If you sell designs on Redbubble, your earnings are self-employment income, and Redbubble taxes come down to two things you owe on your net profit: regular income tax and a 15.3% self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare. Redbubble does not send you a 1099 or any other tax form, so tracking the income and reporting it on your return is entirely your job.1Redbubble. Where Is My 1099?
How to Report Redbubble Income With No 1099
Redbubble states it does not issue tax forms to artists on its marketplace.1Redbubble. Where Is My 1099? No form arriving in January doesn’t make the income tax-free. The IRS wants every dollar reported whether a form was issued or not.
Your payment processor is a separate matter. PayPal, Payoneer, or whatever service deposits your Redbubble earnings may send you a Form 1099-K. For 2026, third-party payment platforms must file a 1099-K for any payee who receives more than $20,000 across more than 200 transactions.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill; Dollar Limit Reverts to $20,000 Most casual sellers don’t hit both thresholds, so self-tracking is the only reliable number.
Build that number from both sides. Download your payment history from your Redbubble dashboard for the calendar year and reconcile it against deposits in your payment processor. If the two match, you have a defensible figure. If they don’t, dig into the difference before you file.
Your Redbubble earnings go on Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business), attached to your Form 1040.3Internal Revenue Service. IRS Form 1040 Schedule C – Profit or Loss From Business Total revenue minus business expenses equals the net profit that gets taxed. If Redbubble asks you to complete a Form W-9 providing your taxpayer identification number, do it.4Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
What You Owe: Income Tax Plus Self-Employment Tax
Your net profit from Schedule C gets taxed twice over, in a sense. First at your regular income tax rate alongside any other income you have. Then again under self-employment tax, which covers the Social Security and Medicare contributions a regular employer would normally split with you. As a Redbubble seller, you are both employer and employee, so you pay both halves.5Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
Self-employment tax is calculated on Schedule SE at a combined rate of 15.3%, made up of two parts:
- Social Security at 12.4%, which applies only to net earnings up to $184,500 in 2026. Earnings above that cap aren’t subject to this portion.6Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
- Medicare at 2.9%, which applies to all net earnings with no cap. If your total self-employment income tops $200,000 as a single filer or $250,000 married filing jointly, you owe an extra 0.9% Medicare tax on the amount above that threshold.7Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax
One partial offset: you can deduct roughly half of your self-employment tax (the employer-equivalent portion) when calculating your adjusted gross income. That lowers your income tax but not the self-employment tax itself.5Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
Paying Quarterly So You Don’t Get Penalized
Nobody is withholding tax from your Redbubble checks, so the IRS expects you to pay through the year. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more after any withholding and refundable credits, you generally need to make quarterly estimated payments.8Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Form 1040-ES These cover both income tax and self-employment tax on your Redbubble profit.
The four 2026 deadlines:
- April 15, 2026, for January through March
- June 15, 2026, for April and May
- September 15, 2026, for June through August
- January 15, 2027, for September through December
You can skip the January 15 payment if you file your full 2026 return and pay the balance by February 1, 2027.8Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Form 1040-ES
To dodge the underpayment penalty, pay at least 90% of your current year’s tax or 100% of last year’s tax, whichever is smaller. If your prior-year adjusted gross income was over $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately), the prior-year threshold rises to 110%.9Internal Revenue Service. Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals Penalty The penalty isn’t catastrophic, but it compounds, and a strong fourth quarter from holiday sales can leave you with a painful April bill if you ignored the quarters.
Deductions That Lower Your Taxable Profit
Every ordinary and necessary business expense on Schedule C reduces the income you pay both income tax and self-employment tax on. For most Redbubble sellers, deductions do more to shrink the tax bill than any other move.
Design Tools, Software, and Equipment
Subscriptions to Adobe Creative Cloud, Procreate, Affinity Designer, mockup generators, font licenses, and stock image services are fully deductible in the year you pay. Fees to freelance designers for outsourced artwork count too. A drawing tablet or a computer bought mainly for design work is deductible, and for equipment that costs more than a few hundred dollars and lasts over a year, Section 179 generally lets you write off the full purchase price the year you buy it rather than depreciating it over several years. The 2026 Section 179 cap is far higher than anything a Redbubble seller is likely to spend.
If an item serves both personal and business use, you deduct only the business-use percentage. A laptop used 70% for design and 30% for personal browsing yields a 70% deduction.
Marketing and Advertising
Paid social ads, promoted pins, promotional video production, a portfolio website, a custom domain, and a business email subscription are all deductible when the purpose is promoting your shop.
Internet, Phone, and Utilities
A share of your monthly internet and phone bills is deductible based on the percentage used for business. Be honest about the split. The IRS will not accept 100% business use of a home internet connection unless that’s genuinely true.
Home Office
If part of your home is used exclusively and regularly as your design workspace, you can claim the home office deduction using either of two methods:10Internal Revenue Service. Simplified Option for Home Office Deduction
- The simplified method: $5 per square foot up to 300 square feet, capped at $1,500 per year.
- The regular method: the percentage of your home used for the office applied to actual housing costs (rent or mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, repairs).
The regular method often beats the simplified one when housing costs are high, but you need receipts for everything in the calculation. The exclusive-use rule is strict. A desk in the corner of a bedroom you also sleep and watch TV in won’t qualify. A spare room used only for your Redbubble work does.
Health Insurance Premiums
If you buy your own health, dental, or vision coverage for yourself, a spouse, or dependents, you can deduct 100% of the premiums as an adjustment to income. The deduction is reported on Form 7206 and flows to Schedule 1 of Form 1040.11Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 7206 You need a net profit for the year, you can’t be eligible for coverage through a spouse’s employer plan, and the deduction can’t exceed your net self-employment income from the business tied to the policy.
Mileage and Professional Fees
Trips to a supply store, post office, or client meeting qualify for the business mileage deduction at the 2026 rate of 72.5 cents per mile.12Internal Revenue Service. The Standard Mileage Rates and Maximum Automobile Fair Market Values Have Been Updated for 2026 You need a log noting date, destination, business purpose, and miles. Without it, the deduction won’t survive an audit. CPA fees for tax prep or business advice, trademark registration costs, and legal consultations about the business all deduct on Schedule C.
A Note on Sales Tax, VAT, and GST
Consumption taxes charged to buyers are not your problem. Redbubble operates as the merchant of record for marketplace sales, meaning the platform is legally responsible for collecting U.S. sales tax, EU VAT, Australian and Canadian GST, and similar foreign consumption taxes. The money is added to the buyer’s checkout price and remitted by Redbubble. It never hits your account. You don’t register for sales tax permits, track state nexus thresholds, or file VAT returns for your Redbubble sales. This coverage applies only to Redbubble transactions. If you also sell through your own website or another platform that isn’t a merchant of record, those sales are on you.
If You Sell From Outside the U.S.
Foreign sellers face U.S. withholding rules on U.S.-sourced payments, which generally means sales to buyers in the United States. The default withholding rate without any paperwork on file is 30%, taken off the top before you see the money.13Internal Revenue Service. NRA Withholding
To avoid or reduce it, file Form W-8BEN with Redbubble certifying your foreign status.14Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-8 BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals) If your country has a tax treaty with the U.S., Part II of the W-8BEN lets you claim a reduced rate by citing the specific treaty article covering your income type.15Internal Revenue Service. Form W-8BEN – Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals) Treaty rates range from 0% to 15% depending on the country, so the paperwork is worth the effort. A tax advisor familiar with cross-border income can confirm the right article if you’re not sure. Separately, your home country still expects you to report your worldwide Redbubble income under its own rules.
Records That Back Up What You File
The burden of proof for every deduction sits with you. Open a dedicated bank account for your Redbubble business and run every business expense through it. Mixing personal and business spending in one account is the single fastest way to lose deductions you were entitled to.
Save receipts for everything. The IRS accepts digital copies as long as they’re legible, organized, and reproducible as hard copies if requested.16Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 97-22 Electronic Storage Systems Receipt-scanning apps and cloud expense trackers meet the standard, but only if you use them consistently.
Treat the whole operation like a business. Keep clean books, track expenses as they happen, and actively work to grow the shop. If the IRS ever questions whether your activity is a business or a hobby, that paper trail is what protects your deductions.
Keep tax records at least three years from your filing date. If you underreport income by more than 25%, the IRS has six years to audit, so seven years is a safer default. Digital storage costs almost nothing, and the records that save a deduction five years from now are the ones you kept today.