This is my first year to make decent affiliate income, so I'm not sure how to treat varying issues on the Schedule C. I have income from several affiliate sources. In order to receive this income, I had to build the websites that generated this income. So there is a cost there, in terms of my time in building the websites that also generated income. How is this computed? Where is the offset? On one hand, I have income, but on the other, there was a cost in terms of my time in developing the site(s) that generated the income. I'm using Turbo Tax, but it's not clear on this aspect. Thanks for any advice.
One more question. This one is odd and humorous I did some consulting work for a little old lady last year. She's about 70 and had grand illusions that a course she developed years ago for early teen students could be transferred to an online course. She managed to get some initial funding from a local businessman. After a few months, I started to get the feeling her funding was not going very well. Against my better judgement, I let the little old lady "con" me into doing about a thousand dollars more of work on the project. Ultimately, she stiffed me on the money owed me. (Never trust anyone, even little old ladies!) I didn't mind being stiffed on the money because she absolutely got on my last nerve. I'd have paid a thousand dollars to make her go away at that point. Still, a loss is a loss at tax time! Can this type of loss be taken on Schedule C? If so, where and what is it called?
As I understand it, operating costs for the site are a deduction. Startup costs must be depreciated over a period of time defined by the class of the property. A wild guess would be 5-7 years, maybe less. If under a certain threshold you might be able to expense them in one year subject to recapture later. Honestly if the amount is not large you might get away with writing it all off in the current year. You get no credit for your labor. That is your "sweat equity". Unless the $1K was previously reported as income, not likely since it is this year, you can not take any deduction for it. Pushing this filing right to the wire aren't you?