I would be interested in learning a little more.

I would love to learn more.....my husband HATES the politics of his job and being in the semiconductor field it's a roller coaster. We have experienced our share of layoffs....Would love to be independant from working for "the man" and working for ourselves. Talk about freedom....traveling, meeting new friends plus making a living.....

Some of these so-called "Arts & Crafts" & "Flea Markets" look to be more like a full blown business. From CNC machines to onsite RV Services. Just wondering do the people that work at that caliber, do they have to report income to the IRS?? Looks like can be capable of quite a potentially large revenue.........

-- Edited by TRAILERKING on Wednesday 5th of March 2014 10:20:32 PM

NWescapee wrote:

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Trailer King - I'm confused by your comment, for us, our art business is a full time business for my husband, we secure all the appropriate tax licenses, file Schedule C for business income, etc. This is a business, not a hobby, so it is reportable income. There are various IRS publications you can review on this topic.

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 Don't be confused..........You answered my question. You appear to be doing things legitimate unlike from some stuff bragged about in threads.

TRAILERKING wrote:

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 Generally there's no "Drama" around here except when people and their ideas get attacked.  The original idea of this topic was supplementing income while pursuing ones hobbies.  

AND

Somehow it got turned into what looks like a personal attack on the way people manage their finances.  

Now I'm not saying you intentionally went out of your way to flame somebody, but when the entire thread is read, it does kinda seem that way.  Many people here work to support this lifestyle.  If your one of the ones that doesn't have too, then good for you, you crossed all your Tee's and dotted the I"s and paid your dues to be able to travel without worrying about income.  

Maybe we can speed the thread back up to a PoLKa or something for you.

Edit by moderator: Deleted quoted text of Trailerking's comments because the original post was also deleted.  Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Wednesday 5th of March 2014 07:04:30 PM

If you run a business, you pay taxes, either as owner or employee. You should know that as being a business owner yourself.
If a customer pays in a large amount of cash, what do you do? How much cash can your bank handle before the red flag raises for the tax man?
In the US, continual medium to large, several hundred to several thousand, cash deposits into private accounts usually gets scrutinized. If no proper business is set up then your going to have a nice visit with the auditors.
Now with that said, When someone walked in your shop and needed a quick and easy weld job, and had cash what did you do?

The official word from the IRS is that self-employed income over $400 needs to be filed with the IRS. I am not getting into the middle of any debate about whether there are people who exceed this amount but only take cash payments and therefore operate under the radar. My personal belief is that if you earned it, you need to account for it and pay your taxes otherwise you are just becoming a bigger burden on the rest of society.

A relatively recent change with the IRS (last 2-3 years) is the requirement that credit card companies issue IRS forms accounting for all credit transactions. Not yet required to be submitted with Schedule C because all the complications of the many different sales tax rates in every jurisdiction, but you can probably bet that at some point in the future business owners will have to include those forms issued by the credit card companies. Are there some businesses out there that can operate on just cash? Sure, but the vast majority of people seem to favor paying with credit or debit so business owners at arts / craft shows can and do lose out on sales if they can't take credit cards.

Trailer King - for what it's worth, while you may not be intending to be sounding or coming across judgmental, your comment about hiding it under the table did raise my ire a bit. Seemed like a public accusation that those of us in mobile business' were likely to hide money under the table. Of course, that may because on the ice day Sunday, in Dallas, I spent 5 hours cooped up in the RV listening to sleet, wind, and hail while working on our 2013 taxes which were way more complicated than prior years due to the business we've been running for 8 years, plus working on business licenses in 2 additional states that we're venturing into this year. So, while you might not have intended to tick a few of us off, you evidently managed to do so even if it was unintentional. I honestly haven't seen people bragging about doing things in a non-legitimate way in the threads so obviously you and I are interpreting things differently. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt but, yes, you did come across as judgmental IMO.

TRAILERKING wrote:

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Alie and Jims Carrilite wrote:

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If you run a business, you pay taxes, either as owner or employee. You should know that as being a business owner yourself.
If a customer pays in a large amount of cash, what do you do? How much cash can your bank handle before the red flag raises for the tax man?
In the US, continual medium to large, several hundred to several thousand, cash deposits into private accounts usually gets scrutinized. If no proper business is set up then your going to have a nice visit with the auditors.
Now with that said, When someone walked in your shop and needed a quick and easy weld job, and had cash what did you do?

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You're missing the boat. it's got nothing to do with owning a business, you pay taxes.

It's all about one EARNING, MAKING MONEY, SELLING YOUR SERVICES, you pay taxes................At least one would think so. Also not talking about hauling wheel barrow loads of cash to a bank to raise red flags.

Sorry to bring up such a bad question. 

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 Some of these so-called "Arts & Crafts" & "Flea Markets" look to be more like a full blown business. From CNC machines to onsite RV Services. Just wondering do the people that work at that caliber, do they have to report income to the IRS?? Looks like can be capable of quite a potentially large revenue.........

That is the statement you made earlier in the thread. 

Others can fill in here, but if I remember right, to sell a product or service at a show or flea market, you need a permit to sell.  These are generally distributed by the town or county where the show/market is taking place.  Different requirements for different vendors, but to be a registered business in your home state is usually one, as well as a form of liability insurance.  That makes you a business and subject to the IRS tax requirement for such.   

Sherry - LOL!! It took me several several writing / re-writing attempts to come across gracefully, glad I succeeded, you know me well enough to know what my initial reaction might have been.

I still believe this is one of the nicest forums on the Web, lately it seems there have been a few more judgemental / abrasive commets and felt this thread was taking a negative tone.  Lucky Mike was trying to help people and willing to offer his expertise, I'd like to see this thread get back to the original topic on how people can find creative ways to earn a little extra income.

Cheryl,

One trend I've noticed at street fairs and craft shows (not seen frequently at the fine art events) is anything personalized.

Examples, Christmas ornaments where names are added on site, these sometimes accomodate and reflect family size, for example one crafter makes blanks of Christmas trees with teddy bears and varies the number of teddy bears from 1-6 or more to reflect family sizes and then adds the names at the bottom. This crafter also offers Christmas stockings with customized names, she machine embroiders the names on site, but also ships when her line / number of people waiting get too long.

Another example is people who learn to weave names in wire, their pendants sell really well.

Yet another example is someone using letter beads to create bracelets with names or fun, personalized short sayings.

Crafters with cutsey baby or animal products, especially those that can be customized always seem to have a line. I laughed at one booth in AZ last winter that sold visors for dogs, but sure enough, as the 3 day show progress I saw a lot of dogs wearing visors. There's a huge trend towards spoiling our pets and many of the street fairs and craft shows have become "dog parades".

Woodworkers, like Lucky Mike, who can create signs that are personalized also seem very popular, we also see one vendor who craves numbers and sells those as house numbers to replace the "boring" ones home builders use with something more unique.

You mention being a former candle maker, the only ones I know who are having success at craft shows seem to be specialized. Creating soy candles that don't impact allergies has been a trend I've seen in the Pacific NW, but most of the candle makers I know have seen a decreasing sales trend over the last 5-10 years.

Not sure if that helps, but those with items that can be personalized always seem busy.