its not a business unless you want it to be... then you just fill out the paperwork to make it a llc, inc, spp, etc.
as far as taxes go - you have to claim your earnings if its over x amount of money. so, if you are investing a lot of money and/or making a lot of money it would be in your best interests to start a small business. that way you can write off your business expenses and keep your earnings separate from your wages. note: there's a lot more that goes into it than just that... but thats the gist.
if your business is small and you arent worried about things like taxes and liabilities then you'd want to do what's called a DBA - "doing business as"
i work for a small business lending group for a fortune 500 company so i just had to reply here
Last edited by Colin Vestrand; 01-24-2007 at 01:53 PM.
It is well worth it for you go ahead and get, in most states, what is known as a tax resale # if your state has sales tax. This will put you in business and you will need to collect sales tax on any sale made in your state. Sales outside your state do not collect tax (this might change as they are trying to find ways to tax internet sales). Also as the prev posted stated you my want to 'Inc.' your business to protect yourself from liabilities, such as someone buys a snake and then claims some cause to collect a large amount of money from you and they win in court they can come after your personal property/money, where if you are incorprated they can only collect what the business has, in most cases. It really sucks, but in this day and age you have to protect yourself from those folks that want to make a quick/easy buck.
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Originally Posted by Reptilian
