I am a court reporter and I earn seperate income just on transcripts that I sell when they are requested. Would this be considered a royalty rather than from business

[BMcCalpin · Accepted solution]

Based on what I know about court reporting, this appears to be a business rather than a royalty.
 

The IRS' Publication 17 says that "Earned income is ...amounts received as pay for work you actually perform."

If I am correct, even in the simple case, a court reporter does some of the basic functions of a business - buying supplies (paper or DVDs or memory sticks), billing clients, advertising (even if word of mouth) services, etc.

Note that Court reporting has an SOI industry code - 561492 Court Reporting and Stenotype Services, and I see a number of articles that speak to the tax implications of whether or not you should incorporate as your court reporting activity grows. This would make sense only if it were a business.