<prompt> Human: My friend and I both had the same sort of question so were lumping it together. Ive started doing a little bit of freelance writing in addition to my 30k a year full time job. Sometimes this is voluntary for experience, but there have been two instances when I was thrown a couple bucks 5 for a piece. Now, for all I know this could grow into being something that contributes to my income by a few hundred bucks or more per month, but it could also very well just be an occasional thing wherein if Im lucky I make 10 here and there every few months. Similarly, my friend is looking to open an Etsy shop in addition to her regular job. It is possible she could be making a great deal of sales and make a few hundred dollars every month, but it is also possible that she only makes a single sale totaling maybe 5 in income over the course of 6 months.So with those scenarios said, at what point should these sorts of small sources of income be tracked and included when tax time comes around? Seems silly to submit my T4 showing 30k earnings, and then additionally submit records of being self-employed with a profit of 5. Forgive my ignorance, but my mothers accountant does my taxes so I have no idea about any of this stuff, how it works, or if I have totally the wrong idea about how a person submits their income tax, and my friend hasnt a clue either.  <response>: In Canada, the question the CRA asks is, did you have a reasonable expectation of profit in pursuing this? If yes, its taxable income. If no, its a hobby and not taxable.It doesnt matter if you made money or not. If you had a reasonable expectation of profit but didnt make any money this year, you can offset the loss against your taxes thus reducing your tax burden. Note that if it is taxable income, you can write off a number of expenses against it--a reasonable portion of housing costs for your workspace, your computer amortized, some of your internet or cell phone costs, etc. Depends on what you use to run this business. 