Just a Hobby or a Real Business?

Working from home is often seen as 'not a real job', and often as an easy ride or 'just a hobby', with smart comments coming from those who have 'real' jobs ...

For example, a guy called in to a radio show that was being streamed through my doctor's waiting room, and my ears pricked up when he said that he worked from home but was taking a break...the presenter repeated what the caller had said in a sarcastic tone: "what, you work at home...and you're taking a BREAK?" - implying that if you work from home it's always a break!

Yes, working at home means you have the freedom and flexibility to choose when and how you work, and yes you can work in your pyjamas if you really want to...but most home-based workers 'work' just as hard at home as they would in a ...'real' ... job, and often with longer hours!

The picture is often painted of someone doing a couple of hours work and then shooting off to play golf all day - and this is the image used to lure people IN to the whole work at home thing, "earn a squillion dollars with just 3 hours work a week". But in reality, just like in a typical job, you work hard, you are serious and you put in the hours.

I just read an article about whether you should pay tax on eBay earnings, i.e. is selling on eBay a business or a hobby, but the same points can be applied to non-eBay sellers to ascertain whether people are actually 'working' from home...

The issues to consider (by you and the tax office!) are:

• Do you carry on the activity in a business-like manner, keeping records and tracking profit and loss etc?
  
  
• Do you put considerable time and effort into your 'hobby'?
  
  
• If you depend on income from your eBay activities for your livelihood?

You can read the whole article about eBay here, but I thought the questions above related quite well to the whole 'working at home isn't really working' thing.

So, next time someone asks you whether it's really 'work or just a hobby', assuming you answered yes to all the above questions, you can proudly tell them you have to pay your taxes just like they do!