Lies and More Lies About Clothing As a Business Expense

Small business expenses are not always easy to figure out. One person gets bad advice, it floats around innocently as good advice…

Like when a fitness instructor buys new workout pants. And enters them as a business expense. Spoiler Alert: it’s not a business expense.

Clothing is another tricky small business expense. There is a lot of misinformation on it. People mean well, but they are giving bad advice.

What Do You Mean My Clothes are Not a Business Write Off?

Let’s go back to the fitness instructor example. As a fitness instructor, your workout clothes are seen as the same as a lawyer buying a suit in the eyes of the IRS.  

So while it is necessary for you to have the workout clothes to do your job well or be taken seriously as an expert in your field. 

For example, not many people would walk into a yoga studio, see the instructor wearing jeans, and think that person clearly knows what they are doing. The jeans are just not going to work. And we all know that. We expect our yoga instructor to be in workout clothing. 

However, you can easily wear the workout clothes running errands or around the house. Therefore, the IRS sees it as a personal expense.

Clothing simply has BOTH personal and business benefits.  As a result, it is not considered a small business expense in the eyes of the IRS. Not even like 50/50. It’s just simply not seen as a business expense.

Even If…

Even if you ONLY wear it for business purposes and never put it on for anything personal. The IRS still does not view clothing bought for your small business as a business expense.

You might be thinking okay well I’m not a fitness instructor I bought this for a photo shoot.  Or because it matches my brand colors and I’m going to use it when I’m filming content. 

The same is true of clothing bought specifically for a photo shoot or media content. It is NOT considered a qualifying business expense. Even if it’s your brand colors and the only thing you use it for is filming content or your branding photo shoot. 

It has the ability for BOTH personal and business benefits and is not considered an expense by the IRS.

Can Clothing Ever Be Used as a Small Business Expense?

If the clothing has your business logo on it AND you use it for meetings/trade shows/uniform it could qualify.  The difference here is you are labeling the clothing with your small business logo. It is not just some jacket you picked up at the store.  

A jacket (or other article of clothing) with your small business logo on it will not typically be seen as personal fashion, but instead it is clear it was created specifically for business purposes.

As a result, it is most likely a small business expense. And it would be an excellent business expense to talk about with your tax preparer for their opinion.

We’re Talking About Clothing, but Fun Fact About Hair & Makeup

Even though this post primarily talks about clothing here’s an interesting tip on Hair & Makeup, because they often get roped together with clothing when it comes to photo shoots or filming content. So I thought it would be a good idea to briefly shed some light on those two small business expenses as well.

IF it’s done exclusively for a Business Branding Photoshoot or speaking engagement it IS a business expense. So while clothing is not considered a business expense in these scenarios, your hair and makeup being done professionally is.

I think this is because hair and makeup will often be done being useful in hours versus clothing that can be worn multiple times over the course of years.  Because the time frame of usefulness is shorter for hair and makeup when doing a Branding Photo Shoot or speaking engagement the cost is a small business expense.

However, this does NOT include getting your hair and makeup done to film content, take content pictures, or film course/product offerings. In those scenarios, hair & makeup is NOT a business expense. The IRS simply views this as more of a personal choice even though you are still completing business related tasks. 

Do these small business expense rules always make sense? No, they are usually pretty clear as mud. It’s why I shed light on the ins and outs of small business expenses.

Back to Clothing as a Small Business Expense

All in all, there is a very slim chance when purchasing clothing that it will actually be seen as a business expense in the eyes of the IRS. 

It simply has too much personal benefit and is not seen as a business expense. 

I see this mistake made most commonly by those in the fitness industry AND online small business owners when they are buying clothing for a photo shoot or media content.

There’s just a lot of misinformation out there. And business expenses are not always easy to understand. Hope this clears things up on clothing as a small business expense!

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