Florida Candidate’s “Sin Tax” Could Halve OnlyFans Creator Earnings

It’s no secret that not everyone is fond of OnlyFans, but some political candidates are using their influence to take their disdain to new heights. OnlyFans, worth about $3.15 billion, is illegal or otherwise unusable in sixteen countries worldwide and some far right figures are running to dismantle it here in the United States. While this doesn’t always work, some states have been surprisingly successful in outlawing adult content.

Texas (the second most populated state in the union) implemented House Bill 1181 in 2023, requiring those accessing adult content websites to prove their age through government-issued identification or a credit card. Instead of developing processes to handle this sensitive data, Pornhub, one of the largest adult websites, elected to completely remove access to their website in Texas. Conversely, OnlyFans has played along with these age-verification regulations (for the time being) and requires users in states with these laws to show ID when attempting to view adult content.

It’s not just Texas, either. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, The Carolinas, The Dakotas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming have all enacted some form of age-verification legislation. OnlyFans has been able to continue operating in these states, but one Florida gubernatorial candidate has recently taken aim at OnlyFans creators who reside in the state.

James Fishback, running as a Republican, has made his proposed “Sin Tax” a central part of his platform. The former hedge fund manager has proposed a 50% tax on Florida-based OnlyFans creators’ income. Fishback says the goal of this legislation is to raise roughly $200 million for mental health, education and crisis-pregnancy centers, while discouraging others from creating content on OnlyFans. Unsurprisingly, Floridian OnlyFans creators are less than thrilled by this, and have made their dissatisfaction known.

Sophie Rain is perhaps one of the most popular OnlyFans creators on the platform. Based in Miami, Rain has co-founded the Bop House, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida mansion for OnlyFans creators. While she doesn’t describe herself as politically active, Rain said,”... there was no way in hell I was going to let this one slide.” After being called out by name by Fishback, who stated in part in an X post,” Hey @SophieRaiin, Pay up *or* quit OnlyFans.” The gubernatorial hopeful went on to say he “ [wouldn’t] allow a generation of smart and capable young women to sell their bodies online”. In response, Rain said on X,” [S]ounds like you subscribed and got buyers remorse after dropping your annual salary on an [OnlyFans] girl.”

Rain, who has made hundreds of millions of dollars on OnlyFans, explained, in a video following her online spat with Fishback, that she already pays federal taxes at a rate of 37%. She continued, questioning why Fishback felt the need to target OnlyFans creators. “I would be more than happy to pay that, if multi-billion dollar corporations were also being properly taxed… But surprise, they’re not,” the 21 year-old said. 

Rain says that political conservatives are her top-paying clients and there’s data to back this up. Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Business School conducted a study in 2009, finding that, out of the ten states that spent the most on pornography subscriptions, eight voted for Republican John McCain in 2008’s presidential election. Despite having “old-fashioned values about family and marriage”, residents of these states bought more porn than states with residents who did not hold these beliefs. As for James Fishback, a recent poll of Florida voters finds him in a distant second, 46 points behind current first place primary candidate Byron Donalds. Donalds has yet to pick a side on this issue.

OnlyFans already takes a 20% cut of all transactions on the platform, so it’s easy to understand why creators would be unwilling to cede a further 50% of their income to the state. In states without these major taxes, OnlyFans has been able to help everyone from athletes to actors make a living. Creators like Sophie Rain have decided to get political for the first time to combat these proposed initiatives.