The current president of the United States got the attention of hospitality workers everywhere with his four-word promise of “no tax on tips,” but that promise has launched a bureaucratic circus, and I think it’s time to send in the clowns. The IRS now has to decide not only what is and isn’t a tip and who has the right to claim them, but whether or not feet pics without visible explicit elements are pornographic. If you’re thinking to yourself, “that’s not policy, that’s a culture war masquerading as a tax bill,” welcome to the club. We have T-shirts. We had to order them since the tips we get for showing our tits are taxed now.
Alright, ha-ha’s aside, here’s the deal: Republicans passed a sweeping tax cut this summer, but it didn’t actually eliminate the taxes on tips. What it really did was create a deduction for up to $25,000 in tip-based income, but only for workers in jobs that “customarily and regularly” receive tips. While everyone else was trying to decide what the hell that meant, the IRS and the Treasury put out a list of roughly 70 professions they decided qualified for that distinction. Digital content creators, entertainers, performers, and dancers were all included, so it initially looked like sex workers might catch a break!
Alas. A restriction was added with the full support of the executive branch that deemed tips from “pornographic activity” and prostitution aren’t eligible for the deduction. That immediately excluded many OnlyFans creators, most of whom are already dealing with issues like banking discrimination, loan denial (despite being very good for the money), shut-down payment processors, shadow-banned promotional content, and the list of financial consequences goes on. This restriction is just another layer on the “we like your work, but not your existence” sundae of crap that spicy creators and sex workers keep finding themselves staring at when they actually ordered the chocolate soufflé.
There are… so many things wrong with sex workers and spicy content creators being excluded, but here’s the current issue that needs to be solved: the bill doesn’t define pornography. The IRS has no definition of “pornographic activity” because… it’s the IRS. That’s literally the opposite of their job. This means that some poor sap at the IRS now gets to play “Is It Porn?” with the following: stripping, erotic dancing, sensual content that isn’t explicit, feet pics, topless vs. implied nudity, an OnlyFans yoga channel with the occasional thirst trap, and actual spicy content (cooking videos). An IRS auditor would have to literally watch a taxpayer’s content to decide whether or not it qualifies as pornographic. While that sounds like it has the potential to spin off into the sweetest meet-cute ever, nothing about this is currently cute whatsoever.
Tax specialist Thomas Gorczynski has said that porn can be “subjective,” because “sometimes it’s clearly porn. Sometimes it’s just… someone’s thing.” As a human who spends entirely too much time watching bubble wrap get popped bubble by bubble, I really don’t think taxpayers deserve to be morally judged by a stranger in a cubicle who went to school for accounting because their parents talked them out of musical theatre.
If you’re wondering who pushed for the porn exclusion in the bill that will be causing hundreds of IRS agents to be singing their own version of “I Dreamed a Dream,” it was a bundle of socially conservative and Christian groups. They sent a letter urging the Treasury to block porn incomes from the tax deduction, saying that the government shouldn’t give breaks to “predatory industries that destroy marriages and families.” If you’ve read Project 2025, you’re aware that it recommends banning porn entirely. In light of that and the current deduction exclusion, creators are feeling understandably nervous, even though this isn’t an official GOP policy.
The real harm from this exclusion isn’t going to be felt equally across the industry. For example, take creators like Sophie Rain who are raking in millions of dollars per quarter. She’s already well above the income limit. The tip deduction phases out at $150k and then ends completely at the $400k income threshold. The restriction won’t really touch creators like her, but for mid-tier creators who are making $40k–$150k annually — many of whom rely on tips — this is going to be a very big ouch. Many OnlyFans creators are making less than $100k, and their earnings are inconsistent. Tips help them fill the income gaps that naturally occur with gig work, and they’re being excluded due to the porn carve-out, not because of their income threshold.
Here’s the deal: the adult entertainment industry is HUGE. According to 2024 data, OnlyFans alone has at least 4.6 million creator accounts and no fewer than 377 million fan accounts. Sex work remains one of the most in-demand creator categories in the entirety of the U.S. digital economy, with Americans consuming vast amounts of porn privately while legislating against it publicly. Because there’s nothing we like more than a big ol’ double standard. “Make our spank-bank content please, but let us punish you for it.”
Financial professionals who work with sex workers have expressed fears that this could be a gateway for bigger restrictions and that the IRS could be used as a tool for a broader crackdown. Adult content creators are already navigating so many obstacles, and now they have to wonder if Carl from the IRS is going to be judging their tax returns more harshly than they actually deserve.
Nothing like watching someone try to enforce a moral line they can’t actually define, while the people punished for said nebulous line are mid-tier creators just trying to pay rent and daycare. A tax break that was initially intended to help workers has become just another way to police the sexual labor that is in high demand. A final question… who is going to be in charge of maintaining the IRS library of taxpayer porn to adjudicate tip eligibility, and can you imagine being the one conducting interviews for that position?
