Income tax rules for X users: How income from Elon Musk's X (Twitter) will be taxed in India

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earning money via X (formerly Twitter). Those who are receiving monetary benefits have been sharing screenshots of money credited to their bank accounts.

The people receiving such income have been wondering about its taxation. The taxation of earnings via activities that involve getting paid by tweets may be challenging and varies according to the jurisdiction's tax regulations.

Tax experts said that whether you are a salaried individual, or a professional, your social media earnings will be taxed but it will not be the same for all users. Mumbai-based tax and investment expert Balwant Jain said that if this is your sole activity for earning your main income or it earns you substantial income, the same would be treated as business income and would be taxed under the “Profits and Gains of Business or Profession" head.

In case this is just your spare time activity and results in not substantial income relatively the same can be taxed under the head “income from other sources", Jain added. "So in case the same falls under the head “Profits and Gains of Business or Profession", we need to examine whether this would be treated as business or profession and which would depend on what type of content you are sharing If the contents of the tweet which you are sharing require you to have technical expertise for which special training is required, the same would be treated as a profession otherwise the same can be treated as your business income, and provisions of section 44AD would apply," said Balwant Jain.

If you choose to participate in Twitter's monetizing programme and receive advertising revenue via the tweets you post, this revenue additionally counts as a form of self-employment. You were obliged to disclose your earnings