backafter30

I have been keeping a growing snake collection for around a year now, and I breed them for the fun of it, and because I like playing with genetics, but I guess now I need to think about where I'm going with this. I'm up to nearly 50 snakes, plus a few hatchlings from '13 that I need to consider selling, but issues are a bit more complicated than I had originally assumed. I never intended to go into business, or even to make a profit. I was hoping, at best, that the sale of hatchlings might offset the cost of food and electricity, but now I see several other expenses. It costs money to be a vendor at shows, and you need to register anything other than your legal name as a business for advertising purposes. This results in you having a legitimate and traceable tax obligation for what is simply a hobby you do in your spare time. Even Paypal, I've read, will report your transactions over some limit to the IRS. I would think that few people are really making money selling snakes, and trying to jump from a hobby to a business wasn't my intent, and just sounds unnecessary.

So do most people just suck it up and pay the taxes in order to keep their hobby and be legally legit, or are they flying under some legal limit or exemption that reduces or eliminates the tax obligation? Is it really worthwhile to register a business name? Do you then get to claim your expenses (mice, cages) as tax exempt? Do many people form an LLC? I'm not trying to be cheap, but it just doesn't seem fair for the government to take even a tiny percentage of earnings from a simple hobby that really doesn't make any real profit.

I am sure that everyone here is legit and legal, but I'd be interested in hearing ideas/opinions on what you assume that others are doing. Thanks!