In America, you can tip your bartender tax-free. You can tip your golf caddie tax-free. You can even tip your tattoo artist or your neighborhood DJ tax-free—as long as that DJ isn’t spinning online in the nude. The IRS made it official: porn creators are out.

The ruling dropped last week when the agency clarified how Republicans’ new “no tax on tips” law will play out. The headline is simple: prostitution and pornographic activity don’t qualify as “real” tipped labor. The fine print is uglier.

Before the new ruling was released, some OnlyFans creators thought they’d stumbled into a loophole. The bill’s language called out “online creators” and included Twitch streamers and podcasters. It read like a buffet of modern hustle jobs. But once the ink dried, the IRS drew its moral line in the sand: yes to podcasters; no to porn.

It’s not hard to see the bias. America is fine with you dancing for tips—just not if you’re naked. You can pour whiskey shots or loop a bassline and walk away with your gratuity intact. But if your hustle involves sex, the government’s hand is still out.

The irony is staggering. OnlyFans creators earned more than $6 billion in 2023. It’s one of the leanest, most efficient creator economies ever built: no labels, no middlemen, no Madison Avenue execs. Just fans paying artists directly. If Silicon Valley had invented it without the porn, they’d call it disruptive genius.

Instead, Washington treats it like radioactive cash. Tips for a waitress are wholesome; tips for a porn star are dirty. A dollar is only a dollar until a nipple gets involved.

The rest of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill showers goodies on everyone else. Overtime pay? Tax-free. R&D write-offs for corporations? Locked in. SALT deduction cap lifted. Machinery expenses, interest deductibility, the whole buffet of business perks—all carved into permanence.

But the exclusion of porn is the tell. The American tax code doesn’t just balance books; it polices morality. It’s a cultural ledger that sanctifies some hustles and demonizes others. Service jobs like bartending and nannying are “virtuous.” Porn, despite being safer, more profitable, and more autonomous than half the industries on that list, is shoved into the shame corner.

Sex work has always been America’s favorite scapegoat. It fuels a multibillion-dollar economy, pays rent, feeds kids, and drives tech innovation—yet lawmakers refuse to give it legitimacy. By spelling it out in the tax code, the IRS isn’t just clarifying policy; it’s reinforcing stigma.

So here’s the math: pour a round of Fireball and your tips are blessed by the state. Strip online, and the IRS takes its cut. Morality seems to find its way into everything these days, even the tax code.