It depends.
Yes - If you were in business for the entire calendar year, then your beginning inventory would be the inventory you had on hand on 1/1/2016. In this instance, your beginning inventory would be zero "0" .
No - If you were not in business until August, then your beginning inventory will be the amount of inventory that you had on hand when you started your business. So if the business start date is August and you have inventory on that date, then use the amount of inventory on that August date as your beginning inventory number.
Please
refer to this IRS link for more information about Business
Expenses
