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Rappers & Taxes: Can They Write Off Strip Club Expenses?

shadowcat

Atlanta suburb

Rappers and strip clubs go together like lotion and ashy elbows. However, rappers and tax issues go together like peanut butter and jelly. It seems every time you turn around, rappers owe the government money. Some of hip-hop's storytellers may have found a way to lessen the weight of taxes. Rappers Jim Jones, The Game, Bizzy Bone, and Lil Flip are in the process of or have classified the money they blow at strip clubs as tax write offs.



You definitely read the first paragraph correctly. Rappers are trying to have the money they make it rain with classified as tax write offs. As crazy as it sounds, they may be onto something. There are two ways for a rapper to have strip club expenses deducted from their taxes. They are as follows:


1. ENTERTAINMENT EXPENSES A rapper can write off expenses if they are entertaining a client, customer, or employee and the total money spent can't be “lavish or extravagant.” That means if a rapper goes to the strip club and drops one to five thousand dollars, they can write it off. However, Drake's recent $50,000 strip club excursion wouldn't be permitted for deduction under this.

2. ADVERTISING OR PUBLICITY Rappers can use this method to write off expenses if they are “reasonable and are related directly to the rapper's business. this could open the floodgates because every rapper will try to say they go to the strip club and throw all of that money to boost their rep and image in the entertainment industry, which is part of their business.

The Game said, “[Making it rain] is good for business and promotion that comes with the lifestyle of a rapper. They bump our music in a strip club, so me giving the girls a little bit of change to shake their ass — that comes with the business. Everybody wins.”


What do you think about this? Should rappers be able to write off strip club expenses? How mad would you be if rappers were allowed to do this, but you weren't?