Aurelia
New member
Hope this is the right place to post this question...
So, the overall gist of my question is: at what point does one move from bellydance as a hobby to bellydance as a business? For the last couple of years I have been teaching on contract with a local college, doing the occasional private lesson, buying dance items (scarves, zils, etc.) wholesale to sell to my students (I don't make much money from this) and performing locally with my dance troupe at fairs and festivals (sometimes with a local band) for not much money. Up to this year, I claimed this income as "hobby" income -- I'm paying taxes on it, but not the self-employment tax. (I should mention that I have a full-time professional non-dance job that is my primary source of income.)
But, demand for my services is growing and we're starting to get paid real money for our gigs, and I sense that 2009 is going to be a year where I won't really be able to call bellydance income a hobby anymore. For those of you in the US who've made the move over to having a small bellydance business, how bad is it, in terms of hassle and taxes and accounting? If you had it to do over again, would you, or would you have stayed at the hobby level? Is there a point at which it's not worth it to make to move to small business? After all, I could always turn down classes or gigs since I don't need the money to survive (although these days every penny really counts!).
I really appreciate any advice anyone is willing to share! ray:
So, the overall gist of my question is: at what point does one move from bellydance as a hobby to bellydance as a business? For the last couple of years I have been teaching on contract with a local college, doing the occasional private lesson, buying dance items (scarves, zils, etc.) wholesale to sell to my students (I don't make much money from this) and performing locally with my dance troupe at fairs and festivals (sometimes with a local band) for not much money. Up to this year, I claimed this income as "hobby" income -- I'm paying taxes on it, but not the self-employment tax. (I should mention that I have a full-time professional non-dance job that is my primary source of income.)
But, demand for my services is growing and we're starting to get paid real money for our gigs, and I sense that 2009 is going to be a year where I won't really be able to call bellydance income a hobby anymore. For those of you in the US who've made the move over to having a small bellydance business, how bad is it, in terms of hassle and taxes and accounting? If you had it to do over again, would you, or would you have stayed at the hobby level? Is there a point at which it's not worth it to make to move to small business? After all, I could always turn down classes or gigs since I don't need the money to survive (although these days every penny really counts!).
I really appreciate any advice anyone is willing to share! ray: