I just received my check from NAFA for $26.66 I don't think I'm going to report my earnings to the IRS. LOL

Just received my FHA check and sold my green beaver to Groeny this A.M.. Like you said Beav I don't think the IRS need be involved!

If you put it in with the other business like Les and Larry, there shouldn't be a loss overall, I hope.

This would be a great demo at a convention - I know I would attend and take notes.

Solid advice from Calvin.

If treating your trapping as a business as an LLC I would think you would have to show a profit every three years. I would guess most trappers don't make a profit and if all deductions were taken they would operate at a loss. The IRS might frown on a business that looses money every year and reduces the tax burden on regular income.

I never even covered my gas bill.

Don't forget that the only thing Al Capone went to prison for was TAX EVASION.

TurboTax

Easy to do, deduct everything purchased used for trapping, keep a log of your mileage. Not a big deal at all once you're in the groove.

If you can't turn a profit then you are engaged in a hobby and it's your responsibility to report your income.

I sleep well at night

I use H&R Block software but same thing. I roll all my micro gigs (ebay sales, craiglist/fb sales, trapping, graden produce, metal recycling) into a single "business". I've done this for about 5 years now. Made money 1 year where it increased my taxes a little, the other years it typically was slightly in the red (probably didn't claim all my trapping expenses). Its usually my mileage count that takes it into the red. I haven't been audited yet. If that happens, they will get a lot of receipts in their laps...

I use Turbo Tax Premier and have for years. I too have combined several small enterprises into one schedule C, trapping, custom fur handling, garden, beef and hog sales, maple syrup sales, consulting etc.
Not hard to show profits when a 100 coon and 200 rats were 5 K but losses are big when they are $1200, so combining for me made sense.
Also if and when you are confronted by the IRS or audited the "key" word for small businesses are your intentions to make a profit. I did taxes for smaller farmers who many times made little to no positive income yet filed every year. Some good ways to get noticed by agents for audits is to not be able to provide statements for income entries into check books or savings accounts, not reporting other income at all, or having a schedule C and file only when you have higher income and claim expenses to offset but don't file during lower income years. There are ways to take some expenses and spread over time if losses are large so that you don't have large losses.

I know adding some schedules to ones tax return seems like a waste to many but in all honesty unless you are unbelievably efficient and or know when to stop trapping before your costs exceed income, losing money or saving taxes would be the norm. If you don't want to do the schedules for a C do the hobby thing and at least you can zero out income most years.

Bryce

I also have a state slaes tax license for when I flip things on ebay/craigslist and selling garden produce. They don't make a lot off of me but they still cash my checks

I kept track of every expense, and mileage, and even though I thought I was getting pretty good at trapping, and actually catching, I barely made a profit. Most years I did not make a profit, my accountant said you have to make money most years, or else the IRS calls it a hobby. So that was the end of reporting fur checks.

Claim all your fur checks and keep track of your expenses hobby or not. Unless you have dealt with the IRS you have no idea, you don't tell them anything, they tell you. It's the late fees and fines that get you not the tax.

A car dealer in my city was audited. He had a beautiful country home with goats roaming in a front pasture. IRS asked why he had not include his income from the goats. He told them he had never sold one. They were not satisfied but the gentleman was truthful with them. It was a hobby.

$600 or less you should not have to report ?

All good advice, thanks. I hope to finalize the audit this week and move on with my life. It has been very stressful to say the least, I thought I ran everything by the book. The IRS has a different book.

Not trapping related, but when our tax lady died we started getting audited every year she had done our taxes. Come to find out several of her customers were audited. She had gotten real sick and we had switched to someone else a few years prior to being audited, but they ended up hitting us for 3 years in a row. Sucked that we had no one to fall back on. I truly believe they have a list of every tax preparer in the US and when they die they pull up their clients and make some $$$.

600 or less you should not have to report ?
Not necessarily. $600 is the threshold for filing a 1099 Misc not reporting income. Several smaller businesses like to divide up payments to others so they don't reach the $600 level but that does not make the income non taxable income to the recipient. Dealing with commodities and famers many times things were reported as feed and other expenses that don't need to be reported as 1099 income. Many take undue risks not reporting what they feel is non taxable income or income that the IRS does not need to know about when the tax laws for businesses are so tax friendly that filing and using the schedules and expense options may actually save taxes and minimize the consequences of being audited for a small amount of taxes due and if over time the interest, fees and fines may be 2 to 10 times the actual taxes due and if deliberate fraud can be proven much worse.

Bryce

Keep all your sales and purchase paperwork (including subscriptions to fur related publications) and trapping licenses & association dues plus a log book showing starting and ending odometer readings and resulting elapsed miles for every trip for trapping, supplies, sales, or conventions. For vehicle expense just multiplying total miles times IRS per mile allowance is probably adequate for most trappers. Deducting selling commissions and fees, and shipping if any, from sales to get net trapping income. For trapping conventions and meetings food and lodging costs for the trapper (not family members) is deductible.

If you report losses year after year without reporting an occasional profit (about every 6 years) the auditor will say trapping is a non-deductible hobby instead of a business.