Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
THe short version is that if you get income from something, you are supposed to declare it as *something*. If you make necklaces out of soda can tabs and sell them at the flea market and make $15, you are technically supposed to tell the IRS about it.

It's pretty unlikely that anyone will come after you for not telling the IRS about chump change, particularly if you do it in cash and don't have a paper trail anyway. But if you have deposits showing up in your bank account that are bigger than your buddy reimbursing you for his share of dinner, it's a good idea to declare them. It doesn't mean you'll actually owe any more in taxes necessarily - if you brought in $1000 by selling babies but spent $1000 on new snakes, it's a wash. But you should still declare it.
I guess there is the under the table approach such as that . My only issue is that whatever I read anything about declaring taxes on a hobby is that the information is always talking from the standpoint of loss declaration. For instance i got this from turbotax:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tool.../INF22852.html

It basically says that it is not a business if it has not shown profit for three consecutive years so it is deemed a hobby and therefore you can't declare loss but then there is an assumption that you must claim gain there as well even though to them it is not a business...Kinda of vague to me on that portion. So what if I don't care to claim loss at all that still leaves me obligated to claim gain, and am I right to assume that it is not up to me to call it a hobby or a business from a tax standpoint, it is up to the IRS? Sorry don't want to muddle this too much