Legal Question in Tax Law in California
taxeation on selling amateur photos
I am an amateur photographer and from time to time people who have seen my work at home will ask me to take pics of them. I charge them around $50.00 to do the work as I have to set up equipment and make prints on my printer. My question is at what point do I have to pay taxes on what I am asking for payment, or do I? I do photography for fun, but its good to get paid every once in awhile. Is this an agreement between two people? and not a commercial venture?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: taxeation on selling amateur photos
The 100% by-the-book answer is that every penny that you receive, if it is in exchange for one of your prints or for your services as a photographer, is taxable as income.
As a practical matter, the additional taxes due on the amounts you receive are likely minimal, and the chances that the unreported income would be detected are also minimal.
If, at some point, you stop looking at photography as a hobby and start thinking about it like a business, and try to make a profit with it, then your photography expenses would be deductible against your other income. If you were to take this approach, you would need to be able to demonstrate that you operated like a business, and that you had an expectation that the business would eventually be profitable.
Re: taxeation on selling amateur photos
see:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99239,00.html
Re: taxeation on selling amateur photos
In addition to the other answers, when you sell a product you are required to collect California state sales taxes, and should have a resale tax number.
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