Long before YouTube and Instagram, blogging was the original creator economy, and for many bloggers it remains a steady source of income through display advertising networks like Google AdSense, sponsored posts, and affiliate links woven into articles. The income streams look different from a YouTuber's, but the underlying tax treatment follows the same broad principles, with a few blog-specific costs worth knowing about.
Running a content website involves a recurring set of costs that are generally deductible against blog revenue: domain registration and renewal fees, web hosting charges, premium themes and plugins, costs of stock images or design tools used in creating content, fees paid to freelance writers, editors, or virtual assistants who help run the blog, and a proportionate share of internet costs. Where a blogger travels to review a product, attend an event, or create content (a food blogger visiting restaurants, a travel blogger's trip), the portion of such expenses genuinely incurred for the blog's content creation may also be considered, though personal-element costs mixed into such trips need to be excluded.
Depending on the scale of the blogging operation and how the activity is characterised (a content creation business versus a specified profession), bloggers may be eligible to consider the presumptive taxation schemes under Sections 44AD or 44ADA, which can simplify compliance by presuming income at a specified percentage of turnover rather than requiring detailed expense-by-expense bookkeeping, subject to the eligibility conditions and turnover thresholds for each scheme.
AdSense revenue is typically paid out by Google from its overseas entities, meaning these are foreign currency receipts converted to Indian Rupees, similar in this respect to a YouTuber's AdSense income. As with other such receipts, this income is fully taxable in India for a resident, with no Indian TDS typically deducted at source by Google, placing the onus on the blogger to track this income and pay advance tax through the year.
AdSense revenue (treated similarly to other digital advertising revenue from an overseas platform) and affiliate commissions from foreign platforms may be considered exports of service for GST purposes where the relevant conditions are met, a different position from sponsorship income received from an Indian brand for a sponsored post, which would be a domestic supply of service. Bloggers earning from a mix of these sources should understand how each stream is treated for their GST registration and invoicing.