Influencer Write-Offs: Botox, Nails, and S Corp vs LLC

“Can I write off my Botox?” We get this question all the time. Hair, nails, lashes, fillers, sometimes a surgery or two. And we get why. You’re the brand; your face is the product, so it feels like a business expense. But the answer rarely makes it into viral tax videos, and the conversation creators should be having is usually about structure — think S corp vs LLC — not about their last salon receipt.

BizBud is a tax and bookkeeping business built for content creators, influencers, digital nomads, and small business owners. We’ve seen the TikToks, and we’ve seen the “write off everything” crowd.

Here’s what the IRS actually allows, where the narrow exceptions live, how to think about audit risk, and which strategies genuinely move the needle for your tax bill.

The Assumption Most Creators Get Wrong

The logic goes like this: I’m a lifestyle influencer. I am the brand. I need to look good for my content. So my hair, nails, and Botox are business expenses.

It’s a fair question. But it skips the test the IRS actually uses.

For an expense to be deductible, it has to be ordinary and necessary for your business. For appearance-related expenses, there’s a second filter that trips up almost everyone: if you can use it in your everyday personal life, it’s most likely personal. Doesn’t matter how many followers you have.

A fresh haircut doesn’t disappear when you stop filming. You wear it to dinner. You wear it to the grocery store. Your nails come with you to your cousin’s wedding. That everyday benefit is exactly what makes the IRS classify it as a personal grooming expense.

The short answer, more times than not, is no.

How the IRS Actually Looks at Appearance Expenses

Think of it as a three-question framework. Run every appearance expense through it before it touches your books.

1. Can I use this in normal daily life? If yes, it’s almost certainly personal.
2. Is it abnormal to how I’d otherwise look? Something you’d never choose for yourself outside of work.
3. Is it tied to a specific production? A particular shoot, video, or brand campaign, with documentation to prove it.

Fail question one, and you’re usually done. Pass all three, and you have something worth talking about.

Here’s how common creator expenses tend to shake out:

Notice something about that table. The items at the bottom are rare. Most creators spend almost all of their appearance budget in the top rows.

The Narrow Exceptions (And Why They’re So Narrow)

Exceptions do exist. But they’re tighter than most people think.

The “Abnormal to Your Body” Exception

If you do something to your appearance that’s abnormal, done specifically for a production, and maybe even a detriment to your health, you have a stronger argument.

The go-to example: say you got so much Botox that your face looked like a balloon, just for one specific video. That’s abnormal. You’d never do it for personal reasons. You could make a real case for deducting it.

But then you’re walking around with a balloon for a face. You’d be making yourself look worse in daily life just to qualify for a tax deduction, which is a terrible trade.

The Production-Specific Exception

Nails are a cleaner example. If you’re doing a brand shoot that calls for rainbow nails or super long, glowing fingernails, and it’s clearly something you’re only getting for that video, you have a defensible position.

What doesn’t work is the matching argument: I painted my nails red because the brand sent me a red dress, and I wanted to match.

Red nails are normal. People wear them every day. The fact that you coordinated with a sponsor doesn’t change what the expense is.

So what’s the dividing line? Would a reasonable person look at this and immediately see it as costume, not grooming? If the answer is obvious, you’re in better shape. If you have to explain it, you’re probably not.

“But I Saw a Tax Court Case Where Someone Won”

You might have seen it. A tax court case where a woman wrote off her Botox or breast implants and won. Now it’s all over social media as proof that everyone can do it.

Here’s the problem. One case with a very specific set of facts doesn’t turn into a general rule for every creator on the internet. Those wins tend to happen because the facts were unusual. And your facts are probably not those facts.

Why does this myth spread so fast? “You can write off your Botox” gets likes. “You probably can’t” doesn’t. Clickbait tax advice is optimized for engagement, not for surviving an audit.

But the person posting that video isn’t signing your tax return. You are.

The Real Question: Can You Win an Audit?

This is where the whole way you think about deductions should shift.

You can deduct anything. Technically, nothing stops you from typing a number into a tax return. The real question is whether you’ll win when the IRS sends an audit letter or shows up to examine your business expenses.

At BizBud, we operate on three principles:

1. We don’t want you to get audited.
2. We don’t want you to lose if you do get audited.
3. We don’t take positions on returns that would set our clients up to lose. If we do take a position, there’s documentation backing it up.

As the people preparing returns, our job is to tell you what the rules are and how likely you are to win if you’re challenged. The risk tolerance is yours. If you understand the position and you’re comfortable with it, that’s your call, because your signature is on the return.

And here’s the pattern we see over and over: the more aggressively you write off, the more risk you take on. Some preparers out there will write off everything. It looks great until it doesn’t.

How to Weigh an Arguable Deduction

Before claiming any gray-area expense, ask yourself these questions:

• How much does it actually save me? A deduction reduces taxable income, not your tax bill dollar-for-dollar.
• What happens if it’s disallowed? Back taxes, possible penalties, interest, and the time and stress of the audit itself.
• Could this invite scrutiny on the rest of my return? Aggressive personal-looking deductions can draw attention.
• Do I have documentation that makes the business purpose obvious? Contracts, creative briefs, dated photos from the shoot.

Most of the time, the math doesn’t work. A couple thousand dollars in hair and nail deductions is not going to make or break your business. Losing an audit might sting a lot more.

Pro tip: If you do claim a legitimately production-specific expense, build your file at the time it happens, not a year later. Keep the brand brief that called for the look, the invoice, and before-and-after photos showing it was abnormal to your everyday appearance. Weak paperwork turns a decent position into a losing one.

Where the Real Money Is

So you probably can’t write off the fade.

You’re still going to get the hair and nails done. You’re going to look great, create strong content, and brands are going to want to work with you. That’s the business. Now let’s talk about the strategies that actually reduce your tax burden in a meaningful way.

Entity Structure Is the Big Lever

For most growing creators, the biggest tax opportunity isn’t hiding in receipts. It’s in how your business is structured and taxed. Understanding that is worth far more than any salon deduction.

The plain-English version:

• LLC (default): A single-member LLC is taxed like a sole proprietorship by default. All your net profit is generally subject to self-employment tax on top of income tax.
• LLC taxed as an S Corp: You pay yourself a reasonable salary through payroll. The remaining profit can come out as distributions, which generally aren’t hit with self-employment tax. That’s where the savings live.
• C Corp: The business pays corporate tax on its profits, and you pay tax again on dividends you take out. It has its place, but it’s rarely the first move for an individual creator.

S Corp vs C Corp: Which One Fits a Creator?

For most influencers weighing S corp vs C corp, the S Corp election wins because profit flows to your personal return and you avoid the double layer of tax. A C Corp can make sense in narrower cases, but it adds complexity many solo creators simply don’t need.

But the S Corp isn’t automatic either. It only pays off when your profit is high enough that the self-employment tax savings outweigh the added costs of payroll, a separate business return, and tighter bookkeeping. Elect too early and the overhead can eat your savings.

What does “reasonable salary” mean? Roughly, what you’d have to pay someone else to do the work you do. Set it too low and you’re inviting exactly the kind of audit trouble we just talked about.

How Much Does It Cost to Start an LLC? (Wrong First Question)

People ask how much it costs to start an LLC before they ask whether they need one. State filing fees vary, and some states charge annual fees or taxes on top of that. Those numbers are real, and you should know them for your state.

And yet the setup fee is rarely the deciding factor. The better question is what the structure saves or costs you every year once it’s running. That’s the difference between an LLC that’s just a piece of paper and one that’s part of an actual tax strategy.

Clean Bookkeeping Makes Every Strategy Work

None of this works without solid books. An S Corp election, retirement contributions, legitimate business deductions like equipment, software, and production costs — all of it depends on accurate records.

Good bookkeeping does three things for you:

1. It captures every legitimate deduction you’re actually entitled to, so you’re not leaving real money on the table.
2. It shows you when your profit justifies a structural change, like an S Corp election.
3. It protects you in an audit. Clean, organized records are your best defense.

Boring? A little. Profitable? Very.

The Takeaways

If you skimmed to the bottom, here’s what matters:

• Ordinary personal grooming is usually not deductible, even for influencers. If you can use it in everyday life, it’s most likely personal.
• Narrow exceptions exist for expenses that are clearly abnormal and tied to a specific production, like rainbow nails for one brand shoot.
• Matching a sponsor’s outfit doesn’t make normal grooming a business expense.
• One viral tax court case is not a rule. The facts in those cases are usually unusual.
• You can deduct anything, but can you win the audit? You sign the return, so the risk is yours.
• Small, risky deductions rarely move the needle. A couple thousand dollars won’t make or break your business.
• Structure and bookkeeping are where real savings live. Getting your entity choice right is worth far more than any salon receipt.

It’s not what you wanted to hear. But the goal is to make sure you take advantage of every deduction you should, within the rules, and build a business that holds up if anyone ever comes knocking.

Want to know what makes sense for your specific situation? Reach out to BizBud. We’re happy to help you find the strategies that actually work for creators.

Related Reading

• What Expenses Actually Hold Up in an Audit for Influencers?
• Car Write-Offs: S Corp vs LLC Rules Explained
• How Are Brand Deals Taxed? (And What You Can Deduct)

About The Author:

Cameron Botes is the founder of BizBud, a tax and accounting firm built for content creators, influencers, digital nomads, and entrepreneurs building businesses across borders. A former professional soccer player across four continents, Cameron brings the same discipline, preparation, and pressure-tested execution from his athletic career into helping business owners plan ahead, stay compliant, and keep more control over their financial future.

Since founding BizBud in 2020, Cameron has grown the firm from a one-person practice into a team of CPAs and tax advisors serving hundreds of clients across the U.S. and around the world. With an MBA in finance and accounting, international business experience, and a team with backgrounds at firms like PwC, Deloitte, and EY, Cameron helps creators and founders simplify taxes, clean up their books, and build smarter systems so they can focus on the work they actually love.

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