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Business & farm
In general, if the merchandise you purchased is for resale, it is considered Inventory. If you just started your business this year, your beginning inventory is $0 and the ending inventory is the cost of the products that you still have (did not sell). "Tell Us the Cost of Your Goods" should be the amount you paid to purchase the items from the company. If you used any products for yourself, you will enter than information as well.
With Inventory, you deduct the Cost of Goods Sold from your sales income for "net income" from sales. (Don't forget to charge sales tax.) You are taxed on the net income.
See IRS Pub 334 Accounting for Inventory under "Qualifying Taxpayer"
Keeping Inventory may match your income and expenses more closely if the sales occur in a different year than you purchased the inventory. However, once you start selling on a regular basis, the difference will work itself out (with purchases and sales in the same year). In either case, you are taxed on net income - the only difference is timing.
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