18 Tax Deductions Actors Need Don't Waste $ Unnecessarily

In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you 18 tax deductions actors need so you're not wasting your money. Also, watch this to the end. I've got a great bonus video for you. It's— now you will really know what it's like for an actor on a movie set. Okay, let's get going. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. This is a really important video for you to watch. You probably are going to want to take notes, so grab something to write some of this stuff down with. You might even want to save the link and watch it at different times, you know, every time tax season comes up. There is a lot of information in here that can help you save a bunch of money. Let me first start off by saying, look, I'm not an accountant. I don't have a CPA. I can't, you know, legally give you tax advice. So certainly check this out with a tax professional. But these are 18 really helpful tax write-offs for performers, and you should definitely know about them. Before I begin going through the list of 18, I've got to tell you a couple things. One is something that will be really helpful to you. It's been extremely helpful to me. I make sure that I notate every tax deduction. I keep records. I have an Excel spreadsheet. So like, for instance, if I get a check from SAG-AFTRA, in my Excel spreadsheet I've got these different columns. I will have the date, the amount of the check. I will, I will say SAG-AFTRA. I'll have the name of the producer, the, you know, the company name, the name of the project. I'll have, you know, the federal deduction, state deduction, Social Security, all of that. Also, I'll have a separate one for agents' fees. Which I'm going to talk about later. But, you know, if I'm paying a percentage to an agent, once again, in the Excel spreadsheet, I've got all that information. So just make sure you've got all the details so that if for any reason you do have to prove what you are stating as a deduction, you have it. The other— actually, you know what I'm going to do? Let me get started with a few of these first Then I've got an IRS story for you, and then there were a couple other things. But let's get started. I have to look at my sheet because certainly I didn't memorize all 18 here. Yeah, let's start with agent commissions. So if you are paying a percentage to an agent or your manager, then absolutely, you know, you should be writing that off. If you are a member of SAG-AFTRA or Equity and you are paying your dues, at least with SAG-AFTRA you pay twice a year That is something that you can take off your taxes as a business expense. If you are creating a new reel, a headshot, or you've got website expenses, then sure, you know, those are things that you can deduct as a business expense. As you all know, I have a new website now. I spent thousands of dollars putting it together. It's howtoactandmodel.com. And yeah, it was a 2-year process and it was a very expensive process for him, but I really like it a lot. And, and by the way, if you haven't done this yet, you should go to the website howtoactandmodel.com, go on my— at the bottom of the home page, and you can sign up to be on my special mailing list where I send out great information to everybody, and you will also get a really amazing video. And it's just 6 secrets for mastering home auditions, which is something you absolutely need to know about. Okay, so let's get back to— let's see, we're up to number 4. If you take acting classes, if you're taking workshops, if you're doing private mentoring These are, these are business expenses for you. If you are auditioning out of town and you've got travel expenses, you've got mileage, if you have parking, if you have tolls, these are things that you should be taking off and deducting as a performer. You should be able to do that. If you have an out-of-town job And let's say you are being considered a local hire, they're not covering your hotels. I mean, these are things— meals— these are things that you can absolutely deduct. And I can tell you, these are things that I have been doing for over 40 years now. I do have an accountant who also is a CPA, who is also an attorney, so I guess that's why I'm feeling very comfortable in sharing this stuff with you. But Once again, I just want to make it really clear, I'm not a tax professional, and you really do need to check this out. Oh, the story I was going to tell you about. So many years ago, I used to do tons and tons— I mean, I've done hundreds of these things. These are training films, and I used to get hired by the IRS pretty regularly to do training films. One of them was about What do you do if you get audited? And it was a fascinating video for me to do, and I'm going to share 2 of my biggest takeaways. They had an IRS agent on the set who was a consultant, and I remember walking over to this guy and I said, you know, knock on wood, I hope I never get audited, but if I do, do you have Any words of wisdom to me to make it an easier process? And he said, yeah, 2 things. One, don't do what some people do that he has experienced, where people are just very angry about being audited. They go into the agent's office, the IRS agent's office, and he said, I've had people do this. They will have a garbage bag filled with receipts and documents. They will dump it on my table and they'll say, all right, you want to audit me? Go figure it out. He said, that's not a good thing to do. He said, look, we're just doing our job and you want to make it as easy for us as possible so that we can see whether you've made mistakes. Maybe you didn't make any mistakes. And he said, look, we're human, and if you make things really difficult, uncomfortable for us, it's not going to work out well for you. So number one, bring in what you need to bring, show them. Don't dump garbage bags filled with receipts on somebody's desk. The other thing too is if you are being asked questions, he said it's just like being in court, you know, if you're on a witness stand. Answer the question and don't go any further than that. He goes, sometimes people, they start wandering a bit with their, with their answers, and then they start opening up other things that didn't need to be opened up. So just answer the question and be quiet. Or if you can bring in your accountant or CPA to answer the questions for you, that's also a great idea. Okay. Back to the tips. If you're spending money for makeup, hair care, cosmetics, especially if it's specifically for a performance, absolutely, those are things that you can deduct. Research expenses. If— now, this is something I've never done. I know people who do it. This is your call. I'm just— look, I don't ever want to get audited, so I play it pretty safe and conservatively. So I don't deduct going to the movies or streaming services, but some people will actually do that. And it sounds like it could be a legitimate thing if you are— now maybe it's a percentage because every show that you watched isn't necessarily research for you, but I don't— that's going to be your call. But maybe you want to watch a certain director's work who you're going to be auditioning with or you're going to be working with, or you want to watch some other actors And watch their styles and watch how they perform certain characters. Look, those are really helpful ways to get better at your craft. Let's see. This is something that I absolutely do. If you have a room in your home that's dedicated for business, then you can deduct a percentage of that. So I have a home office, and everything in this room I do for business purposes. I shoot all my auditions here. I've got my computers here. My lights are set up. My green screen is set up. File cabinets filled with, you know, business stuff. And any kind of house expense that, that I have A, you know, it's a smaller percentage, but I can take a percentage of that off as a home deduction or office deduction. Certainly self-taping equipment, you know, lighting, if you have a microphone, green screen, you know, whatever, whatever you're using, those are deductions. If you have to pay for an app that helps you edit things, yeah, that's, that's a write-off for a performer. Let's see, number 11. Now this is something I've never done— gym memberships, trainers, nutritionists. If you are required to have a certain look for a role— never had to do that, don't belong to a gym, I just do my own exercise stuff. But yeah, I mean, if it's something very specific, you have to gain a lot of weight, you have to lose a lot of weight, you have to get in incredible shape, you have to become much larger than you are and you want to do it in a safe way. Yeah, those can be tax write-offs for artists. Now here's a tricky one. Now for wardrobe, some people say, well, you know, they asked me to wear a blue shirt, Oxford shirt, for this film, and they asked if I would go out and buy it, so I bought a blue Oxford shirt. Since I bought it for the film, I'm going to write it off. And you can't do that. My understanding is that the only time you can deduct wardrobe for— as a business expense for actors is if it's something that's so unique you couldn't wear it or you wouldn't wear it in any other situation except for work. So like, for instance, I mean, let's say you have— you're working in Las Vegas on stage and you have some wild-looking gown or a suit that it's specifically for the show. It's not something you're going to walk down the street with or go to a PTA meeting with. If it's in that kind of situation where it's very unique and only will be worn for business, for performance, yeah, then it can be deducted. But, you know, if somebody says, hey, you need a crewneck sweater for this thing, you can't deduct that one. Magazines, publications, subscriptions, yeah, if they are business-related and they're entertainment industry-related, sure, those are things that you can deduct. If you go to and you pay for like some kind of special networking event, once again, if you're putting yourself up in a hotel and meals and stuff like that, sure, those are deductible. Cell phones, internet, once again, it might have to be a percentage of your usage because I assume every phone call you make on your cell phone is not going to be business oriented unless you have a cell phone that's specifically used for, for work. I don't know of anybody who does that, but I'm sure there, there might be people that do. If you buy gifts for, for crew members, for casting directors, other industry professionals, look, it has to be within the IRS limits and you have to check that out. Honestly, I don't know what those numbers are. anymore. I typically just take all my reports and spreadsheets, take it to my accountant. I also fill out these forms, this booklet that he has. So, but that's something to keep in mind and find out exactly what is permissible and what isn't. Office supplies, you know, business software. If you buy certain programs, that you're going to be using on your computer. Sure, if, you know, if it's an editing program, sure, that's something that you would use for home auditions. And hey, before I give you the last one, hey, I just wanted to mention, if you all have any interesting legal deductions for actors, tax write-offs for performers, please Share it here so that way we can learn from you. And for anybody who's watching this, just keep in mind, just because we're putting the stuff up there, still you got to check it out just to make sure that the law hasn't changed, that it is a legitimate deduction. So the one other thing, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe to the channel, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That's always really helpful. And please share, share the video with other people. Very last one, professional services. And that could be for an accountant, or if you have a lawyer who's taking care of things for you. Maybe you had a lawyer look over a contract. Certainly that would be a deduction for you. I did promise a bonus video, and you can see it right up here. It's what it's really like to be an actor on a movie set, and I think you're going to really enjoy it. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I hope this was really helpful to you, and can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.