Are you a drag performer that needs to do taxes and don’t know where to start? I wrote this blog to help drag performer friends that need to file their taxes and looking for tips on deductions, write-offs, and tips. 

One thing I want to state off the bat – taking this info is at your own risk. I am not a CPA or a tax expert. I’m doing my best, just like you. If you are taking my advice, make sure you seriously read this carefully along with all my caveats. 

What I am is a drag performer that’s also a geek about finances and write-offs. I keep track of pretty much all my purchases and my income in excel sheets, and I also work in fintech outside of drag and I did freelance writing for a tax app. 

Here’s how I do my drag taxes and I hope that it can help you as well. 

Do I have to report taxes?

First question, for the “baby performer” or one returning from a hiatus, are you eligible for drag write offs? The first question is, did you earn $600 or more in a year from drag?

A: Yes.

According to the IRS, you are supposed to report this income. (But depending on how big that number is, you get to make that decision. I won’t tell. Obviously, if you make a living doing drag, you need to do taxes.)

B: No.

Okay, then you don’t need to report your earnings! But if this is a low year and you want to do more drag and make money later, you can file a Schedule C anyway. The IRS will keep track of this info, and generally you have roughly five years to turn a profit. It may cost money with your tax preparation tool so it may not be worth it.

“But Hennessy, you say! I may have earned $750 from drag payment and gigs, but it’s really like -$300 once you count all the wigs, costumes, and rhinestones I had to buy!”

This is how writing things off for drag can help you. 

Quick Easy Drag Tax Tips

Here are some easy quick start tips:

• There are apps designed to help trace purchases in your bank accounts and suggest potential write offs, powered by AI. AI is a pretty contentious word these days, but remember that it can be a tool. You can sift through its suggestions and then mark what may be a write off for you. 
• If you’ve never collected receipts before or kept track of your purchases, don’t worry. You can likely find a lot of these stored in sites you regularly use to buy things, like Amazon, or eBay. If you regularly use a site to buy wigs, tights, Go through your Venmo statements if you buy from local artists and pay them there. In the future, consider keeping a spreadsheet of all drag-related purchases. 
• TurboTax is highly overrated, and expensive, when there are many sites you can use for almost free. Keep in mind that most tax apps will make you pay if you have a W-2 and freelance business where you have to fill out a Schedule C, they will make you pay more for filing taxes. You also pay more if you make over $73,000 a year. That said, I actually recommend getting a TurboTax account and walking through the Schedule C process if this is your first time. Then doing the actual taxes elsewhere. The reason for this, is their site holds your hand the most and is pretty intuitive when it comes to potential errors or letting you know about potential write offs.

Keep in mind that you can only write off as much as you earn. So if you made $2,000 in drag in one year, you can’t write off $3000 worth of expenses, the IRS will only reimburse up to the amount you earned, so $2,000. So don’t just spend a fortune in drag thinking you can write it off if you’re not making it back. 

What do I report?

The funny thing with drag is most of what we make tends to be on a cash-basis. It’s pretty well known that waitresses and delivery drivers prefer cash for tips as they don’t have to report the earnings. However, with drag, most of our earnings are quite literally cash and tips. So while you can easily get away with not reporting up to a certain amount, it also means you have less that you can deduct. The general rule would be to report all your earnings: base pay along with tips – cash, venmo, etc for gigs.

If you get a 1099 for drag, you can also mention that it’s part of your overall drag business so that gets included in your earnings. Just make sure you don’t accidentally report it twice if you’re counting your earnings like I do. 

So what can I write off?

So here’s the rub. You’re supposed to only write off purchases you made for your business. If it’s a personal purchase, it doesn’t count. But with many entrepreneurs starting out, the line gets blurred. Obviously if you wear makeup outside of drag, you’re gonna use that same foundation and mascara for a fancy night out. And if you bought a clothing steamer for drag, you’re also gonna use it for your regular clothes. This is where you use discretion, but generally, if the purchase is mainly for drag, you’re good. 

First, here are the obvious: 

• Wigs, nails, pantyhoses, lashes, jewelry, accessories, adhesives.
• All makeup, sponges, brushes, glitter, even skincare items.
• Anything you use for styling hair and wigs: Got2B glued, bobby pins, wig stands.
• Anything you use to make costumes: thread, rhinestones, fabric, glue
• Dry cleaning for costumes. 
• Props: signs, party poppers, etc. 
• Anything used to make drag props like a hot glue gun, EVA foam, markers, paint. 

Some less obvious – long term drag investments:

• Did you buy a craft table specifically for drag projects? You can write that off, along with a sewing machine, serger, or cutting mat.
• If you have a lights setup for photos, videos, or digital drag, you can write that off, along with any backdrops, or a camera. 
• Drag-related classes: dance classes, Skillshare, private lessons for any drag related skill like sewing, wig-making, or performance.
• App subscriptions like Facetune, or video editing apps for TikTok and Reels. 
• If you are a producer, artist, or streamer and need a separate laptop or phone for drag, you can also write that off entirely, with your profits being the limit. 

Did you know you can also “write off” drag expenses like losses or unfulfilled services? If a drag creator was supposed to make a wig for you and then dropped off the face of the earth, you can deduct that by including the dollar amount you paid them. Similarly, if you lost money producing a show, you can include that loss by including the expenses you did pay out. 

Depreciation

When you use gear for work, it depreciates. Depreciation is a tough one to figure out, but in short, they will ask you to estimate how much you use an item for drag versus personal use. For a lot of self-reported things, just do your best to estimate what this is. For example, for my phone, I put down that I use it for drag 40% of the time, because it’s also integral for my event production. But my new laptop is primarily for drag, so I put down 80% for that. 

Many tax websites can automatically estimate a value lost over a period of time once you input it. You’ll need to include the date you bought the item, even if it’s before the year you’re filing for. Electronics will slowly degrade so you can write off what you’re losing in value, based on the estimate they give you. 

Car Expenses

This gets its own category because it’s complicated, so buckle up. You basically have two ways to do this:

You can deduct the actual expenses of your car (gas, repairs, insurance, tires, car registration, etc) or you can take the standard mileage deduction. 

The standard mileage deduction just asks you how many business miles you drove and gives you a deduction based on that. Personally, I do mileage because it’s a pain to keep gas receipts and such. For this, it’s a pain but I actually do my best to keep track of trips taken for drag, specifically shows I drive to. I look up the general address from my home and then calculate the distance. Then I multiply it by how many times I performed there. You can also simply guestimate and say that 3k of the 10k miles you drove in one year are for drag. 

The bonus for actual expenses is that you can be a lot more particular with the details and write everything off, as it relates to your car. Things like insurance can’t be written off for example, for the standard mileage deduction.

Parking payments and tolls actually go in their own category, so you can still write them off separately for drag. 

Networking & Food

You can write off networking opportunities – yes, even when it’s a ticket to go see your friend’s show. For food, if you’re also buying drinks to get on a drag acquaintance’s good side, you can deduct this at a 50% rate. Use that info as you will. 

Obviously, if you go to a drag convention like Drag Con, you can completely write off your ticket cost. Even if all you did was take with your favorite Ru girls, it’s still a fair and applicable networking expense. (How would they know anyway?)

You can also deduct your drag meals on the job, which means you can write off your McDonald’s nuggies before or after the show. Obviously, the IRS isn’t going to know if your Taco Bell order was before a gig or not. Again, this can go a long way so don’t get too crazy with deducting random food items if you want to be on the safe side. 

Travel

Of course, if you travel for drag, you can write off anything associated with drag:

• Flight
• Hotels / AirBNB
• Gas money (or you can include it in the itemized car deductions)
• Rideshare Fees from the Airport to the hotel

Home Office Deduction

According to the freelance tax app I worked at, this is the “gotcha” where some people get in trouble for writing off a small amount of their rent or mortgage off for their small business. However, as long as you do this the right way, you shouldn’t have to worry about this. 

The home office deduction is basically where there is an entire portion of your home only used for drag. If it’s occasionally a drag space but also a guest room / place to watch TV, this renders it ineligible. I have a drag area in my one-room apartment that is entirely dedicated to drag. It’s my sewing and creation area. Even easier, if it’s a room or literal home office.

This is where you take out your tape measure (just go buy one) and measure the dimensions of that space. Then, you need to include the actual area of your home or apartment, and the tax preparation website should come off with an amount to write off for the home office deduction.

If you’re not entirely sure your drag space is eligible and exclusive for drag, this is probably one to skip. 

Other Deductions to Consider 

A clip from my Haute Ones show that I host monthly.

As drag performers, we do a lot of different things. Some of us make wigs. Some of us stream on Twitch or make viral TikTok videos. Maybe you’re like me and you write a drag blog. I’ve also interviewed drag artists that bake! You can put these side gigs in their category, or include it under your drag umbrella. Just remember not to go overboard to invoke suspicion.

The rest in this category are going to depend on what kind of drag you do and what you specialize in. Consider…

• Audio mixers, editing software, microphones if you’re a singer
• Shipping costs, postage, Etsy listing fees if you’re a maker of drag items.
• Web-hosting fee if you’re a blogger
• Posters, social scheduling tools, FB advertisements for producers
• Editing or captioning services if you’re a YouTuber or TikToker

Keep in mind that as “supplies” run the gamut in terms of what you can write off, it can be almost anything. For example, you generally can’t write off groceries. But if you do a drag mukbang on Twitch, you can write off what you bought for the mukbang. I host a Twitch Hot Ones parody show, so I write off the hot wings I buy for my performers. I also write off groceries for the ingredients I used for my drag baking episodes.

Even more unusual deductions

Have you watched Everything Everywhere All At Once? There’s a moment where the character Evelyn gets into hot water for trying to write off a karaoke machine. She mentions that she’s a singer, however, the issue isn’t the karaoke machine itself but how it relates to the laundry business. (And she could write it off, if she presented it as a recreational expense for laundromat socials and events to bring in customers!)

You’d be surprised what unusual professions, or social media influencers can write off. For example, pet influencers can even write off pet-related care and fees if they’re generating an income off their pet! 

For fellow queens, a friend of mine also mentioned she wrote off her botox and fillers. Yes, this is a common deduction for professions like models and exotic dancers. The IRS has also approved breast implants for models. As long as you have a reason as to why it’s related to your business you can write it off. 

Generally, some things that you should stay clear from, that the IRS usually thinks is a no-no are:

• Groceries 
• Gym memberships
• Basically, any regular living expenses

Remember, a lot of these can come with exceptions. But for example, unless you’re a drag + fitness influencer, it’s probably not a good idea to write off protein powder, gym memberships, and more.

Drag for the Long Term

While you can keep writing off things, the IRS will not continue to allow you to have deductions if you’re in the red each year. You will be in trouble if you end up with less than three out of five years of profitable business. If this happens, they might disallow your claimed losses and count your business as a hobby. 

Make sure you aren’t overdoing it and keep in mind this means you do have to pay money on your profits most years. 

What if I get audited?

Well, that could always happen. Keep in mind, the main offenders for audits are pretty big – people that have tons of cash flowing in and not out. Or storefront businesses that deal with a lot more money coming in with inventory. 

I have never been audited, so I don’t have personal experience with the matter. While you can get pretty liberal with deductions, this is a good reminder on why it’s important to be a little careful. The IRS can contest your deductions and ultimately make you pay them back if they don’t believe it’s a business expense. The most important thing is to make sure you are documenting as much as you can. This is hard when so much of drag is dealt in cash! Make sure you ask for receipts for cash payments, and hold onto any receipts for your deductions for at least one year until you’re past the point where the IRS could ask you for the information. 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if this is still too hard to figure out, you can always go to a tax expert. I personally don’t have experience with this, but I am a strong believer – and the best drag performers will back me up – that it is a good idea to hire an expert rather than always doing it yourself. Many drag performers like myself also struggle with ADHD. Finance is a special interest of mine, but if it isn’t for you, going to an expert will give you peace of mind. And they’ll definitely make sure you don’t get into trouble if you make a mistake later down the line! 

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This article is not sponsored. I am not being paid by Free Tax USA, or any other site or business mentioned to advertise. I will not accept any sponsorships on the topic of this blog, as I believe it will be a conflict of interest.

If you have any questions, please mention them here. If I don’t know an immediate answer, I’ll do my best to find out and link a source. 

P.S. I write other guides too. Check out my guide on how to get started styling wigs.