Photographers and videographers: event work and packages
One package price covers the shoot, the album, and the prints. Here is why that mix matters more than you would think.
A wedding package includes the coverage, an album, prints, and a video. The client pays one price for all of it, usually with a deposit months ahead.
That single bundled price hides three separate issues: what you sold, when you earned it, and what happens to the deposit.
Services and goods in one package
Photography is a service. An album and prints are goods. A package that includes both is a mixed transaction, and the two parts do not always behave identically.
For a small operator this may not change much day to day, but it matters as you grow, particularly around thresholds and the documents you issue. It also matters for your own understanding of the business: the album has a cost per unit that the shooting hours do not, and a package priced without regard to that can lose money on the physical items while looking profitable overall.
The practical habit is to know the internal breakdown of your own package even when the client sees one number.
The deposit problem
Event work is paid in advance. A booking made in January for a December wedding usually comes with a deposit, then staged payments, then a balance.
That deposit is money in your account for work not yet done. Spending it is the single most common way event photographers get into trouble, because the cost of delivering that wedding, second shooter, editing time, album printing, travel, is still ahead of you.
There is also a timing question in your records: money received in one period for an event in another needs to be recorded in a way that does not pretend the job is finished. And if a client cancels, what happens to the deposit should be settled in the contract rather than argued about later.
Where the tax questions land
Registration. Once you are shooting events regularly, this is a business, and business clients in particular will need documents from you. Corporate shoots, hotel work, and agency jobs will not pay an unregistered supplier.
Deductions on corporate work. Companies paying for services generally deduct something before paying and remit it in your name. Keep the certificates; they are credits against your own tax.
Your equipment. Cameras, lenses, lighting, and computers are long-lived assets. Their cost is recognised over the years they serve you rather than all at once, which surprises people in the year of a big purchase.
Second shooters and editors. People you pay per job are either contractors or employees, and whichever they are brings obligations. Paying a second shooter in cash with no record leaves you with an unsupported cost and them with an undocumented income.
Practical footing
Keep a job file per event: contract, deposit, payments, costs, and the delivery date. The whole business becomes legible.
Know your package's internal breakdown even if the client does not see it.
Track deposits separately from earned income so you know how much of your bank balance is already committed.
Get the certificates from corporate clients as you are paid.
Record your equipment purchases properly, with dates and amounts.
Shooting events and unsure how to handle deposits, packages, or the deductions on corporate jobs? Ask AskOnward for a clear answer from the official BIR rules, so the busy season does not leave your books behind.
This article is for general information and is not affiliated with the government. For official forms and the latest rules, see the Bureau of Internal Revenue at bir.gov.ph.