Taxes for hair stylists and booth renters
We handle the return, the self-employment tax, and the write-offs that come with renting your own chair. Booth renters, suite owners, and commission stylists with a side book are all welcome.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
Behind the chair you are running a business, even on the days it feels like a job. Nobody in school explained booth rent, backbar versus retail, quarterly payments, or what to do with the cash in your drawer. That is the part we handle, in English or Spanish, so you can get back to your book.
What hair stylists 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.
Booth or suite rent
What you pay the salon for your chair, station, or private suite is deductible as rent, including the extras your lease bundles in such as backbar access, towel service, laundry, or wifi in a suite.
If you rent from someone who is not a corporation, the rent you pay in your business may require you to file an information return after year end once your payments for the year pass the reporting threshold. Ask us about it in December, not in April.
Color and backbar product
Color, developer, lightener, toner, bond builders, glosses, perm and relaxer supplies, shampoo and conditioner at the bowl, foils, gloves, neck strips, and capes you use on clients.
Product you use on clients is a supply. Product you sell off the shelf is treated differently, so keep the two sets of receipts separated as you buy.
Retail you sell to clients
The shampoo, styling cream, and tools you resell are deductible, but as cost of goods sold as they leave the shelf rather than in the year you buy the case.
Count what is still on your shelf at year end and write the number down. Smaller businesses can sometimes use a simpler method for goods on hand, so give us the count and we will apply the method that actually fits your books.
Shears, clippers, and hot tools
Shears, clippers and trimmers, blow dryers, flat irons, curling wands, brushes, combs, clips, and the sharpening and repair on your shears.
An expensive pair of shears may be treated as equipment rather than a supply. There are rules that can let you write off the full cost in the year you start using it, so bring the receipt with the purchase date on it.
Station and salon equipment
Styling chair, shampoo bowl, mirror and station, rolling cart, dryer chair, and retail shelving.
Equipment is deducted starting in the year you place it in service, not the year you order it, so keep the delivery or setup date with the invoice. Money you spend building out a suite is an improvement to the space and follows longer write-off rules, so flag those invoices separately for us.
Booking apps and card fees
Your monthly booking software and the cut the processor keeps on every card swipe are deductible. Vagaro, StyleSeat, Booksy, GlossGenius, Square, and the rest all belong here.
The amount on your Form 1099-K is the gross before fees, refunds, and chargebacks, so it will be higher than what landed in your bank. Report the gross and deduct the fees. Do not quietly report the smaller number.
License, permits, and insurance
Your state cosmetology license renewal, board and sanitation fees, a license held in a second state where you also work, professional liability coverage for chemical services and cuts, and any renter policy your lease requires.
Renewal fees are deductible. The tuition that got you your first license is a different story, covered below.
Classes, shows, and education
Cutting and color classes, brand education, online courses, mannequin heads and practice product, and hair shows. Airfare, hotel, and the class fee count when the trip is for the education, and meals on that trip are deductible only in part.
Cosmetology school tuition that qualified you for your first license is not a business deduction, because it trained you for a trade you were not yet in. Bring the school statement anyway. Depending on the school and your situation, an education credit may or may not reach it, and we will check rather than assume.
Driving for work
Supply runs to the beauty supply store, driving to a second salon after your first location, bridal and on-location appointments, and trips to classes. You use either the standard mileage rate published for that year or your actual car costs.
The drive from home to the salon you work at regularly is commuting and it is not deductible, no matter how long it takes. Log the other trips as they happen, because a mileage number reconstructed in April will not hold up, and tell us which method you used in the first year you put the car in service, since that choice can limit your options later.
Capes, towels, and laundry
Capes, towels, smocks, aprons, gloves, and what it costs to wash them, including a laundry service when the salon does not include one.
Aprons and smocks count because nobody wears them anywhere else. The all-black outfit and the good shoes the salon asks for do not, because they are suitable for everyday wear. Your own hair, color, nails, and lashes are personal too, even when clients treat them as your portfolio.
Phone, software, and marketing
The business share of your cell phone bill, client texting and reminder tools, cloud storage for your portfolio, Instagram and Facebook ads, business and referral cards, your website, and what you pay a photographer or a model for the photos you post.
Your phone is also your personal phone. Take a business percentage you could actually explain out loud, not the whole bill. And a free service you gave a friend is not a deduction, since you cannot write off your own time.
Home office for the books
If you are self-employed and you handle bookings, ordering, and paperwork from a space at home, part of your housing costs such as rent or mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, and utilities can follow the business use of that space.
The space has to be used regularly and only for the business, and it generally has to be where you do the administrative side of the work with no other fixed location where you do it. A desk in the corner of a room the family also uses does not qualify, and neither does the kitchen table. The deduction is also limited by your business profit, so let us look at the actual room before we take it.
A Schedule C works fine for a long time. When your profit is steady and high enough, an S corp can sometimes reduce self-employment tax on part of the profit, but only if you pay yourself reasonable compensation through payroll, and it adds a separate business return, payroll filings, and real cost. It is not automatic savings, so we run your actual numbers both ways before recommending a switch.
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.
- Every tax form you received, including any 1099-NEC from a salon, the 1099-K from your card processor or booking app, and a W-2 if you also work as an employee somewhere
- Your own total of what you collected for the year, cash, Zelle, and Venmo included, plus a total for tips
- Your booth or suite lease and the total rent you paid, along with the salon owner's or landlord's name
- Product receipts split two ways, backbar you used on clients and retail you resell, plus a count of the retail still on your shelf at year end
- Receipts for tools and equipment bought during the year with the purchase dates, from shears and dryers to a chair or shampoo bowl, and separate invoices for any suite build-out
- Your mileage total or the export from your mileage app, business miles kept separate from personal
- License renewal, permit, and insurance receipts, plus what you spent on classes, shows, and travel for education
- Annual summaries from Square, StyleSeat, Vagaro, Booksy, GlossGenius, or whatever runs your books and payments
- Any estimated tax payments you made during the year with the dates and amounts
- Health insurance premiums you paid yourself, retirement contributions, and the name and total for anyone you paid to assist you
What trips people up
Reporting only what the booking app or card processor sent, and leaving out the cash, Zelle, and Venmo.
Total your own collections from your appointment book and deposits, then compare that against the forms you received. Your total should cover everything on those forms and the payments nobody reported.
Writing off the all-black outfit, the good shoes, and your own hair, nails, and lashes as advertising.
Keep the aprons, smocks, and capes, which are not wearable anywhere else, and leave the rest off. Clothing suitable for everyday wear is not deductible even when the salon requires it.
Counting the daily drive from home to the salon as business mileage.
That drive is commuting. Track the trips that do count, like supply runs, second locations, on-location bridal work, and classes, with a mileage app that logs them as you drive.
Paying nothing in during the year, then meeting the full bill plus penalties in April.
Set aside a share of every week's deposits in a separate account and make the quarterly payments. We will size the amount off your real numbers instead of a guess.
Deducting a whole case of retail shampoo the day it is delivered.
Retail is deducted as it sells. Count what is left on the shelf at year end and give us that number so the year closes out correctly.
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 chair. Am I actually self-employed?+
Yes. If you rent your station, set your own hours and prices, bring your own tools, and keep what you collect, you are running a business. That goes on a Schedule C with your personal return, and the profit also carries self-employment tax, figured on Schedule SE. Some stylists have both, a W-2 from a salon and their own booth income, and both belong on the same return.
Half my clients pay cash or Zelle. Does that get reported?+
Yes. Income is income whether it arrives by card, cash, Zelle, Venmo, or an envelope on your station, and whether or not anyone sends you a form. The forms you receive are just copies the IRS already has. The safest habit is one bank account the business money goes into, so your total is your total and nobody has to reconstruct it a year later.
What about tips?+
Tips are taxable income, cash ones included, and they belong on your return. Keep a simple weekly total, even a note on your phone. Whether any tip-related deduction is available depends on the rules in effect for your filing year and on your own numbers, so ask us what applies rather than assuming it is automatic.
Do I need an LLC?+
An LLC is a state law liability structure, not a tax strategy, and the protection it offers is not absolute. Unless you elect to be taxed as a corporation, a single-member LLC files the same Schedule C as a stylist with no LLC at all, so it changes your liability exposure and your state filings rather than your federal tax. Get one because you want the separation, not because someone said it lowers your taxes.
I pay an assistant. Do I owe them a form?+
If you pay a helper as an independent contractor and your payments for the year pass the reporting threshold, you owe them a Form 1099-NEC after year end. That means getting a Form W-9 from them before you pay, not chasing it in January. If you control their schedule and how they work, they may really be an employee, which is payroll instead. Tell us the setup and we will tell you which one it is.
I have not filed in a couple of years. Can you still help?+
Yes, and it is a normal thing to walk in with. We put together the years that are open, use bank and processor records where receipts are gone, and get you current. When you owe, penalties and interest keep running while a return sits unfiled, so the sooner it is in, the less there is to deal with.
Let us take the tax part off your plate.
Tell us what you need and see your price. A real person on your team replies within one business day.