Everybody's favorite subject...taxes

I am getting ready to start doing reptile shows in addition to internet sales. Do you all need Tax Id #, etc? Hate to ask such a touchy question, just wanting to make sure I do it right. Any help would be appreciated.

Legally your supposed to report all income on your taxes. Whether you keep it as a hobby status or actually get a business license will depend. In CA, if you have profits in 3 of 5 years you go into business, and if you have losses for that much time you can stay a hobby. It's weird. I went ahead and just got my business license because it gives you more tax breaks and things. The Sacramento show requires at least a sellers permit to sell at that show, I can't speak for the others tho.

I was going to say that unless you breed on a very large scale that you will not be in the black in terms of finances, and given that I wouldn't worry about it.

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Originally Posted by gsarchie

I was going to say that unless you breed on a very large scale that you will not be in the black in terms of finances, and given that I wouldn't worry about it.

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You'd be surprised. It really depends on what morphs your working with and what sells and what doesn't. I went into the black this season on one clutch. And a friend of mine had a clutch of coral glows that paid for his last 2-3 years...

Check the tax codes, but you should be able to amortize your startup costs and spread them out as deductions over a number of years. This can be an advantage- if your startup costs give you more of a break than you need this year, you can spread them out so as to decrease your tax burden when hopefully you show profits in the next few years.