WASHINGTON—Tax officials at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be expected to define what constitutes online pornography—and adult content creators—in efforts to enforce the Trump administration’s so-called “no tax on tips” scheme adopted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, reports suggest.
AVN reported that the initial guidance on this deduction provision applies to only “qualified tips” in a list of approved professions, including “digital content creators.”
There is no clear definition of “digital content creators” in the act that was passed through Congress over the summer until the draft guidance prohibited the deduction of tips from professions that qualify as illegal activity, prostitution, escorting, and pornography. Tips from “pornographic activity are not qualified tips,” notes the IRS.
However, there is also no consistent definition of what constitutes “pornography.” Reporting by The New York Times suggests officials for the IRS, including auditors and law enforcement agents in the agency’s criminal investigations division, will be expected to define “obscenity” by “knowing when they see it.”
The “pornographic activity” exemption from the tax deduction model on tips was urged by a coalition of Christian nationalist and conservative advocacy groups.
A joint letter issued back in September by those groups, led by an organization called Advancing American Freedom—that was founded by former Vice President Mike Pence—asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to block deductions for adult content creators or tipped professionals in “pornographic activity.”
“Rather than distort Congress’ language, Treasury should stick to the statute: providing tax relief for the waiters, hairdressers, delivery drivers, and other workers who make up America’s proud service industries,” reads the letter dated Sept. 18, falsely noting sentiments that adult content creation and porn are a moral hazard.
“We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to ensure pornographic content creators are not included under Treasury’s definition of eligible entities,” said the groups. “Our government should not give tax breaks to predatory industries that profit from exploiting young men and women, destroying marriages, families, and lives.”
