging framework. This can feel like building an intangible asset that lasts. Depending on your tax system and accounting approach, it may be treated as capital or at least treated with a bit more scrutiny.

2) Campaign and execution work: the ongoing creation of marketing materials—seasonal campaigns, promotions, new product launches, social templates for a quarter, brochures for a specific event. These are often easier to view as revenue expenses because they relate to current trading activity.

Even when costs feel “long-term,” it doesn’t automatically mean you lose the deduction. It means you should be aware of the possibility that the timing or method of claiming is different, and that the supporting explanation matters more.

Websites: the big question is “what are you actually paying for?”

Website spending is often a bundle of different costs that deserve different treatments. Treating a website as one single line item can lead to errors. Instead, break the project into components:

Domain name registration: usually a recurring fee (annually or multi-year). Commonly treated as a revenue expense.

Website hosting: ongoing monthly or annual fees. Typically revenue expenses.

Email hosting: similar to hosting—usually revenue.

SSL certificates: often included with hosting, or billed separately. Usually revenue.

Website theme/template purchase: can be revenue if it’s a low-cost off-the-shelf theme, but could be treated as part of a broader capital build if it’s integral to a major project.

Plugin licenses and subscriptions: ongoing costs (security, SEO, backups, ecommerce, booking systems). Typically revenue expenses.

Content creation: copywriting, photography, blog writing, video production. Often revenue expenses when tied to marketing.

Design and development: could be revenue for minor updates, but can be capital when it’s a major build or creates a new platform.

Maintenance: updates, bug fixes, security patches, small improvements. Typically revenue.

Advertising and analytics tools: paid search, social ads, heatmaps, analytics subscriptions. Typically revenue.

Because websites can be complex, the most defensible approach is to keep itemized invoices (or at least a clear breakdown in your bookkeeping) that shows what was purchased. If a developer invoice covers “website build,” ask for a breakdown: design, development, content upload, training, ongoing support, and so on.

Website builds and rebuilds: when costs may be capital

A common scenario is paying for a new website or a large rebuild. Whether this is treated as a revenue expense or capital depends on the nature of the project and local rules. A few practical indicators that your website spending may be seen as capital-like include:

A new website from scratch that did not exist before, especially if it’s central to the business.

Major new functionality such as a custom ecommerce system, membership portal, learning platform, booking engine, or customer dashboard.

A platform migration that substantially changes the site architecture or capabilities.

Significant development work that creates a longer-term asset rather than routine updates.

If a cost is capital, it may be claimed through depreciation/amortization rules or allowances applicable in your jurisdiction. In some systems, certain software and website development costs can be treated similarly to software or intangible assets. In others, there may be simplified treatments for small businesses.

If you’re unsure, a conservative approach is to separate ongoing running costs (hosting, plugin renewals, maintenance) from major build costs, and consider whether the build should be spread over time. This is also where your accounting method can matter: cash basis, accrual accounting, and capitalization policies can affect timing.

Website updates: often revenue, but not always

Not all website work is a “new asset.” Many businesses pay regularly for improvements: adding new pages, updating prices, changing imagery, improving speed, refreshing design, or writing blog posts. These are often more like normal marketing and operational costs, and therefore commonly treated as revenue expenses.

However, even updates can cross into capital territory if they are part of a major overhaul that effectively creates a new website experience or materially extends the site’s capabilities. Again, the scale and nature of the work matters.

Can you claim website costs if the site is not live yet?

Another common question is whether you can claim website, branding, or photography costs when you’re still setting up and not yet earning revenue. Many tax systems allow certain pre-trading or start-up costs to be relieved once the business begins trading, but the details vary.

From a practical standpoint, keep clear records of:

Dates: when the costs were incurred, when the business started trading, when the site launched.

Purpose: that the spending was to set up the business for trading, not for personal reasons.

Invoices and contracts: showing the scope of work.

Start-up relief rules can be technical. If you are making significant investments before launch—especially a major website build and brand strategy—it may be worth getting targeted professional advice, because the correct treatment can affect how quickly you get tax relief.

Claiming costs for social media branding and content

Branding doesn’t stop at the website. Many businesses spend money on social media templates, brand-aligned Canva designs, short-form video editing, content shoots, and profile optimization. These costs are generally easier to justify as marketing and promotional spending when they directly support your business operations.

Examples include:

• Paying a designer to create Instagram story templates, highlight covers, and post layouts aligned to your brand.

• Paying a videographer/editor to produce reels or ads featuring your product or service.

• Subscriptions to design tools used for creating business marketing materials.

• Fees for a social media manager or content strategist.

The caution remains the same: if the content is personal lifestyle content with only a weak link to the business, it may not be deductible or may need apportionment. If it clearly promotes your business, it’s more defensible.

What about “personal brand” businesses?

For many modern businesses, the founder’s identity is part of the product—think coaches, creators, speakers, authors, consultants, performers, and influencers. In these cases, photography and branding centered on the individual can still be business-related. A headshot is not automatically personal; it can be a commercial asset used to attract clients and secure work.

That said, the personal element increases scrutiny. The more the photoshoot resembles personal lifestyle photography, the harder it is to argue that it was incurred solely for business. To strengthen your position:

• Ensure the deliverables are specified as business assets (headshots for website, press kit images, images sized for profiles, etc.).

• Keep evidence of use: website pages, speaker one-sheets, proposals, media kits, brand guidelines.

• Avoid bundling personal images into the same invoice or, if you do, allocate clearly.

The same applies to branding. A “personal brand” strategy can still be business strategy if it supports commercial services or products. But a general “image consulting” service that’s primarily personal may not qualify.

Mixed-use rules: how to apportion fairly

Mixed-use expenses are common with websites and creative projects. Here’s how to handle apportionment in a practical, defendable way:

Use a reasonable basis: time spent, percentage of pages that are business-related, number of deliverables, or relative cost of components. The method should make sense given the nature of the expense.

Document the rationale: a short note in your bookkeeping can be enough: “Invoice includes 80% business headshots, 20% personal family photos; claimed 80%.”

Split invoices where possible: if you can, ask the supplier to invoice business and personal parts separately. This is often the cleanest approach.

Be consistent: use the same logic across similar expenses. Consistency makes your approach look genuine and systematic rather than opportunistic.

VAT/GST/sales tax considerations for photography, branding, and web costs

If your business is registered for VAT, GST, or a similar consumption tax, you may be able to recover the tax on business expenses—again, subject to local rules and the nature of the expense. The general principles tend to mirror income tax deductibility: business use supports recovery; private or exempt use may restrict it.

Pay attention to:

Correct invoices: ensure the supplier’s invoice meets local requirements for tax recovery.

Place of supply rules: for digital services like web hosting, subscriptions, and overseas freelancers, rules can be different and may involve reverse charge mechanisms or local reporting.

Mixed use: if you apportion for income tax, you may also need to apportion for VAT/GST recovery.

Consumption tax compliance can become technical quickly, especially with overseas web services, marketplaces, and digital subscriptions. If you have a lot of cross-border web spending, it’s worth taking extra care.

What records should you keep?

Good records are the difference between a stress-free claim and an anxious scramble. For photography, branding, and websites, keep:

Invoices and receipts: showing supplier name, date, and description of services.

Contracts and proposals: especially for larger projects like a website build or rebrand, where scope and deliverables matter.

Proof of payment: bank statements, card statements, payment confirmations.

Evidence of business use: screenshots of the website pages using the photos, copies of brochures, social posts, ads, or portfolio pages. You don’t need to archive everything forever, but a small selection can be helpful.

Allocation notes: if you apportion an expense, keep a brief explanation of how you split it.

Asset register notes: if you treat a major website build or equipment purchase as capital, record it consistently as an asset and track how you claim it over time.

Examples: how different scenarios might be treated

Example 1: Product photos for an online shop

You pay a photographer to shoot 50 product images for your ecommerce store, plus retouching. The images are used on product pages and ads. This is typically a straightforward business marketing expense (often revenue in nature).

Example 2: Founder headshots plus personal portraits

You book a studio session and receive 20 edited images: 12 business headshots for website/press and 8 personal portraits. If the invoice isn’t split, you apportion and claim only the business portion, documenting your method.

Example 3: A full rebrand and new packaging

You hire a branding agency for strategy, identity, packaging design, and brand guidelines. Some of these costs may be treated as marketing, but the overall project could be considered creation of enduring brand assets. Depending on your local rules and the scale, some or all may be treated as capital-like. Keeping a detailed breakdown helps you apply the right treatment.

Example 4: Website hosting and plugin renewals

Monthly hosting and annual security plugin renewal costs are usually routine running costs and commonly deductible as revenue expenses.

Example 5: A new website with custom booking system

You pay for design and development of a custom booking platform integrated with payments and client accounts. This looks more like creating a long-term asset. The tax treatment may involve capitalization and claiming over time, depending on local rules.

Common mistakes to avoid

1) Claiming clearly personal photos or styling costs

If it’s basically personal, calling it “branding” won’t make it business. Be honest about the purpose and allocate where needed.

2) Treating a major website build exactly like monthly hosting

Bundling everything into “website expenses” can obscure what is capital-like versus routine. Break it down.

3) No evidence of use

If challenged, “I planned to use it” is weaker than “Here are the pages and campaigns where it is used.” Keep a simple record.

4) Not understanding ownership and licensing

For photography and design, ensure you have the right license or ownership to use the work commercially. An expense can be business-related but still cause problems if you don’t have usage rights.

5) Ignoring mixed use

Mixed use is normal. The mistake is pretending it doesn’t exist. A sensible apportionment is usually better than an all-or-nothing approach.

Practical checklist before you claim

• What is the business purpose? Write it in one sentence.

• Is there any personal benefit? If yes, can you split it?

• Is the cost routine or does it create a long-term asset? This affects whether it may be capital.

• Do you have itemized invoices? If not, can you ask the supplier for a breakdown?

• Do you have proof of business use? Save a couple of screenshots or copies.

• Are you treating it consistently? Similar costs should be handled similarly.

Final thoughts

In many cases, yes—you can claim expenses for business photography, branding, and websites, because they are often fundamental to marketing, customer acquisition, and day-to-day trading. The key is to treat them with the same logic you would apply to any other business cost: it must be for the business, supported by good records, and categorized correctly.

Photography expenses are usually straightforward when they relate directly to products, services, premises, or professional headshots used in marketing. Branding costs are commonly claimable, but large rebrands can blur the line between marketing and long-term asset creation. Website costs are often a mix of routine expenses (hosting, renewals, maintenance) and potentially capital-like development spending (major builds and custom functionality). Mixed-use situations are common and typically call for reasonable apportionment rather than aggressive claiming.

If your spending is substantial, your business structure is complex, or you’re unsure whether a major branding or website project should be treated as capital, it can be worth getting tailored advice. But even without that, you can dramatically reduce risk by breaking costs down, keeping clear documentation, and applying a consistent, common-sense approach to what is truly for business.