Taxes for estheticians and skincare pros
You know acids, barrier repair, and how to keep a client coming back. Nobody taught you backbar versus retail inventory, or which drive counts. We handle that part.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
Your taxes look different from most people's because your money arrives in pieces and your expenses do too. Service income, retail product, tips, a 1099 from the spa, and payments through several different apps, all against a stream of small purchases nobody thinks to save receipts for. Add booth rent and a treatment machine you financed and it stops being a simple return. We prepare returns for estheticians, and we know what to ask you.
What estheticians can usually deduct
Ordinary and necessary costs of your work. Rules and dollar limits change year to year, so we confirm every one of these against the current year when we prepare your return.
Backbar and treatment products
The cleansers, serums, peels, masks, enzymes, and post-care products you use on clients during a facial are a business expense. So is product you go through testing a protocol before you start offering it to clients.
Two limits. Product you buy to resell to clients is inventory, not a supply expense, so it comes off when you sell it rather than when you buy it. And product you use for your own personal skincare is personal, not business, no matter where you bought it.
Disposables and sanitation
Gloves, gauze, lint-free wipes, cotton rounds, spatulas, headbands, table paper, waxing sticks, non-woven strips, extraction tools, and the autoclave or sanitizer pouches you run between clients.
These receipts are small and constant, which is exactly why they go missing. Run them through one dedicated card and keep the statements, so the total comes from a record instead of from memory in April.
Equipment and machines
Steamers, hydrodermabrasion and microdermabrasion units, LED panels, high frequency wands, microcurrent devices, ultrasonic skin scrubbers, wax warmers, magnifying lamps, and your treatment bed and stool.
Larger equipment is normally depreciated over several years, though the tax code has provisions that can let you deduct more of the cost up front. Which treatment works out better depends on your income that year, so bring the invoice and the date you placed it in service and we will run it both ways.
Booth rent or suite rent
What you pay the salon, spa, or suite operator for your room or station is deductible. Include any separate charge for laundry, front desk, towels, or utilities that the operator bills you.
If you rent a room and also get paid a percentage of service or retail revenue, read the agreement closely. Whether you are a renter or an employee changes your whole return, and the label on the contract does not always match how the arrangement works in practice.
License and board fees
Your esthetician license renewal, your facility or establishment license, state board and licensing fees you pay while you are in business, and fingerprinting or background check costs tied to a renewal.
What you spent to get licensed the first time, before you were in business, is treated differently from what you spend to keep the license current. Bring both sets of receipts and we will sort out which is which.
Continuing education and certifications
Advanced modality training, chemical peel certification, laser or light-based courses where your state allows you to perform them, dermaplaning, lash and brow certification, and the CE hours required for your license renewal.
Education that maintains or improves the skills of the trade you are already in is deductible. Education that qualifies you for a new profession is not, so coursework toward nursing or a medical license is a different conversation.
Liability and malpractice insurance
Professional liability, general liability, product liability for anything you retail, and the rider your landlord or suite operator requires you to carry.
Health insurance you buy for yourself is not part of this. It may still help you, but it is handled elsewhere on the return under its own rules, so keep those premiums separate.
Booking software and card processing
Your scheduling and client management software, the intake and consent form platform, text reminder service, and the cut the card reader or payment processor keeps out of every sale.
Processing fees are a real deduction and they are easy to lose. Your income is the full amount the client paid, and the processor's cut is a separate expense. Do not just report the net that landed in your bank.
Marketing and client photos
Before and after photography, the ring light and phone tripod, ads on social platforms, your website and domain, business cards, and the referral or first-visit promotion you fund yourself.
A free service you give away as a promotion does not create a deduction for the value of your time. You deduct the product and supplies you actually used, not what you would have charged.
Mileage between work locations
Driving from your suite to a client's home for a mobile facial, to a wedding party on location, to a trade show, or to pick up backbar supplies is business mileage. Record the date, the destination, and the purpose.
Driving from home to your regular studio is commuting and is not deductible, no matter how far it is. Once you are working, travel between job sites during the day counts. There are two methods, the IRS standard mileage rate for that year or your actual vehicle costs, and what you choose in the first year you use the car for business can limit your options in later years.
Laundry and linens
Towels, sheets, blankets, robes, and the laundry service or laundromat cost to keep them turned over. If you wash them yourself, the cost of doing so for business linens is still a business expense.
This one has to be supported. A laundry service gives you a receipt. If you wash at home, write down the actual costs you are counting and how you arrived at the figure, at the time you do it. A number with nothing behind it does not hold up under review.
Trade shows and industry travel
IECSC, ISSE, and similar shows: registration, airfare, hotel, and ground transportation when the primary purpose of the trip is business.
Meals on a business trip are generally limited rather than fully deductible, and you need to record the business purpose and who was with you. A trip that is mostly personal with one class attached does not become a business trip.
Plenty of estheticians stay on a Schedule C for years, and that is fine. The conversation about an S corporation usually starts when net profit is high enough that the self-employment tax savings outweigh the cost of payroll, a separate return, and the added paperwork. We will tell you when your numbers reach that point, and we will tell you when they have not.
What to bring us
You do not need all of it to start. Send what you have and your checklist shows what is still open.
- Any Form 1099-NEC or 1099-K you received, from the spa, from a booking platform, or from your card processor
- Your own record of total service income, including cash and Zelle, Venmo, or Cash App payments that never generated a form
- Booth rent or suite rent receipts, plus the lease or independent contractor agreement itself
- A full year of bank and credit card statements for the account you use for the business
- Invoices for any equipment bought during the year, with the date you started using it and what you paid
- A separate figure for retail product bought for resale and what was still on your shelf at year end
- Your license renewal and continuing education receipts
- Mileage log or app export, plus the date you started using the vehicle for the business
- Any estimated tax payments you made during the year, with the dates and amounts
- If you have an LLC or S corporation: the formation documents, the EIN letter, and any payroll reports
What trips people up
Treating everything you buy from a distributor as one expense
Split it. Backbar that you use on clients is a supply expense. Retail product you sell is inventory and comes off when it sells. One distributor order often contains both, so mark the invoice when it arrives instead of guessing later.
Reporting only the money that showed up on a 1099
Report all of it. Cash, Venmo, Zelle, and tips are income whether anyone sent you a form or not. Once all the income is on the return, you can claim all the expenses against it, and the return is one you can actually stand behind.
Deducting the drive from home to the studio
That is commuting and it is not deductible. Track the trips that are: supply runs, mobile appointments, classes, and travel between two work locations on the same day. Those are real and they add up.
Writing off scrubs, shoes, and your work wardrobe
Clothing is deductible only when it is required for your work and not suitable for everyday wear. Plain scrubs and comfortable shoes generally are suitable for everyday wear, so they usually do not qualify. A smock or jacket with your business name printed on it is a different case. Ask before you assume.
Never paying anything in until the return is filed
Self-employment income has no withholding, and you owe income tax plus self-employment tax on the profit. Quarterly estimated payments keep the April number from being a surprise and can reduce or avoid an underpayment penalty. We will calculate what yours should be.
What it costs
Our published list, the same one everyone sees. Prices marked "from" are starting points, and your exact number is confirmed in writing before any work begins.
$0 is due today. You pay when you sign, or you can have your fee come out of your refund, so it can be $0 out of pocket.
Questions we get from your trade
I rent a room at a spa. Am I self-employed or an employee?+
If you pay rent for the space, set your own hours, buy your own backbar, and keep your own clients, that points toward self-employment, and the business goes on a Schedule C with your personal return. If the spa sets your schedule, provides the products, and pays you a percentage of each service, that can look like employment even if they hand you a 1099. It matters, because an employee has Social Security and Medicare tax withheld from wages with the employer paying a share, while a self-employed person pays self-employment tax on the profit. Bring us the agreement and we will read it.
The spa sent me a 1099 but they also took product costs out of my pay. What do I report?+
Report the gross figure as income, then deduct what they held back for product as a business expense. You do not report only the smaller net number. Ask the spa for the year-end detail showing what was taken out, so the deduction has support behind it.
Can I deduct the room in my house where I see clients?+
Only if that space is used regularly and exclusively for the business. A converted spare bedroom that is nothing but a treatment room can qualify. The corner of your living room where you also watch television does not, and neither does a room that doubles as a guest room. The deduction is also limited by the income from the business, so it cannot create a loss. If you qualify, there are two ways to calculate it and we will compare both.
I bought an expensive machine this year. Do I get the whole thing off my taxes?+
You get to deduct the cost, but the timing depends. Equipment is normally depreciated across several years, and there are provisions that can let you take much more of it in the first year. Taking it all at once is not automatically the better move, because a deduction is generally worth more in a year with higher income. Bring the invoice and we will compare the outcomes before we pick.
Should I form an LLC or an S corporation?+
An LLC gives you liability separation but by itself does not change your federal income taxes. An S corporation election can reduce self-employment tax once your profit is high enough to justify running payroll and paying yourself reasonable compensation, and it carries real costs: payroll filings, a separate business return, and less flexibility. It is a numbers question, not a status question. We will run yours before recommending either.
I do lashes and brows too, and sometimes I sell product. Does that change my return?+
The services all go on the same Schedule C. The retail is what changes things, because product held for resale is inventory. You will need what you paid for the goods you sold and the value of what was still on the shelf at year end. If you have never tracked that, tell us and we will set up a simple way to do it going forward.
Let us take the tax part off your plate.
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