So after another fun drive out to Killeen and back, I was greeted with a letter from the IRS. I had hoped it was my tax refund, but no such luck. Apparently they decided that I should have completed a Schedule SE. I disagree, and not just because it means that I'd owe more money.
What's frustrating is that there seems to be no clear cut answer as to how I should be filing. I could declare that the extra income was from a sole proprietor business, in which case, I'd have to amend my tax return to include a Schedule C and Schedule SE. Alternately (and preferably), I could argue that because I undertook the money making activity "sporadically", it doesn't constitute a business. If I'm not a business, then I don't file a Schedule C, and the values in Schedule SE are all zeros.
It seems like a sound argument. I just wish there was a more solid definition of what constitutes a "business". As it stands, I feel like I'm trying to weasel out of paying. When really I'm not...after all, if I had known I'd have to file as a business, I would have kept track of expenses for the purposes of deducting them later.
The irony is that I'm only having to worry about this because I reported the income in the first place. I received no 1099, so had I not mentioned it, they'd probably be none the wiser. *sigh*
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