I do some consulting on the side, and when my main clients (a financial company) had a serious database problem on their server, I spent DAYS fixing it while on the phone with their software guys. And at $50/hr, the bill got to be quite high. Of course, since these guys have a business, they can write off my services as an expense. However, I was worried that I had to report this income myself, so I filed for a STATE TAX PERMIT. This allows me to work on the side as a "home business", and also I can use this tax ID to get into wholesale sites for parts and such. I don't know if this is something you should have or not, but it's definitely something that Im glad I have. By doing things "as a business", you can write off a lot of things as BUSINESS EXPENSES.