Good evening and hello

[coinsandhobbysupplies]

New member here and slowly starting up an ebay business. I have sold things on ebay quite a bit before and been a member of ebay for 11 years now so I am no stranger to ebay and how it works. My question is about expenses to start up. I'm going to do this debt free and I have a question. This year, I do not have any plans to sell anything. All I am doing is purchasing office supplies, shipping supplies, and inventory (coins). My question is, if I do not have an ebay store up and running yet and just building up supplies and inventory can I write off these purchases as expenses? Thanks.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum. As long as you're a business you should be able to write off the expenses. The IRS allows you a few years (3 I think) before you have to turn a profit. I think how you write off the supplies and inventory will depend some on what kind of business entity you file as, though don't hold me to any of this as I'm not an accountant.

Of course writing off the purchases only counts against anything you earn so if you make nothing it's not going to save you anything on taxes this year. You'll might be better off putting any deduction off if you can until you are making more money. If you're business will be filed as a sole proprietorship then everything ultimately counts against your personal income so if you are making income outside this business the deductions can help you more this year. Otherwise it's probably best to have it count against future years if possible.

[scottish]

yes. everything you buy for your business is an expense. put it in the red column. anything you sell is income put it in the black colum.

black - red columns = total profit.

[huggytree]

if you buy enough you may not even owe any taxes....my 1st year in business i only paid $10 in fed. taxes because i spent so much on tools/supplies

if your going to be in business you must have an accountant...its a question to ask him(not ask unknowns on a business site)

[coinsandhobbysupplies]

Good comments folks, and I agree huggytree, I'll need someone who knows this stuff better than me.