Hair Stylist & Barber Tax Deductions: The Full Checklist

Most stylists and barbers don't miss deductions because they don't know about them. They miss them because the expense happened in March, got paid from a personal card, and nobody wrote it down. By tax time it's gone.

This guide covers the expenses stylists and barbers usually deduct, and how to make sure yours actually make it onto your return. We're bookkeepers, not tax preparers, so think of this as a checklist to bring to your CPA, not tax advice.

The one test every expense has to pass

The IRS says a business expense has to be “ordinary and necessary.” In plain terms: other people in your trade spend money on it too, and it helps you do the work. Shears pass. Color passes. Booth rent passes. A new couch for your living room doesn't, even if you occasionally answer DMs from it.

What stylists and barbers usually deduct

These are the categories we see on almost every set of books we keep.

Booth rent, chair rent or suite rent

Usually the biggest expense a renter has. Weekly or monthly, it's a business cost. If you pay it in cash, get a receipt or keep a log, because a cash withdrawal on its own doesn't prove anything. Suite renters: utilities, Wi-Fi and suite insurance that you pay separately belong here too.

Color, product and backbar supplies

Color, developer, foils, shampoo, styling product, towels, gloves, capes, neck strips, blades. Everything you use up doing hair. Keep the supply-store receipts, especially if you also buy personal items in the same trip. Split the receipt.

Tools and equipment

Shears, clippers, trimmers, dryers, irons, brushes, a chair, a mirror, a styling station. Smaller items are usually deducted the year you buy them. Big-ticket equipment sometimes gets written off over several years. Your CPA decides which; your job is to make sure the purchase is recorded.

Education and licensing

Classes, certifications, hair shows, the course you took to learn a new technique, and your license renewal. Travel to a class can count too. Keep the registration confirmation.

Booking, payment and software fees

Your Square, Vagaro, GlossGenius or Fresha subscription. Card processing fees. QuickBooks. Your website hosting. Canva. These are small and constant, and they add up to a real number by December.

Processing fees deserve a special note. When Square deposits $940 after taking $30 in fees, your income was $970 and you had a $30 expense. If your books only ever see the $940, you're understating both. It nets out the same on paper, but your CPA and your own numbers are cleaner when it's recorded right.

Insurance

Liability insurance for your business, and renter's or suite insurance for your space. Health insurance for self-employed people has its own rules, so ask your CPA about that one specifically.

Marketing

Instagram and Facebook ads, business cards, a photographer for your portfolio, your website, promo products. If it's meant to bring in clients, it belongs here.

Phone and internet

You run your business from your phone: booking, DMs, posting, taking payments. Many stylists deduct the business portion of their phone bill. “Portion” is the key word, and your CPA can help you land on a reasonable split.

Mileage

Driving to the beauty supply store, to a class, to a bridal party on location. Your normal drive from home to the salon usually doesn't count. A mileage app or a simple log in your notes does the job. Write down the date, where you went and why.

Professional services

Your bookkeeper, your CPA, a lawyer who set up your LLC. All business expenses.

Retail product you sell

If you sell product to clients, what you paid for it is a cost of doing business. It's handled a little differently from supplies you use up, and if you're in Georgia there's sales tax on those sales to track. We keep it separated for your CPA.

What usually doesn't count

• Clothes you could wear outside the salon, even if you only wear them to work. A branded smock or apron is different.
• Your own haircuts and color.
• Lunch by yourself on a work day.
• Anything paid in cash with no record of what it was.

There are exceptions and grey areas in all of these. That's a CPA conversation.

The real reason deductions get missed

It almost always comes back to one of three things:

1. Business and personal money in the same account. Your CPA won't go through 1,400 personal transactions looking for your shear sharpening. Open a business checking account and run everything through it.
2. Nobody looked at the books until April. By then you can't remember what that $212 at Target was. Monthly bookkeeping means every transaction gets a name while it's still fresh.
3. No receipts for the big stuff. Your bank statement proves you spent $600 at Sally. A receipt proves it was color, not a birthday present. Snap a photo and drop it in a folder, or upload it to your client portal if you work with us.

This matters more than people think. When someone finally watches the books every month, they almost always find spending that had been happening all along. Nobody had been counting it.

What to do this week

• Open a business checking account if you don't have one. Pay rent, supplies and software from it.
• Make a receipts folder on your phone. One photo per purchase over $75 or so.
• Pick a day each month to categorize everything, or hand that job to someone whose job it is.

We do the monthly categorizing and reconciling for stylists and barbers, and your CPA gets clean books at tax time. If you're also wondering how much to put away for all this, read how much a hair stylist should set aside for taxes.

We provide bookkeeping and financial reporting services only. We do not provide tax filing or tax advisory services. We work alongside your CPA or tax professional. Nothing here is tax or legal advice. Talk to your CPA about your situation.