rmiklich[at]nyx.net (Ritchie) wrote in

- quote -

Hire an accountant to set up a basic set of books for you?
It does sound like you are in a trading business that buys
merchandise at wholesale for resale. So yes, I would agree
your books are inventory and the cost of the books is
included in cost of goods sold.

scott s.

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"Ritchie" <rmiklich[at]nyx.net> wrote:

- quote -

Clearly the books you purchase for resale are inventory.

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I wonder if anybody out there can help me with a tax filing
question.

I started a small (very small) home business in 2002 selling
books on line through ebay and the like. I'm just using a
cash accounting system, and last year I filed a schedule
C-EZ.

This year I looked at things a bit closer and I'm wondering
if I should consider the cost of the books I buy at
yardsales etc. as "inventory". I have absolutely no method
of tracking inventory and no idea what my starting and
ending inventory for 2003 would have been (I had no idea
that I was supposed to keep track of this stuff.)

So this brings me to my 11th hour tax filing and I'm not
sure what to do. Last year I just lumped the cost of all the
books I bought into expeses. I've read something that I can
account for these as "supplies that are not incidental" but
I can't figure out what that means or how I would account
for it that way.

Does anybody have any suggestions for me?

Confused and Clueless....

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