Pricing, agreements and taxes

This lesson is general information, not tax or legal advice. Taxes and contracts depend on your country, your legal form and your situation. Check your own case with an accountant or lawyer.

Goal

Learn how to think about pricing a partnership, what an agreement should say, and where to look for tax rules (with pointers for Poland), so you can say yes or no to a deal with confidence.

Pricing: a method, not a number

There is no universal rate. Prices depend on your audience, engagement, niche, usage rights and market. Instead of copying a number from the internet, build your price from parts.

Step 1: Your costs and time

Estimate the hours: concept, filming, editing, revisions, communication, posting. Multiply by the hourly rate you want. This is your floor: below it, you work for less than your time is worth.

Step 2: Your expected reach

Look at the views of your last 10 reels (median, not the best) and the share of views that came from your core audience. Brands care about the number of people who will see their message and how relevant those people are.

Step 3: A value check

A common way brands think about it is cost per thousand views (CPM): price divided by (views / 1000). Rates differ widely by niche and market, so ask for the brand’s budget and look at what comparable creators charge, rather than quoting a rate from memory. Compare your floor and your reach-based price, and choose the higher, adjusted for fit.

Illustrative example only, with made-up numbers: if one reel takes 6 hours at your target rate of 30 per hour, the floor is 180. If your median reel gets 5,000 views and you consider 40 per thousand views fair for your niche, the reach-based price is 200. You would quote at least 200.

Step 4: Add for rights and exclusivity

Extra charges are standard when the brand wants:

• Usage rights: to run your video as an ad on their channels, for a period of time.
• Exclusivity: you promise not to work with competitors for a time.
• Extra deliverables: more videos, stories, raw footage.
• Fast turnaround.
• Approval rounds beyond a normal number.

Step 5: Be ready to say no

A deal below your floor, with unreasonable rights or a mismatch for your thread costs you more than it pays.

What to put in an agreement

Even small deals benefit from written terms. A short agreement or an email thread that both sides confirm should cover:

1. Parties and legal names.
2. Deliverables: what exactly, how many, which platforms, length, format.
3. Brief and approval: who writes the message, how many rounds of revision, deadlines.
4. Disclosure: that the content will be labeled as an ad (lesson 9.2).
5. Payment: amount, currency, taxes included or not, due date, how to invoice.
6. Product or service in kind, if any, and its value.
7. Usage rights: who owns the content, for how long the brand may use it.
8. Exclusivity, if any.
9. Cancellation and kill fee.
10. Content standards: claims allowed, things to avoid.
11. Liability for false claims.

Don’t sign what you don’t understand. For larger deals, ask a lawyer to review the contract.

Invoicing

If you’re working as a business or sole trader, issue a proper invoice for each payment. Keep invoices, agreements and screenshots of the published content together.

Taxes: where to look

Tax rules depend on country and status (employee, sole proprietor, company). Content income is not special everywhere, but its category matters for the rate. Some pointers for Poland, taken from published articles and not a substitute for advice:

• A Solidna Księgowa article on ryczałt for online creators says that if services are of an advertising (marketing) nature, the applicable lump-sum (ryczałt) rate is 15 percent. It mentions 8.5 percent for items such as income from advertising on your own blog, running web portals and educational services. It does not clearly explain where the boundary between the rates lies, and recommends classifying each type of income carefully.
• An iFirma article on influencer taxation says that for a business, ryczałt is reported on PIT-28, and that barter (a product or service instead of money) counts as income, while a free gift from a contractor can increase income as a non-cash benefit. It also describes other forms of taxation, such as the tax scale and the flat tax. The article does not discuss VAT, and recommends individual interpretation for influencer cases.
• VAT, including invoicing foreign brands, is not covered by those articles. Ask an accountant before your first deal, especially with a company abroad.
• Rates and rules change. Check with a current source.

If you live elsewhere, search for your tax authority’s guidance on creator or influencer income, and talk to a local accountant.

Separate money

Keep content income and costs traceable: a dedicated account or at least a clear category. Costs may include equipment, software, music licenses, and part of your time. Whether you can deduct them depends on your tax status.

Common mistakes

• Quoting a price from the internet without checking your costs.
• Giving away usage rights for free.
• No written agreement.
• Forgetting that barter is taxable in many systems.
• Learning about VAT after the first payment.

Exercise

1. Calculate your floor price for one reel.
2. Look at the median views of your last reels and compute a reach-based price using a rate you find reasonable for your niche.
3. Draft a one-page agreement template using the checklist above.
4. Write three questions about taxes to ask an accountant.

Daily practice

• Minimum (keeps the streak): a voice note of any length.
• Today’s take (about 30 seconds): Explain how you would price a partnership, in plain words, as to a friend.
• Weeks 1-2 everything stays private; from week 3 follow your publishing plan.
• Don’t watch the take right away (lesson 4.1). Tick the day in your tracker.

Reading (optional)

This week’s book, about 15-20 minutes: Jonah Berger, Contagious. A loose suggestion; it does not have to match the lesson. More in resources and the schedule.

Checklist

• I know my floor and a reach-based price.
• I have an agreement template.
• I know that barter and gifts can be taxable.
• I have questions for an accountant about my situation, including VAT.
• I recorded today’s voice note and take.

Sources

• Solidna Księgowa: Ryczałt dla twórcy internetowego
• iFirma: Rozliczenie podatkowe influencera

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