NIL Income Taxes: A College Athlete’s Complete Tax Guide
NIL Income Is Self-Employment Income (Schedule C and SE Tax)
Almost every NIL deal falls into the same tax bucket: self-employment income reported on Schedule C of Form 1040. That covers endorsement deals, social media posts, autograph signings, camp appearances, licensing payments from a collective, and payments for using your name, image, or likeness in any commercial setting. The payer issues a Form 1099-NEC if they paid you $600 or more in the year, but you owe tax on every dollar regardless of whether a 1099 shows up.
Because NIL income is self-employment income, it gets hit with two layers of federal tax. The first is regular income tax, calculated on your total taxable income using the standard brackets. The second is self-employment tax, which is 15.3% on the first $176,100 of net earnings (12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare). An athlete with $30,000 in NIL income and no other earnings will owe roughly $4,240 in SE tax before any income tax is calculated. That is the part most college athletes do not see coming.
The math gets reported in three places. Schedule C shows revenue, expenses, and net profit. Schedule SE calculates the 15.3% self-employment tax. The 1040 pulls both numbers in and combines them with any other income, deductions, and credits. The IRS [Schedule C instructions](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-c-form-1040) and [Schedule SE instructions](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-se-form-1040) walk through the line-by-line filing, but most athletes hand this off to a CPA because the deduction side is where the savings live.
The Dependency Problem: NIL Income Can Flip a Parent’s Return
Most college athletes are claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax return. The IRS dependency rules in [Publication 501](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501) say a qualifying child under age 24 who is a full-time student for at least five months of the year can still be a dependent, as long as the parent provides more than half of the student’s total support during the year. NIL income changes that math because the student is now generating significant earnings that may be funding a meaningful share of their own support.
Here is where it gets tricky: the test is not whether the athlete spends the money on themselves. It is whether the athlete provides more than half of their own support. If a star quarterback earns $200,000 in NIL income and puts most of it in savings while the parents still pay for housing, food, tuition, insurance, and travel, the parents likely still meet the more-than-half-support test. If the athlete uses NIL income to pay rent, car payments, food, and tuition, the parents probably lose the dependency claim.
Losing the dependency claim has downstream effects on the parents’ return. They lose the $500 Credit for Other Dependents, potentially the American Opportunity Credit (worth up to $2,500), and any state-level dependent benefits. The athlete may now need to file their own return as a non-dependent and can claim some of those credits themselves. Run the math both ways before deciding how to file. We have seen families miss $3,000 to $5,000 in tax savings by defaulting to whatever they did the year before.
Quarterly Estimated Taxes: The Underpayment Penalty Nobody Talks About
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in federal tax for the year, the IRS expects you to pay it in quarterly installments, not at filing time. Most college athletes have no idea this rule exists until they file their first return with NIL income and get hit with a Form 2210 underpayment penalty on top of the tax bill. The penalty is not enormous (currently around 8% annualized on the underpaid amount), but it compounds and it stacks across federal and state.
Quarterly estimated payments are due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. The IRS [estimated taxes guidance](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estimated-taxes) explains how to calculate them using Form 1040-ES. The safe harbor most athletes use is the prior-year rule: pay in 100% of last year’s total tax (110% if last year’s AGI was over $150,000) and the IRS will not penalize you regardless of how much you actually owe.
For an athlete in their first year of NIL income, there is no prior-year baseline because last year’s tax was zero or close to it. That means the safe harbor is automatically met, even if the current-year bill ends up being $30,000. This is the one year of grace before the rules tighten. Use it to set up a separate savings account, dedicate 35% to 40% of every NIL payment to a tax reserve, and start making quarterly payments in year two. Athletes who skip this step end up borrowing money to pay April’s tax bill, which is a uniquely bad way to start an adult financial life.
State Income Tax: Home, School, and Wherever You Worked
Federal tax is one bill. State tax can be three or four. A football player whose family lives in Texas, who plays at the University of Michigan, and who films a commercial in California while attending a tournament in Florida may owe state income tax in Michigan and California (Texas and Florida have no state income tax). The general rule is that you owe income tax to the state where the work was performed, plus tax in your state of legal residence on your total worldwide income, with a credit for taxes paid to other states.
Residency for college athletes is a fact-and-circumstances test. Most students keep their parents’ state as their domicile because they file taxes there, register to vote there, and return home in the summer. But a few high-earning athletes intentionally establish residency in their school’s state if it has no income tax (Florida, Texas, Tennessee), or in a low-tax state, to reduce their overall bill. This requires real planning and documentation, not just a driver’s license change.
For appearance income (camps, signings, NIL events in other states), the source state typically wants its tax even on a single-day appearance. California is particularly aggressive about nonresident income, including a 7% withholding requirement on certain payments. If an athlete signs a $50,000 deal that involves filming in California, they may need to file a California nonresident return regardless of where they live or attend school. Track every state where work happens, save the contract, and let the CPA sort out apportionment at year-end.
Deductible NIL Expenses (Training, Agent Fees, Travel, Content Production)
The good news in self-employment is that ordinary and necessary business expenses come off the top of Schedule C before any tax is calculated. For NIL income, that means training, agent commissions, travel to appearances, content production costs, equipment, and a portion of phone and internet bills can all reduce taxable income. The IRS [Publication 535 on business expenses](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p535) defines the standard: ordinary (common in the field) and necessary (helpful and appropriate). It is a low bar, but it does require documentation.
Common deductible NIL expenses include: agent or manager commissions (typically 10% to 20% of deals), professional training and skill development (only the portion related to the income-generating activity, not your team practices), travel and lodging for appearances, content creation costs (camera equipment, lighting, editing software, a portion of the phone used for social posts), professional photography, legal fees for reviewing contracts, accounting and tax prep fees, and a home office deduction if you have a dedicated space for filming or business work.
What is not deductible: your scholarship-covered tuition, your team’s required gear, anything provided by the school, personal training that you would do anyway as an athlete, and the cost of getting to practice. The line between team activity and NIL activity matters here. A pitcher who pays for private pitching lessons during the off-season cannot deduct those if the lessons mainly serve their college team’s needs. They can deduct them if they are specifically tied to producing instructional content for a paid NIL deal.
When to Form an LLC or S Corp for NIL Income
At low revenue levels, NIL income belongs on Schedule C as a sole proprietorship. There is no entity to form, no separate return, no payroll. Once income gets meaningful, two questions come up: should I form an LLC, and should I make an S corp election?
An LLC by itself is mostly a liability shield. It does not change federal tax treatment unless you also elect S corp status. For an athlete who is signing big endorsement deals with high-profile brands, an LLC adds a layer of protection between the business activity and personal assets. It also helps with the optics of running NIL income through a real business. The cost is usually $50 to $500 per year depending on state filing fees and registered agent costs.
An S corp election is the bigger lever, and it starts paying off when net NIL income consistently exceeds about $40,000 to $50,000. Under S corp treatment, the athlete becomes an employee of their own company, pays themselves a reasonable salary subject to payroll taxes, and takes the remaining profit as distributions that avoid the 15.3% self-employment tax. On $100,000 of net income, the SE tax savings can run $6,000 to $10,000 after factoring in payroll costs and the additional accounting work. Below the $40,000 threshold, the administrative overhead usually wipes out the savings. Run the projection before electing. The election is on [Form 2553](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-2553) and timing matters.
Endorsement vs Appearance vs Licensing Income: Different Deductions
All three are taxed as self-employment income, but the type of deal changes which deductions apply. Endorsement income is payment for promoting a brand on social media or in advertising. Deductible expenses include content production costs, equipment used for creating posts, agent fees, and travel for shoots. Appearance income is payment for showing up somewhere (camps, autograph signings, charity events). Deductible expenses are mostly travel, lodging, and meals at 50%, plus any required equipment. Licensing income is payment for the use of your name, image, or likeness on merchandise. Deductible expenses are typically minimal: legal fees, agent commissions, and a portion of business overhead.
Where it gets messy is when a single deal includes multiple income types. A trading card deal might bundle a licensing fee, an autograph appearance, and a social media promotion clause. The contract should break out the components, but it often does not. For tax purposes, we generally allocate based on the time and effort involved in each piece, document the allocation, and apply the matching deductions to each bucket. The IRS does not require this level of detail on the return, but it matters if you ever get audited.
One area to watch: gifts and free products. If a brand sends you $5,000 in apparel in exchange for wearing it in posts, the IRS treats the fair market value of those products as taxable income. Same with free trips, free meals, free training packages. The brand usually issues a 1099-NEC for the value. If they do not, you still owe tax on it. Document the fair market value yourself when the 1099 does not arrive, because the alternative is the IRS estimating it for you later.
Common NIL Tax Mistakes That Trigger IRS Notices
We have seen the same handful of mistakes show up across hundreds of NIL filings. The most common is unreported 1099 income. The IRS receives every 1099-NEC the same time you do. If the brand reports a $15,000 payment and your return shows $0 of NIL income, you will get a CP2000 notice within 18 months proposing additional tax, penalties, and interest. The fix is filing an amended return before the notice arrives or responding accurately when it does.
Second most common: deducting personal expenses as business expenses. Athletes coming into self-employment for the first time often overdeduct. A new truck, a vacation that included a single sponsor obligation, a gaming setup that doubles as content equipment. The IRS allows the business portion only, and the burden of proof is on you. Keep a mileage log, separate the personal use percentage, and do not run personal Venmo through the business account.
Third: missing the state filings. Athletes who only file a federal return when they earned appearance income in multiple states are essentially inviting state revenue departments to issue notices. State tax agencies share information with each other and with the IRS. A nonresident filing requirement in California or New York that gets ignored will surface eventually, usually with penalties that have been growing for two or three years.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do NIL income taxes work for college athletes?
NIL income taxes work the same way as taxes on any other self-employment income. When a college athlete receives payment for the use of their name, image, or likeness, whether through an endorsement deal, a social media post, an appearance fee, or a licensing arrangement, the IRS treats that payment as income from a trade or business. The athlete reports it on Schedule C of Form 1040, calculates net profit after deducting business expenses, and pays both regular income tax and self-employment tax on the result. There is no W-2, no withholding, and no employer matching any portion of the tax.
The mechanics involve four federal forms in most cases. Form 1099-NEC arrives from any payer who sent the athlete $600 or more during the year, summarizing what was paid. Schedule C reports gross revenue from all NIL activities along with deductible business expenses, producing a net profit number. Schedule SE calculates the 15.3% self-employment tax on the first $176,100 of net earnings, with 2.9% continuing on amounts above that. Form 1040 ties it all together, combining the net profit with any other income, applying credits and deductions, and calculating the final tax liability. Nil income taxes are not separate from regular taxes in any technical sense; they are just regular income taxes plus self-employment tax applied to the specific category of NIL revenue.
Beyond the federal return, state filings add another layer. The athlete owes income tax to their state of residence on all NIL income, plus possibly nonresident state taxes in any other state where they performed work. A North Carolina student who plays at the University of Alabama and films a commercial in California has potential filings in three states. Some states have reciprocity agreements that simplify this; many do not. Tracking the source state of every dollar of NIL income matters more than most athletes realize when their CPA starts preparing the return.
The timing of nil income taxes also matters. NIL income is taxed in the year it is received, not the year it is earned or the year the contract was signed. An athlete who signs a $100,000 deal in November 2026 but does not receive the first payment until February 2027 reports that income on the 2027 return. This timing distinction sometimes lets athletes shift income across tax years intentionally, but it requires careful drafting of the contract and cooperation from the payer.
Quarterly estimated tax payments are the part of nil income taxes that catches most athletes off guard. Because there is no withholding, the IRS expects athletes to make four estimated payments throughout the year totaling at least 100% of last year’s tax (110% if AGI was over $150,000) or 90% of the current year’s tax. Missing the threshold triggers a Form 2210 underpayment penalty. For first-year NIL recipients, last year’s tax was probably zero, so the safe harbor is automatically met. Year two is where the penalties start.
Deductions reduce the amount of NIL income subject to tax. Agent commissions, training expenses tied to specific deals, content production costs, travel to appearances, professional fees, and a portion of phone and internet bills all come off the top before the tax calculation. Good record-keeping during the year makes April much less painful. Most of the athletes we work with use a simple spreadsheet or QuickBooks subscription to track income and expenses as they happen rather than reconstructing everything at year-end.
For families with a college athlete earning meaningful NIL income, planning starts before the first deal closes. Decide how nil income taxes will be paid (cash reserve from each payment), whether the athlete will remain a dependent on the parents’ return, whether an LLC or S corp makes sense, and which states are likely to have filing requirements. The cost of getting this right is small compared to the cost of fixing it after a CP2000 notice arrives 18 months later.
Are NIL income taxes higher than taxes on regular wages?
Yes, by a meaningful margin in most cases. Nil income taxes are higher than the equivalent dollar amount earned as W-2 wages because self-employment income carries an extra 15.3% in self-employment tax that wages do not. The reason is structural: W-2 employees and their employers split Social Security and Medicare taxes 50-50, with each paying 7.65%. Self-employed individuals, including college athletes earning NIL income, pay both halves themselves.
A concrete example helps. Imagine two college sophomores. One has a campus job paying $30,000 in W-2 wages. The other earns $30,000 in NIL endorsement income. The W-2 employee sees $2,295 in Social Security and Medicare withheld from their paychecks during the year, and their employer pays another $2,295 the employee never sees. The NIL athlete pays the full $4,590 themselves, calculated on Schedule SE. Both pay regular federal income tax on top of that based on their tax bracket, but the SE tax is the addition that makes nil income taxes higher.
There is a partial offset built into the rules. Self-employed individuals can deduct half of their SE tax as an above-the-line deduction on Schedule 1 of the 1040. This reduces taxable income for regular income tax purposes, recovering some of the difference. In practice, the offset is modest. The athlete in the example above gets to deduct $2,295 from their gross income before regular income tax is calculated, which at a 22% bracket saves about $505. Net difference compared to W-2 wages: roughly $4,085 in extra tax on the $30,000 of NIL income.
The picture changes once expenses come into play. Self-employed athletes can deduct business expenses directly against NIL income, while W-2 employees generally cannot deduct unreimbursed work expenses since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated that deduction. An athlete who spends $5,000 on training, $3,000 on travel to appearances, and $2,000 on content production reduces their Schedule C net profit to $20,000, which reduces both income tax and SE tax. A W-2 employee with the same out-of-pocket expenses gets no deduction. After expenses, nil income taxes can end up comparable to W-2 taxes on a lower gross dollar amount.
The S corp structure is another way to reduce nil income taxes once revenue scales. An athlete with $100,000 in net NIL income who elects S corp treatment pays themselves a reasonable salary (subject to FICA) and takes the remainder as a distribution (not subject to SE tax or FICA). On $100,000 of net income split as $50,000 salary and $50,000 distribution, the SE tax savings are roughly $7,000 after payroll costs and incremental accounting fees. This is the lever that high-earning NIL athletes pull to bring their tax rate closer to what W-2 employees pay.
State tax treatment is essentially the same for both NIL income and W-2 wages, with the wrinkle that NIL athletes may owe tax in multiple states. The federal preference for wages is just the SE tax structure. Some athletes coming from privileged backgrounds find this surprising; they assumed taxes worked the same way regardless of income type. The IRS does not see it that way. Self-employment income is taxed harder because the system was designed to fund Social Security and Medicare through both employee and employer contributions, and the IRS does not want self-employed taxpayers escaping that funding by being their own employer.
The counterintuitive part: a 17-year-old with a part-time job and a 19-year-old with a $50,000 NIL deal can both end up paying about the same effective federal tax rate, because the SE tax on NIL income roughly cancels out the higher gross. The 19-year-old is making more money, paying more total tax in dollars, but the after-tax dollar-per-hour can be similar if the NIL athlete is not deducting aggressively or planning ahead. Knowing the rules ahead of time is what turns NIL income from a high-tax category into a wealth-building category.
How do NIL income taxes affect FAFSA and financial aid?
NIL income taxes and FAFSA interact in ways that can cost families thousands in financial aid if the timing and reporting are not handled carefully. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) uses two-year-old tax data to calculate the Student Aid Index, which determines how much federal, state, and institutional aid a student qualifies for. NIL income earned by the student counts in this calculation, and it counts at a much higher rate than parent income.
The mechanics work like this. FAFSA assesses student income at roughly 50% above an annual protected income allowance (currently around $7,600), meaning every dollar of NIL income above the allowance reduces aid eligibility by 50 cents. Parent income is assessed at a much lower rate, between 22% and 47% on a sliding scale, and only after a larger income protection allowance. Student assets get hit at 20% per year, parent assets at a maximum of 5.64%. The system is structured to expect students to contribute the majority of their own earnings toward college costs.
A college athlete who earns $50,000 in NIL income two years before the FAFSA filing year could lose more than $20,000 in financial aid for that filing year alone. If the aid is need-based (Pell Grant, subsidized loans, institutional need-based scholarships), it disappears entirely once the family’s calculated contribution exceeds the cost of attendance. For families relying on need-based aid to fund college, this can flip the economics of NIL deals from a benefit to a net cost if the lost aid exceeds the after-tax NIL income.
Nil income taxes interact with FAFSA in a subtle additional way. The FAFSA uses adjusted gross income from the tax return, not gross NIL revenue. Business expenses deducted on Schedule C reduce AGI and so reduce the income figure that FAFSA sees. An athlete with $80,000 in gross NIL income and $30,000 in legitimate business expenses reports $50,000 of net profit, which flows to AGI. Aggressive but legitimate deduction tracking can soften the FAFSA hit, though it cannot eliminate it.
Timing matters enormously. The FAFSA uses tax returns from the year that ended approximately 18 months before the filing year. A student filing the FAFSA in October 2026 for the 2027-2028 academic year uses the 2025 tax return. NIL income earned in 2027 will not affect FAFSA aid until the 2029-2030 academic year. Families with younger high school students who are also athletes should think about this two-year lag when their kids start signing NIL deals in high school (now permitted in many states), because deals signed in 9th and 10th grade affect college aid eligibility.
Some strategies legitimately reduce the FAFSA impact of NIL income. Contributing to a Roth IRA (up to $7,000 in 2026 for those under 50) does not reduce AGI but does shelter the assets in a retirement account that FAFSA does not count. Funneling income through an S corp can split income between salary (which counts) and distributions (which still count as student income but may be paid in years that fall outside the FAFSA look-back period if timed correctly). Establishing a 529 plan owned by a grandparent (not the parent or student) keeps the assets off the FAFSA entirely under current rules.
For families where the athlete has high NIL income and modest college-funding needs, the FAFSA impact is irrelevant because they would not qualify for need-based aid anyway. For families where the NIL athlete is the first in the household to earn significant income and the family was counting on need-based aid, the FAFSA hit can be a serious surprise. Run the projection before signing major deals. We have had a few client families restructure NIL contracts to defer payments into post-graduation years specifically to preserve FAFSA aid eligibility during the college years.
Do NIL income taxes apply across multiple states for traveling athletes?
Yes, and this is one of the most under-planned aspects of nil income taxes for college athletes. Every state with an income tax wants its share of any income earned within its borders, regardless of where the athlete lives or attends school. A football player who films a commercial in California, signs autographs at an event in New York, attends a tournament in Pennsylvania, and lives in Texas during the off-season may have filing obligations in California, New York, and Pennsylvania, plus federal filing covering everything.
The general framework is residence versus source. Your state of legal residence taxes you on your worldwide income, including all NIL income earned anywhere. States where you physically performed work (filmed content, made appearances, gave interviews) tax you on the income sourced to work done in that state, even if you were there for a single day. To avoid double taxation, your residence state generally gives you a credit for taxes paid to other states, but the credit is capped at what your residence state would have charged on that same income.
California is the state most aggressive about nonresident taxation of NIL income. The Franchise Tax Board has long pursued out-of-state athletes for income earned during games and appearances in California, and the same approach applies to NIL deals. Any commercial filmed in California, any appearance at a Los Angeles event, any social media content created while physically located in California can be argued as California-source income subject to California tax at rates that top 13.3%. The state has a withholding requirement on certain nonresident performer payments that brands sometimes apply automatically.
New York applies similar rules and is particularly active in pursuing athletes and entertainers for nonresident income. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and several other states have well-developed nonresident filing rules that catch NIL athletes. States with no income tax (Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire on earned income) do not impose any state tax on NIL income earned within their borders, which makes them attractive states to perform work in or establish residency.
Nil income taxes for traveling athletes require contemporaneous documentation. Save every contract, note the state where the work was performed, track travel dates, and keep records of any state tax withheld at the source. At year-end, a CPA will allocate income to each state based on where the work happened, file nonresident returns where required, and claim credits for taxes paid in other states on your residence state return. The mechanical paperwork is not hard; the data collection is what most athletes get wrong.
Residency planning is the more advanced lever. An athlete who attends college in Texas, Florida, or Tennessee can claim residency in those no-tax states fairly easily by establishing the typical residency markers: state ID, voter registration, banking, vehicle registration, primary physical presence. An athlete whose family lives in California or New York and who attends college in another state typically remains a California or New York resident for tax purposes, because residency follows the athlete’s permanent home and family ties, not the school address. Moving residency requires actually moving, not just changing the address on a form.
The counterintuitive part of multi-state nil income taxes: a single $10,000 NIL deal that involves filming in three states might generate state tax filings in four jurisdictions (the three film states plus the residence state) for a total tax bill that is barely changed from a single-state version of the same deal, because of the residence-state credit. The cost is mostly compliance time and accounting fees, not additional tax. Athletes who avoid filing nonresident returns to save the prep fees often end up paying multi-year penalties when the source states catch up, which happens more often than you would think because state revenue departments share data with the IRS and with each other.
What NIL income tax deductions can college athletes claim?
The deductions that reduce nil income taxes are the same business expense deductions available to any self-employed taxpayer, applied to the specific activities that generate NIL income. The standard is set in IRS Publication 535 and Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code: ordinary (common in the field) and necessary (helpful and appropriate). The IRS gives self-employed athletes meaningful latitude on what counts, but the expense must be tied to producing income and must be documented.
Agent and manager commissions are typically the largest single deduction for athletes with major endorsement deals. Standard NIL agent commissions range from 10% to 20% of deal value, deducted directly from the payment or paid separately. The full commission is deductible as a business expense on Schedule C. If you pay an agent $20,000 in commissions on $100,000 in NIL income, you report $100,000 in gross revenue and deduct $20,000 as commissions, leaving $80,000 in net profit subject to nil income taxes.
Training expenses tied to specific NIL income are deductible, though the line between college team training (not deductible) and personal business training (deductible) requires care. A swimmer who hires a private stroke coach to prepare for a sponsored Olympic trial appearance can deduct the coaching fees as a business expense if the appearance generates direct NIL income. The same swimmer cannot deduct training fees that simply make them a better college athlete, because that benefits the team activity, not the NIL business. Allocate carefully and document the connection.
Travel and lodging for NIL appearances are fully deductible when the trip is primarily for business. This includes flights, hotels, ground transportation, baggage fees, and tips. Meals during business travel are deductible at 50% of the actual cost. A football player who flies to Los Angeles for a two-day commercial shoot can deduct the airfare, hotel, rental car, and half of meal costs. If the trip includes personal time before or after, allocate the costs based on the business-versus-personal day split.
Content production costs are increasingly the second-largest deduction category for NIL athletes who run an active social media presence. This includes camera equipment, lighting, microphones, editing software subscriptions, props, graphics, and music licensing. A portion of phone and internet costs is deductible based on the percentage of time used for content creation. We typically see athletes using 30% to 70% business-use percentages for their phones, depending on how much of their NIL activity runs through it.
Professional services are deductible: legal fees for reviewing NIL contracts, accounting and tax preparation fees, financial planning fees tied to business income, and any insurance specific to the NIL activity (some athletes carry liability or disability insurance on their commercial appearance income). The home office deduction is available if the athlete has a dedicated space used regularly and exclusively for NIL business work, calculated either using the simplified method ($5 per square foot up to 300 square feet) or the actual expense method based on the percentage of home costs allocated to the office.
Vehicle expenses for travel to NIL appearances and content creation locations are deductible using either the standard mileage rate (67 cents per mile in 2026) or actual expenses. The mileage log is essential here; the IRS does not accept reconstructed estimates if challenged. Education expenses that maintain or improve skills required for the NIL business may be deductible, though new skills that qualify the athlete for a new trade generally are not. Marketing and promotion costs (a personal website, photography, graphic design for branding) are clearly deductible. Charitable donations made personally are not Schedule C deductions but may be deductible on Schedule A as itemized deductions, with different rules. The key principle across all nil income taxes deductions: keep records throughout the year, separate business and personal spending, and let your CPA tell you what survives audit scrutiny rather than guessing on your own.