Define Your Business Creatively and Carefully

Hi, June:

I'm a self-employed musician in Denver, Colorado. I started my music career in 2004 and became fully self-employed in the fall of 2005.

I took interest in the Jack or Jane of All Trades: How does an indie define a business? post on your blog and would like to know how an indie treats several "irons in the fire" that are more difficult to combine under one heading.

In my case, I currently make very little money from music efforts and so I clean houses to pay my bills (sort of the introvert's version of waiting tables). I find and work for my own clients so I pay my own taxes on the housecleaning income just like I do on the music income.

It seems like a bit of a stretch for me to combine music and housecleaning under one heading unless I say this: because many of my music endeavors focus on healing (prayer services, hospice music therapy, rituals of celebration, etc.), and some of the performances I offer also take place in homes, the best I could argue would be that I create spaces of health and well-being through music, decluttering, and cleaning services.

But if this seems too far-fetched, could you offer a brief explanation of how I would declare both streams of revenue (music + housecleaning) on Schedule C?

Best wishes,
Rebecca

Wow, Rebecca! You are great. You are thinking just the way an indie should think -- creatively and in a businesslike fashion.

However, yes it is too much of a stretch. you must keep the two indie businesses separate. That means two set of records -- one that tallies income and expenses for your music business and another that records income and expenses for you cleaning service.

Your tax pro will need to file two Schedules C. A loss from one may be subtracted from the profit of the other when she calculates your taxable income.

Keep up your creative thinking!

Best,
June