- TikTok influencers are claiming they won’t pay their taxes this year if the app gets banned. Some argue they shouldn’t have to pay the government for taking away their job, and others say they won’t be able to access important tax documents.
Just days before the TikTok ban takes effect, the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the federal law banning the app. While the White House signaled it won’t enforce the ban, influencers are preparing for the worst-case scenario—at least in their eyes.
Several TikTok influencers have posted videos declaring they won’t pay their taxes if the app ban goes through, arguing that if their livelihoods are taken away from them by the government, the authorities shouldn’t have any right to a cut of their pay.
“If they ban this app, we are not paying taxes this year,” TikTok influencer @itsnickholiday said in a video. “Besides the fact that rent is at an all-time high and so is food and so is gas prices, the people that are in charge of banning this app are literally paid by our taxes.”
@itsnickholiday We are not paying taxes if they ban TikTok ##tiktokban##fyp##taxes ♬ original sound - ItsNickHoliday
Another influencer, @michellebellexo, also known as Michelle Raleigh Bartender, said the app provides “significant income” for her. The looming TikTok ban is reminiscent of COVID-related closings for her bartending job.
“When the government took away my bartending job because I couldn’t go to work because of COVID, I got unemployment,” said @michellebellexo, who has more than 5 million followers on TikTok. “How is this different?”
@michellebellexo Replying to @ano612 they really want to cut off the 24 billion dollars in taxable income of 7 million small businesses? No. I don’t think they will do that even if we all pay our taxes this year😂#tiktokban ♬ original sound - Michelle Raleigh Bartender
@itsnickholiday, who has about 500,000 followers on TikTok, also claimed the potential ban would send “millions” of people into an already-flooded job market “with no jobs available because everything is being taken over by AI.”
Other influencers have also argued that the resistance to paying taxes goes beyond retaliation against the ban. Some claim they won’t be able to file their taxes if they can’t access their 1099s or W2s, which many influencers have said they can only obtain through the app itself and that the tax forms aren’t sent to them another way.
“If I can’t access my W2s, then how will I be able to access my W2s?” questioned @michellebellexo. “How will they know how much I made? They won’t. They won’t know.”
The IRS did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Can TikTok influencers get away with not paying their taxes?
Although some TikTokers seem to believe they can skirt paying their taxes, experts say they likely don’t have the grounds to do so.
Just because TikTok gets banned, it’s doubtful influencers can successfully argue their taxes aren’t due unless there’s a change in the internal revenue code, Wayne Cohen, a managing partner at Cohen & Cohen Attorneys and law professor at the George Washington University School of Law, told Fortune.
He compared the potential TikTok ban to other types of businesses closing down.
“If a waiter works at a restaurant and earns money, but the restaurant, for whatever reason, gets burned down or goes out of business, the waiter still needs to pay taxes,” Cohen said. “If a corporate executive at a company gets a huge payout from a corporation, but that same corporation files bankruptcy, [the] executive still owes taxes.”
Stephen A. Weisberg, principal attorney and founder at The W Tax Group, said that TikTokers avoiding paying taxes just because the app is banned is “not legal” and tax deniers can get hit “especially hard” with higher penalties.
“If you don't pay your taxes, the IRS will prepare to enforce collections against you,” Weisberg told Fortune. “IRS collections include bank levy, wage garnishment, property lien, and property seizure. Penalties and interest continue to accrue at an accelerated rate until the balance is paid.”
Avoiding paying taxes could also result in criminal charges and jail time, he said.
Since TikTok influencers are still on the hook to pay their taxes, Lisa Greene-Lewis, a spokesperson for TurboTax who has more than 20 years of experience in tax preparation, suggests claiming all businesses expenses like travel, equipment, home office deduction and car expenses.
Doing this can “really lower their taxable income,” Greene-Lewis told Fortune.
