Absolutely. Most of my clients are involved in some type of eCommerce, but I also have clients who are attorneys, professors, teachers, mechanics, etc. If there is something about your situation or profession that requires a level of expertise out of my comfort zone, I will let you know up front.

To keep the IRS happy, and for the best insights into your profitability, you should generally only expense (deduct) your inventory when you sell it. Every time you purchase inventory, it becomes an asset for your business, so you record it as such. When you sell that inventory to a customer is when you expense it as cost of goods sold and simultaneously reduce your inventory (debit cost of goods sold, credit inventory). I usually recommend that beginners track their inventory using a basic spreadsheet. You can get some free templates in the Accounting for Online Sellers Facebook group.

Deducting your inventory immediately upon purchase is more of a gray area that you can learn more about here.

It can’t hurt (unless you live someplace like CA where they charge you a minimum $800 per year for the LLC). It really depends on your particular situation, but if you have plans to grow or feel like you would benefit from additional liability protection, it’s usually a good idea. Having an LLC also gives your business an added level of legitimacy and can facilitate your business operation (opening a bank account, getting wholesale accounts, etc.). If you need help with formation, send me a note.

An S corp is a tax filing election that allows you to potentially avoid having to pay a portion of self employment tax that you would normally pay as a regular sole proprietorship or partnership. It you are making a profit in excess of $30,000 annually, it might make sense to look into.

Sales tax is generally charged by state and local governments on the sale of physical goods where ever your business has a physical presence. Most states have implemented marketplace facilitator laws that require selling platforms such as Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, etc. to collect and remit any sales tax for you. But if you are selling outside of these platforms or live in state without marketplace facilitator laws, you are responsible for collecting and remitting the tax yourself. Watch my sales tax video here.