You are not required to have inventory. You can select cash and say, "no", to inventory.
If you use cash method and your total average income for the last 3
years was less than $1,000,000 per year, you don't need to use the cost of goods sold section at all.
Instead, you can just write off
your merchandise under supplies or miscellaneous expenses when you purchase it. In this case, your
merchandise purchase in 2016 would be fully written off then as a business
expense. Your 2017 is written off in 2017.
