So, doesn't look very good right now.
As I went back through this stuff last night - it looks like the red flag for gift as income is when a buyer puts an address in the subject line. Meaning, the payment is sent as gift, but in the subject line they write their address. However, when the buyer puts the item, ie "Ketsui PCB" in the subject line, that doesn't move it over as income. There must a be a filter that scans gift payment subject lines for addresses? Anyways - that's one thing to be aware of.
Back to my meeting today - If I can specifically prove a payment is tied specifically to a purchase I made; then those can be a wash. However, essentially most of my information is circumstantial and doesn't meet the criteria of an expense.
More detailed - I can show a GB thread I started, a list of members ordering an a flashcart, an invoice paid from my account for flashcarts, and me shipping out items that would cost about the weight of a flashcart. However, the actual payments that are being considered income are not invoiced, they are not linked to a website or ebay item with an ID, they are simply payments showing up in my account.
Example: Payment received $103.50. Net payment $100. Note from buyer: "Thanks" or "NG Member mjmjr25" or "Please ship to: address here". I don't have anyway to prove that most of these payments are specifically tied to the items I say they are. I can circumstantially make that case with GB threads, payment sent and received dates, and shipping labels sent to that person, but it just doesn't meet the criteria according to this accountant today. On the payments where the buyer paid as goods or gift and said, "For SD2SNES, please ship to: address here" - those I can take out as income. I can also take out shipping payments - which was about $3,500 for 2014. A rough look - we can refile as a small business and I can cancel out about 8K of the 23K income, so i'll owe about $5K instead of $7K. I'll owe the accountant roughly $250-400 (estimates 5-8 hours to itemize and refile). So, I may knock a net of $1,500 off this bill.
I've got an appt. w/her Monday. I then called a second accountant just for a 2nd opinion on this. I go see her tonight at 630p.
My wife is pretty nervous - I make a decent salary, but with a family of 6, we still are mostly paycheck to paycheck with a small dose to savings and 401K each check. She's incredibly worried we'll have to cancel family vacation and some other plans this summer. I've let her know i'd sell some of my tools, cards, or arcade stuff before that happens. Shameless plug - for arcade / game stuff, i'd want it to be like a band-aid, big stuff up and gone, fast. It would be too painful to nickel and dime it. So, depending on what she says tonight - you can somewhat anticipate a big tymer sale tonight or tomorrow.
Also - again, thank you all for the offers of help. That's a pretty awesome thing. A few of you have even pm'd privately to offer help - it's just been really cool to see, so again, thank you.