> There is some hobby option I am > going to attempt but it's unclear how much it will help.
Yeah, I noticed about two or three years ago, they added a section for "hobby income" which you can offset by "hobby losses", though I don't know if there are any dollar limits on that.
I've been sticking income from google ads on my website in the "hobby income" box on my taxes to cover my ass just in case.
As other people have said, the bottom line is net "gain". If your outgoing is higher than your incoming, then you don't owe any taxes. The problem, as you point out, is that you probably need to come up with some sort of numbers for your tax guy and if you get audited, the IRS will probably want you to come up with receipts or something. Which could be a problem.
I know you said you don't want to do it, in case you change your mind, registering a business as a sole proprietorship isn't that hard. I did it in NJ about 10 years ago. I registered a business name (with the county, I think) and got a tax number from the state (which I think was my SSN plus some extra digits on the end or something). Then I opened a business checking account using that tax number. I think I eventually opened a paypal account using that tax number. Initially, I kept track of purchases (inventory) and sales on a spreadsheet, but later I got a copy of Quickbooks, since you don't really do any volume, you could probably stick to a spreadsheet. The biggest pain was quarterly sales tax payments on in-state sales. That sucked.
I just sent you some cash. Hopefully, it will help.
GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
Edited by krick (01/30/13 07:14 AM)
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