I'll be selling items (I created) at art/craft fairs, sole owner, no employees. Should I create a business with EIN and have taxes prepared separate from personal taxes?

[DoninGA]

As a sole proprietor you can request an EIN but it is not required when reporting your income and expenses since you can use either your Social Security number or the EIN - https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-n...

A sole proprietor that has not incorporated reports their income and expenses on a Schedule C which is part of and included with your personal tax return Form 1040.  The Schedule C is not filed separately from your personal tax return.

IRS website Tax Center for the self-employed -  https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employed-individuals-tax-center

[Anonymous]

Don't know how much you're making doing this, but you may need to pay quarterly estimated taxes to cover self-employment taxes and income taxes.     if your state has an income tax, you may also need to pay state estimated taxes. 

TT has an section for estimated 2019 taxes which you can complete to do this.   TT also has taxcaster website, but that appears to only do 2018 and not 2019 estimations.

do not post personal info.  this is a public website. 

[VolvoGirl]

You don't need to get an EIN unless you pay employees.  But you can get one so you don't have to give out your ssn if someone requests it like to pay you or for booth rental or on applications etc.  

Some general info on self employment...........

You will need to keep good records.  You may get a 1099Misc at the end of the year if someone pays you more than $600 but you need to report all your income no matter how small.  You might want to use Quicken or QuickBooks to keep track of your income and expenses.

There is also QuickBooks Self Employment bundle you can check out which includes one Turbo Tax Online Self Employed  return....

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed

When you are self employed you are in business for yourself and the person or company that pays you is your customer or client.

To report your self employment income you will fill out schedule C in your personal 1040 tax return and pay SE self employment Tax.  You will need to use the Online Self Employed version or any Desktop program but the Desktop Home & Business version will have the most help.

Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) is automatically generated if a person has $400 or more of net profit from self-employment.  You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit greater than $400.  The 15.3% self employed SE Tax is to pay both the employer part and employee part of Social Security and Medicare.  So you get social security credit for it when you retire.  You do get to take off the 50% ER portion of the SE tax as an adjustment on Schedule 1 line 27.  The SE tax is already included in your tax due or reduced your refund.  It is on the Schedule 4 line 57.  The SE tax is in addition to your regular income tax on the net profit.

Here is some IRS reading material……

IRS information on Self Employment

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center

Pulication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf

Publication 535 Business Expenses

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf