Paying Taxes on an Antique Booth: Schedule C, Deductions, and Sales Tax

Paying taxes on an antique booth means treating it like the small business the IRS considers it to be: you report the profit on Schedule C, pay federal income tax and 15.3% self-employment tax on what’s left after expenses, send estimated payments four times a year, and in most states collect sales tax on every sale unless the mall handles that piece for you. The $400 net-earnings threshold for owing self-employment tax is low, so almost anyone selling with any regularity is in scope.¹

Is Your Booth a Business or a Hobby

The classification decides whether you can deduct expenses. A business nets income against expenses on Schedule C. A hobby reports gross income on Schedule 1, line 8j, with no deductions allowed at all after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspension was made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.² Paying tax on every dollar of gross sales with no offset for what you paid for the inventory is a much worse outcome than most sellers realize.

The IRS weighs several factors together: time and effort invested, whether you keep business-like records, whether you depend on the income, and your history of profits and losses.³ A useful safe harbor: profit in three of the last five years and the IRS presumes you’re a business.⁴ If you work your booth regularly, track inventory, price strategically, and aim to profit, you’re almost certainly a business.

Reporting Income on Schedule C

As a sole proprietor, you report all booth income and expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040).⁵ Sole proprietor is the default when you operate on your own without registering as an LLC or corporation.⁶

Gross receipts include every sale: transactions the mall rang up, plus anything you sold at a flea market, online, or out of your garage. The IRS taxes all of it, whether or not a 1099 shows up in your mailbox.

Form 1099-K

If a payment processor or online platform handles your sales, you may receive a Form 1099-K. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the reporting threshold reverted to $20,000 in gross payments and more than 200 transactions in a calendar year.⁷ Both conditions must be met. Falling below the threshold does not exempt you from tax. It only means the platform isn’t required to file the form.

Form 1099-NEC

Some malls pay sellers as independent vendors and keep a commission. If the mall pays you $600 or more in a year, it may issue a Form 1099-NEC.⁸ The amount flows into your Schedule C gross receipts. Reconcile any discrepancy with the mall before you file.

Cost of Goods Sold: Your Biggest Deduction

Cost of goods sold is what you actually paid for the items you sold. It comes off the top of gross receipts before any other expense is calculated, and for antique sellers it’s usually the largest single number on the return. Getting it right is the difference between paying tax on $30,000 in sales and paying tax on $8,000 in real profit.

The calculation: beginning inventory, plus purchases during the year, minus ending inventory. For one-of-a-kind pieces, the specific identification method fits naturally. Match the purchase price of each item to its sale. A dresser you bought for $75 at an estate sale and sold for $325 has a cost of $75.

Record the purchase date, price, source, and a description specific enough to match to a future sale. Box lots from auctions are where sellers fall apart. If you pay $200 for a mixed lot, allocate the cost across the pieces in a reasonable way and document the method. Consistency matters more than perfection. No documentation is a guaranteed problem in an audit.

Deductible Booth Expenses

After cost of goods sold, you deduct the ordinary operating costs of the booth. Each dollar reduces both your income tax and your self-employment tax.

Booth Rent and Mall Fees

Rent or space fees paid to the antique mall are fully deductible, as are percentage-based commissions the mall withholds from sales. Separate charges for credit card processing, advertising, or after-hours access are deductible when they’re tied to running the booth.

Mileage

Driving to estate sales, auctions, thrift stores, and the booth itself is deductible. The 2026 IRS standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile.⁹ To use it on a vehicle you own, you must elect the standard rate in the first year you use that vehicle for business.¹⁰

Keep a contemporaneous mileage log. Date, destination, business purpose, miles. Write it down at the time of the trip, not at tax time. A shoebox of gas receipts is not a substitute. Mileage is one of the most commonly disallowed deductions in audits because sellers don’t keep the log.

Home Office and Storage

If you use part of your home regularly and exclusively for the booth business, for bookkeeping, photographing items, or storing inventory, you may qualify for a home office deduction. The simplified method is $5 per square foot up to 300 square feet, capping at $1,500.¹¹ The regular method allocates actual mortgage or rent, utilities, and insurance, and can yield more, but requires more tracking.

Supplies, Equipment, and Fees

Price tags, packaging, cleaning products, display fixtures, signage, and shelving all deduct. So do liability insurance and fees paid to an accountant for business tax preparation. Items costing $2,500 or less that you buy for use in the business rather than for resale can be expensed immediately under the de minimis safe harbor election instead of depreciated.⁶ A pricing gun, portable card reader, or laptop used to track inventory fits.

Self-Employment Tax

Your Schedule C net profit is subject to self-employment tax at 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security, 2.9% for Medicare.¹² An employee splits these taxes with the employer. Self-employed sellers pay both halves. This is what catches new booth operators off guard.

The tax applies to 92.35% of net profit. You calculate it on Schedule SE.¹³ The Social Security portion applies only to the first $184,500 in combined wages and self-employment earnings for 2026.¹⁴ The Medicare portion has no cap. Net self-employment income above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly) triggers an additional 0.9% Medicare tax on the excess.⁶

You can deduct half of your self-employment tax as an adjustment to income on Form 1040. That lowers adjusted gross income and reduces your income tax, though it doesn’t reduce the self-employment tax itself.¹²

Quarterly Estimated Payments

Nobody withholds from a booth sale, so you send estimated tax to the IRS four times a year. Payments are required if you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file.¹⁵ The 2026 deadlines:

Q1: April 15, 2026
Q2: June 15, 2026
Q3: September 15, 2026
Q4: January 15, 2027

To avoid the underpayment penalty, your payments plus any withholding must total at least 90% of the current-year tax or 100% of the prior-year tax, whichever is smaller. If prior-year adjusted gross income exceeded $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately), the prior-year safe harbor climbs to 110%.¹⁶ For a first-year seller with no prior return, estimate the year’s profit, divide by four, and lean toward overpaying. An overpayment refunds. An underpayment costs a penalty plus interest.

The Qualified Business Income Deduction

Section 199A lets eligible sole proprietors deduct up to 20% of qualified business income on the personal return.¹⁷ The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made it permanent. For a booth netting $25,000, that’s up to a $5,000 reduction in taxable income.

The phase-out for 2026 begins around $201,750 for single filers and $403,500 for joint filers. Below those thresholds, you take 20% of net booth income as a deduction. It reduces federal income tax, not self-employment tax. Most booth sellers fall well under the phase-out.

State Sales Tax

Sales tax is separate from federal income tax and operates state by state. In most states with a sales tax, selling tangible goods like antiques means you must collect tax from the buyer and remit it to the state. Before your first sale, register with your state’s taxing authority and obtain a sales tax permit. Registration is free in many states; some charge a small fee or deposit. The permit is usually required to be displayed at your place of business.

When the Mall Collects for You

If the mall runs all sales through its own register, it often collects and remits sales tax under its own permit. Most states have adopted marketplace facilitator laws that put the collection duty on the entity processing the transaction, meaning the mall is responsible for the correct rate and the remittance on those sales.

Review your sales statements anyway to confirm the right rate was applied. Anything you sell outside the mall (flea market, online, from home) is yours to collect and remit directly. The rate follows the sale location, and many jurisdictions stack state, county, and municipal taxes.

Filing Sales Tax Returns

Your state assigns a filing frequency, usually monthly, quarterly, or annually, based on volume. File and pay by the deadline every period, even when you owe zero. Late filing brings penalties and interest. Some states offer a small vendor’s discount for on-time filers.

Resale Certificates

Inventory you buy for resale is generally exempt from sales tax at purchase. You present a resale certificate to the wholesaler, estate sale company, or other vendor. The certificate includes your permit number and a statement that the goods are for resale. Tax is collected when the item eventually sells to the final consumer. Using a resale certificate to buy personal items tax-free is illegal and produces back taxes and penalties.

Records to Keep

The burden of proof falls on you, not the IRS, to support every dollar of income and every deduction.¹⁸ At a minimum, keep:

An inventory log with purchase date, cost, description, and sale price for every piece.
Receipts for booth rent, supplies, insurance, and other expenses. Digital scans are fine.
A mileage log with date, destination, purpose, and miles for every trip.
Monthly or periodic sales statements from the mall showing gross sales, commissions, and taxes collected.
Separate business bank statements and payment processor reports.

Hold business records for at least three years from the date you filed the return. Underreporting income by more than 25% extends the audit window to six years. Not filing at all leaves the window open indefinitely.¹⁹ Keep inventory records as long as the items remain unsold, plus the retention period after you file the return for the year they sell. Cloud storage that backs up scanned receipts, inventory photos, and spreadsheets holds up better than a filing cabinet.

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