Question: Can a sole proprietor have more than one business?
Answer: Yes. Next question.
Easy peasy.
Seriously, as a sole proprietor, you may have one (1) business or several businesses. There is no limit to the number of businesses in which you may engage.
The Internal Revenue Service says you must report your income and your expenses from any endeavor entered into with a profit motive. That can be one or a dozen or even more.
When reporting your business on a Schedule C, you must enter a Business Code. Therefore, if each of your businesses is in a field unrelated to the other–say, if you own/operate the following: Fine Leather Shoe Shop, K-9 Kennels: Prime Pups, AAA Accounting–you will need a separate Schedule C to report each business.
Then, all Schedule C’s will be totaled together and the final number will be carried to the front of the Form 1040.
See? It really was easy.
Helpful links for sole proprietors:
- Checklists for starting your first business
- Simplified accounting for side businesses
- Simplified business plans for the real world
- Simplify your small business marketing plan
- Four Things to Know about Taxes and Starting a Business - November 14, 2017
- You probably should be making estimated tax payments to the IRS - November 7, 2017
- 2015 Standard Mileage Rates from the IRS - December 23, 2014
- Deducting your home office – webinar Wednesday - September 8, 2014
- Webinars on hiring independent contractors and avoiding common tax mistakes - April 30, 2014
- IRS? There’s an app for that - February 12, 2014
- IRS Tax Calendar for Small Business and Self-Employed - December 31, 2013
- 2014 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving Announced - December 7, 2013
- Where can you find answers on the Affordable Care Act? The IRS - August 21, 2013
- Avoiding the Top Tax Mistakes - June 13, 2013
tracey says
April 13, 2014 at 10:48 pmomg- i’ve been looking to the answer to this question for days. thank you!
Becky McCray says
February 16, 2019 at 9:33 amWalter shared this question by email:
“Thank you for the answer, as a follow up question, If I have an EIN for one business that I run/operate as a sole prop, can I request and obtain another EIN for a second or third business that will also be run/operate as a sole prop? if they are unrelated to each other?”
The answer we received was that you can have multiple EINs for multiple unrelated businesses. All the EINs will be associated to your social security number.