How Content Creators Earning Ad-Revenues From Elon Musk's X Would Be Taxed? Find Out!

Content creation is at a booming stage with every generation exploring social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube among others to generate income. This field is a vast spectrum and will continue to grow with time to come. These digital platforms are already a bread-and-butter to many individuals and families, as they can monetise their account and would receive income on every views, clicks, and such on their posts. Recently, in a major good news for users on Twitter, now known as X, billionaire Elon Musk announced to share a portion of the company's ad-revenue with high-profile users. However, these users will be liable to pay taxes in India.

Earlier, in August, Musk announced that X would share its ad-revenue with high-profile subscribers. The user has to meet four requirements to be eligible for this benefit.

How to become eligible for Twitter ad-revenue?

To be considered eligible for receiving a share of ad-revenue, you must:

-- Be subscribed to X Premium or Verified Organizations.

-- Have at least 5 million organic impressions on your cumulative posts within the last 3 months. Earlier, this criterion was 15 million total impressions within the last three months.

- Have at least 500 followers.

- Lastly, be at least 18 years old.

Once you're eligible, you will have to open a Stripe account. This is because Stripe is Twitter's payment processor, for payouts.

On its Help Center, X said, "We want the process to be as simple as possible, so all eligible X Premium and Verified Organizations subscribers are entitled to revenue share so long as they meet the eligibility criteria and join."

The X Premium is an opt-in, paid subscription that adds a blue checkmark to your account and offers early access to select features, like Edit post. This premium account is said to elevate quality conversations on the platform.

Many users have shared their joy of receiving a share of ad-revenues from Twitter in recent times.

However, these incomes from the ad-revenues of Twitter are likely to fall under the 18% GST slab.

As per a PTI report, AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan gave an illustration. He explained that if an individual earning interest income from banks amounting to Rs 20 lakhs annually neither pays GST nor is required to take GST registration.

If he or she generates any additional taxable income now, let's say Rs 1 lakh from platforms like Twitter, he or she would be bound for a GST registration. Mohan added that GST would be levied at 18 per cent on the amount above Rs 20 lakh, which is Rs 1 lakh.

Experts told PTI that it is not only the revenue share earnings from Twitter posts, but income from other sources, like interest, and rental income, which will contribute to the calculation of the threshold for GST registration.

But it needs to be noted that an 18% GST rate will be levied only when the combined income from other sources breaches the Rs 20 lakh per annum mark. This income from other sources can be ad revenues, interests earned on investment schemes like fixed deposits, and rental income, among others.