area291 wrote:
It will be interesting to know what your tax advisor says. 

Most likely the IRS stance would be you would have to show the clothing was purchased for the sole purpose of business.  To do that, you would have to sell it for a loss and claim the difference or donate it to charity and deduct the value of the gift.  If the clothing is just hanging in your closet then it's unlikely a deduction would be accepted.

I don't know, maybe she could apportion her underwear between business and personal use.  She could keep a log for every pair like you do with miles on your car.

921 is right.  It is complicated.  To be deductible, things need to be purchased primarily for business use.  I am reminded by a friend of mine who is a self-employed producer/director.  He bought himself a big TV for his living room and a VCR.  He deducted it since he used the TV to view videos submitted to him to review for the Academy Awards so he could vote, to look at actor's reels, submissions by crew and to look at other videos to garner ideas.  The business use was totally legitimate.

He happened to get auditted.  The IRS agent had only one issue, that was his TV.  There was no other TV in his living room and the agent concluded that he must watch it for pleasure as well.  The agent reasoned that the TV was used half time for business and half time for personal use.  He struck half the deduction so my friend owed the IRS about $60 on a tax bill of $50,000.  Obviously the agent let it slide.  But I chuckle at that and it applies here.

Your tax preparer will know how to handle this.  I don't think the feds will be monitoring your panties, but you raise a legitimate point.

area291 wrote:
It will be interesting to know what your tax advisor says. 

Most likely the IRS stance would be you would have to show the clothing was purchased for the sole purpose of business.  To do that, you would have to sell it for a loss and claim the difference or donate it to charity and deduct the value of the gift.  If the clothing is just hanging in your closet then it's unlikely a deduction would be accepted.

isn't that like saying that a business dinner must be regurgitated to be deductible?

Scott Aitken wrote:
I had been told in the past by my accountant that clothes used for work only (like uniforms or safety clothing) are NOT deductible, even if you never wear it anywhere else besides work.

You could make an argument for deducting if you buy clothing for the sole purpose of a photo shoot, and then discard it afterwards, never wearing it again. Essentially, you are arguing that it is a one-time prop, in that example, and not something you would normally wear.

The IRS form is 2106 "Unreimbursed employee expenses".  It can be found at www.irs.gov.
Of course if you are self employed you will expense it on your "Schedule C."

Scott Aitken wrote:
I had been told in the past by my accountant that clothes used for work only (like uniforms or safety clothing) are NOT deductible, even if you never wear it anywhere else besides work.

Most of you are looking at this the wrong way.  You are looking at these things as personal deductions, i.e. as if she were an employee.

markcomp wrote:
The IRS form is 2106 "Unreimbursed employee expenses".  It can be found at www.irs.gov.
Of course if you are self employed you will expense it on your "Schedule C."

This form is irrelevant since she is self-employed. The rules you two are talking about deal with things that are deductible if you work for someone else.  She works for her self.

If she has a good tax preparer, she will treat modeling as a business and file a Schedule C.  Uniforms as they relate to a job are not deductible, but if she files a Schedule C, she will find many more things to be legitimate business expenses.  Clothing, make-up, certain mileage traveling to jobs, hair styling, some meals, etc. are legitimate business expenses.  The list goes on.

She needs to talk to a tax preparer.  She needs someone who knows what they are doing, but there are a lot of deductible expenses.  Perhaps someone here is a CPA.

Alan from Aavian Prod wrote:

Scott Aitken wrote:
I had been told in the past by my accountant that clothes used for work only (like uniforms or safety clothing) are NOT deductible, even if you never wear it anywhere else besides work.

Most of you are looking at this the wrong way.  You are looking at these things as personal deductions, i.e. as if she were an employee.


This form is irrelevant since she is self-employed. The rules you two are talking about deal with things that are deductible if you work for someone else.  She works for her self.

If she has a good tax preparer, she will treat modeling as a business and file a Schedule C.  Uniforms as they relate to a job are not deductible, but if she files a Schedule C, she will find many more things to be legitimate business expenses.  Clothing, make-up, certain mileage traveling to jobs, hair styling, some meals, etc. are legitimate business expenses.  The list goes on.

She needs to talk to a tax preparer.  She needs someone who knows what they are doing, but there are a lot of deductible expenses.  Perhaps someone here is a CPA.

Ironically, I'm a CPA...okay, so maybe its not ironic.  Mostly I agree with you.  With models there is a fine line between what's personal and what's business in terms of clothing, shoes, makeup and "maintenance" (manicures, haircuts, et al).  From my standpoint, I'd base it on how aggressive the model is willing to be with deductions and common sense.  If a model has to get her hair done every week because different shoots demand different styles, to me that's a business expense, because that's a lot more often than your normal person would have his/her hair styled.  Fetish clothing, as was mentioned, would be a pretty easy write-off.  A bikini, on the other hand, would be more challenging.  If the model could produce photos from legitimate shoots, I'd probably take the deduction.  If its the only bikini the model owned, I'd have a harder time justifying the deduction, because there's likely to be significant personal use of the bikini (unless the model lives in, say, Siberia).  Costume jewelry could generally be taken as a deduction, although again the best defense for using it as a business deduction is photos from photoshoots of her wearing it.

And the fun part is that, under audit, an agent could take a completely different view and attempt to disallow everything.  The more evidence a model can provide that these items were used for a business purpose, the stronger his/her case in front of the service.  I'm all in favor of being aggressive, and also in favor of being sane.  Putting every clothing item a model buys during the year as a business expense is just another way of saying "disallow all of it!"  Be reasonable.

And contact me at [email protected] if you want to discuss how to set up your modeling business to benefit you for taxes.

QuaeVide wrote:
Iona might get away with claiming her fetish clothing is solely for modeling as it couldn't possibly be worn anywhere else ...

Don't be so sure about that.....*wink*
Although I'm wearing the same outfits to clubs where I work and get paid to show up dance and look pretty  soooo yup still working in the clothing.


yes I'm doing a scedual C I'll call tomorrow, I forgot today, I was thinking of having images of me in some of the clothing from the shoots.

In some cases yes I do buy clothing for a shoot or for shooting I have this brightly colored bikini that I just can't see me ever wearing to the beach at all ever.
But it is good for shoots.
Just not my style.

aww hell I should stick to the nekked shoots then I don't have to worry about any of this.