Are makeup artists tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — makeup artists are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 607). Tips in this job are deductible for 2026, up to $25,000, if the customer chose the amount and could have declined.
Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 607 · Personal appearance and wellness · official title: Makeup Artists
How tipping works in this job
Bridal work is the core of this occupation’s tipping: a bride or her family tips the artist at the end of a morning of getting-ready, often on top of a per-face price. Counter and event work is tipped more lightly. Where you bring assistants, the tip usually arrives as one amount for the team.
The regulations say: Design and apply makeup looks. Examples given: Wedding makeup artist, party makeup artist.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
Bridal contracts frequently include a travel fee, an early-start fee and sometimes a built-in gratuity for parties over a certain size. All three are contract terms, not tips. If your own booking form adds 18% for a party of eight, you have just made that money non-deductible for yourself.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for makeup artists. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Makeup artists (Treasury code 607). This occupation is on the list.
Step 2 — is it actually a tip?
Answer for the money you are asking about. If some of your income is tips and some is service charges, run them separately.
Step 3 — your tips and income
The phase-out runs on modified AGI, which for most people is the same as AGI.
3 questions left to answer.
OBBBA Deductions · obbbadeductions.com
Tips deduction worksheet — tax year 2026
The three tests, as answered
- Does the customer decide the amount? not answered
- Can the customer decline to pay it? not answered
- Is it a mandatory service charge or auto-gratuity? not answered
Answer the 3 remaining questions above for a result.
Watch out for this in your job: Bridal contracts frequently include a travel fee, an early-start fee and sometimes a built-in gratuity for parties over a certain size. All three are contract terms, not tips. If your own booking form adds 18% for a party of eight, you have just made that money non-deductible for yourself.
Educational estimate only, not tax advice. It runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. The deduction is scheduled to expire after tax year 2028.
How this applies to makeup artists
Bridal mornings are the economic centre of this occupation. An artist arrives at six, works through a bridal party of six or eight faces across four hours, and at the end the bride or her mother hands over an envelope on top of whatever the booking cost. That is the qualifying money, and on a busy Saturday in season it can be the better part of the day’s value.
It is also the money most often destroyed by the artist’s own paperwork. Bridal contracts routinely carry a travel fee, an early-start fee for anything before a certain hour, a per-additional-face rate, and — increasingly — an automatic gratuity for parties above a set size. Every one of those is a term the client agreed to as part of a price. An artist who writes an eighteen percent service charge into their own booking form for a party of eight has, without intending to, moved that money out of reach of this deduction. Leaving the gratuity to the client’s discretion keeps it deductible.
Where you bring assistants for a large party, the envelope usually arrives as one amount for the team and is split afterwards. Each person’s share is their own qualifying tip. A flat day rate paid to an assistant is a fee for work and sits outside this entirely.
Retail counter work is a different job under the same heading. Artists working a cosmetics counter are compensated by commission on product sold, and commission is compensation from an employer for a sale — not a gratuity, even when a customer is delighted and buys three times what they came for. Editorial, film and television makeup are also not what this code describes; it is written for private event and party work.
The three tests, whatever your job
Paid voluntarily
The customer sets the amount and can decline to pay it.
Paid in cash or a cash equivalent
Card payments and mobile payments count.
Received directly or through a tip pool
Both routes qualify.
Questions
- Are makeup artists on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Makeup Artists is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 607, in the personal appearance and wellness category. The regulations describe it as: Design and apply makeup looks.
- What is the most common reason makeup artists lose the deduction?
- Bridal contracts frequently include a travel fee, an early-start fee and sometimes a built-in gratuity for parties over a certain size. All three are contract terms, not tips. If your own booking form adds 18% for a party of eight, you have just made that money non-deductible for yourself.
- How much of my tips can I deduct?
- Up to $25,000 per return, whatever your filing status. The cap applies first, then the amount is reduced by $100 for every $1,000 of modified adjusted gross income above the threshold for your filing status.
- Does a mandatory service charge count as a tip?
- No. A mandatory service charge or automatic gratuity is not a qualifying tip, and the final regulations confirmed this explicitly. It does not qualify even when the customer cannot decline it — a qualifying tip has to be an amount the customer chose to give.
Related occupations in personal appearance and wellness
Occupation data transcribed from T.D. 10044 — final regulations on occupations that customarily and regularly received tips, Treas. Reg. § 1.224-1(h) table 1, last verified 2026-09-08. Read the regulations.