05/17/2021

#Income tax aspects of income via Instagram, YouTube and TikTok

“Influencer marketing” has been a trend in the current advertising world for quite some time. It is now common for companies to request influencers for advertising purposes. The influencers receive the product to be advertised from the company free of charge - in return, they undertake to write about the new skin cream for example in their own beauty blog or on Instagram or advertise fitness and diet products. Such “gifts” are not considered gifts in the tax law sense, as they were not given free of charge. An exception applies only to gifts in kind whose acquisition cost does not exceed EUR 10. Rather, a service is provided in return by the advertising activity of the influencer. The provision of items in expectation of advertising is therefore a so-called "gift in kind" for tax purposes and is taxable as such.