U.S. Tax Guide for Cam Models

1 Preface

What inspired me to write this guide is the sheer amount of bad information I see floating about nearly every time the subject of cam girls and taxes comes up. Deductions seem to be the source of the biggest fallacies, but I've also seen a lot of bad information about losing money doing something or filing for taxes at all in low-income circumstances.

Just because somebody did it already and said so on the internet doesn't mean they did the right thing, only that they were lucky and didn't get caught. An easier way to get lucky is to not poke the IRS bear with a spoon.

This guide will be structured much like the tax form process itself. Everyone's tax situation will be different and highly dependent on their living situation and other sources of income, but I'll try to address most of the common ones.

I cannot stress this enough. Get software to help you file. Not only will you get instant calculations of how each thing you do affects your income, but you also never have to explain why you're writing off your donkey dong.

2 1099 Forms

As a cam model, you are now a business unto yourself. This is known as a sole proprietorship. What this means, basically, is that every time you are asked to write a Business Name, Address, or tax ID number on a form that you need to use your own. Your business Tax ID is your social security number.

The pitfall here is that many models make up a name for their business or use their stage name on their tax forms. Don't do this unless you have an actual business registration. If you do, you are outside the scope of this article and the remaining advice won't be very helpful to you.

The above information is usually input on a W-9 form, which is basically 'officially' telling a company that you are camming for who you are. They will use this info to properly fill out a 1099-MISC for you at the end of the year.

A 1099-MISC must be issued by a payer (website usually) to you if you earned over $600 that year with them. These are required to be in your hands by February 2nd so you may file your taxes on time. Customarily, most companies do not send them out until January 20th, though they could be given to you much sooner if you 'know people.' The IRS gets a copy of this form, so they will know if you fail to file.

Warning: Lying about your social security number or your real name could have dire consequences. There is one cam model that was trying to avoid showing income, so she used her name and her friend's social security number. Had this not been corrected, the IRS would have received a 1099-MISC under the wrong social and the model would have thought she was safe not to file. This is considered fraud and could have resulted in up to 2 years of hard time (though generally a $10,000 fine is normal).

If you made enough money to need to file at all, you must still declare every penny of income even if you weren't issued a 1099. You can issue yourself a 1099 using all company info you can get your hands on for the exact amount. Most company info you need will be either on the paycheck header or on their website obscurely hidden away. By law, it must be publicly accessible; they cannot hide their tax ID from you if you ask for it.

3 The Schedule C-EZ

Schedule C-EZ is the simple version of a Schedule C. A schedule C of one kind or another is needed by anyone that has income from 'self-employment' or 'independent contracting' in the last year. This form is actually pretty easy. It looks extremely intimidating, but in reality you only need to fill in a few of the blanks on the form for it to be good.

Your principle business (Block A) is Web Broadcasting and your code is (Block B) 516110. If you have scheduled C income from a totally different kind of job, you can be more creative here.

Leave blank C and D, as you are a sole proprietorship in most cases. If you are not, you need more help than this paper can give.

Blocks F and G are both 'NO', these are for if YOU needed to pay people by 1099, not if you got paid by 1099. This is a common error and will get a follow-up letter from the IRS if you check the wrong box.

Part II, Line 1 Add up ALL your income you made that year from camming (and other sources that qualify, like babysitting, gardening, etc). Usually this is done by adding up your 1099's.

If you are also indy, then you need to include ALL money from any source not included on 1099's, including Paypal, GiftRocket, Amazon Gift Cards, etc. Yes, Amazon cards are fully taxable income, they say 'Gift' but the IRS has specifically declared these to be the same as cash.

If you have received gifts (physical items that you did not purchase yourself) worth over $100 from business clients or employers, you must claim a portion of these as income. See a tax professional about this.

Line 2 Here's where everyone likes to go a little nuts and try to think of things that could be a business expense. Pro tip: Knock that shit off. Nothing will get you audited faster than claiming weird business expenses. The biggest red flag producer is the home office write-off.

Sex toys, gym membership/equipment, cosmetics, utilities (Phone, gas, electric, internet), fetish pervertables, beautification of any kind, clothes and lingerie, and lube/tissues are all NO GO for business expenses. Don't even try it. I know you're saying 'But so and so got away with it sometime or other.' It doesn't matter. These are not valid expenses under American law and will kill you in an audit or at least embarrass the hell out of you in the judge's chambers.

Here are some valid business expenses that usually don't raise red flags:

• Business trips to photo shoots and conventions where you promote (50% of all expenses can be written off, provided you have receipts) ' includes hotel, meal, and gas expenses. There is a maximum cap on this.
• Photography expenses (NOT cameras), as in photographer expenses from a photo shoot. Note if you made reported income from other people doing photography, THEN you can write off the camera.
• Depreciated value on your computer you bought solely for camming.
• Web fees for design work, hosting, domain registering. Only a write off if they give you a receipt and they're not in the same household. You can usually print an invoice for these things.

Always keep the receipt or it didn't happen.

As a general rule, if whatever it is could ever, in theory, be used for personal use in any context, you can't write it off except where listed above.

5 Need to File? Yes You Do

Because you are self-employed, the rules change a bit. You MUST FILE if you made over $400 total for the entire year. This minimum is very different than someone who works at a regular job, where the minimum goes up into the $1000's depending on family size.

6 College Kids, Parents, and Taxes

If your parents are claiming you as a dependent for taxes, you may have some explaining to do. I can't advise you to lie, but you may need to get creative with the job description on your Schedule C-EZ. Your parents don't need to see your 1099's (the IRS already has those), so if you can cover that much income by saying you were a babysitter, go for it.

Figure out something though, because a likely scenario is that you don't tell them anything, the IRS has reported income for you because of 1099's, and your parents get audited.

After age 22, or if you're not in college, you don't have anything to worry about as they can no longer claim you as dependent under most circumstances. If you are disabled enough to remain dependent, you likely aren't camming without their knowing. Regardless, be sure to ask them if they're claiming you on their taxes for the year.

7 Couples Camming

Whomever's name is on the 1099 is the one that earned the income. If you are married, this is easy, as all income and expenses go into the same pot. Schedule C's are needed for each person that got a 1099. If you earned less than $600 as a couple, and didn't receive a 1099, you will need to make one up for your couple's income. Peg it on whomever is the primary account holder for the couples account.

If you are NOT married, it gets tricky. There's several ways to resolve this, and fairly easily, but ultimately the person that received the 1099 is the one on the hook to the IRS. You can then issue a 1099 to your partner for a portion of that amount, from you to him/her (be sure to say yes on blocks F and/or G on your Schedule C-EZ). Make sure the IRS is sent a copy ' you can hand write it on the form but it's nicer to print it. Address and instructions are on the form. One of you can also just bite the bullet and take all the tax burden/benefit.

8 State Taxes

If you lived in just one state, this is pretty straight forward. I just normally let the software do the work here as I couldn't be arsed to learn about state law. The worst that has happened to me is they sent me a bill for $10 one year.

If you have lived in multiple states, this can get tricky. You may need to split your state income based on how long you lived in each state and which jobs you held there. It's safe in most cases to report 1099 income based on the state written in the address box. You may also split based on the percentage of year in one state or another.

9 Conclusion

Use the software. My recommendation is TurboTax Home Business off-the-shelf (not web-based), and pay the extra few dollars for the audit protection. Camming is a high audit risk, especially if you combine it with other common red flags like the EIC (if you have kids).

Other countries may also have other rules about deductions. The advice here specifically pertains to US models. My only other expertise would be Ukrainian tax law for private entrepreneur licensees, if anyone is interested, but that tax scheme is ludicrously simple.

I will also be on the lookout for alerts to changes in the tax code. Last year they made changes all the way until March which really screwed some of my accounting firm clients that filed early. File early anyways and just get it done - the day you have all your 1099's.

Disclaimer ' While this is advice from a qualified source, it is no substitute for the personal services of a tax preparation professional. I am not liable for the advice herein written. Everyone's situation is unique and there are billions of possible combinations of factors that can't be covered in this column. More personalized advice will be available at models.katyboleyn.com. If there is interest, I'll get a license for tax preparation this year, since camming I have let it expire.