Should I file 1009 income on Schedule C form?

I have a sole proprietership (an online retail business that carried a small inventory) that I've filed a Schedule C on for 6 years. In late 2007 my business started to decline and I will take a loss for the 2nd consecutive year. As of 3rd qrtr '07 I will no longer be selling items online due to losses.





While business was slow, I created some new websites that have generated good income from advertising.


I received 1099's from the advertisers.


Can I claim this income using my original biz Schedule C or must I claim it as seperate income outside of my sole proprietership?





Also, as of 2008, can I continue to use my same biz name as a schedule c filing in 09 even though the biz changed from retail to a purely info site generating income from advertising? I know this is confusing but hope someone can offer objective advice. I've seen two cpa's and heard differing stories.

Should I file 1009 income on Schedule C form?
They are both online businesses. You could easily argue that they are the same business, or different businesses.





It is probably quite common for an online marketer to make money by selling product while generating revenue from advertising links. And trying to separate all that activity out into two separate business could be quite messy....lots of expenses would overlap between the two...ISP charges, computer equipment, etc.





And later you might decide to sell product again on one of those sites that is generating ad. revenue. Does that require another Schedule C?





My opinion is to keep it clean. One schedule C.
Reply:IRS has diffrent books you can get for all this. I know one that has answers to all kinds of stuff is pub 17 but you may need a diffrent one. The best thing to do is call them and ask them what pub you need to figure it all out and have them send it to you. It should be free. All so the locale library here have people to give you tax help so you may want to check with them and see if there is someone to talk to. I know that is free here you would have to ask them at yours.
Reply:you can continue with the same name of the business if you want. if you change completely from retail to computer business you should change the business code.
Reply:The businesses are unrelated. You need a second schedule C.
Reply:I think a good CPA would be the best answer to this question. To me its a matter of do you want to morph your advertising business into the original one or break it into a new venture. Your CPA should advise you the benefits or downfalls to both options.