You have a new client, Tom Wilkins, who is wondering if his prior tax adviser filed his previous returns correctly.

Tom developed an interest in winemaking in 2018. In 2019, he purchased a property in California and grew grapes on that land. Tom was involved in all aspects of the business and hired a world-renowned wine merchant to provide expertise in the grape growing and wine making operation. Due to heavy rains, Toms endeavor was not successful and reported net losses in both his first and second years of the grape growing operations. Tom tried again the following summer and in 2021, his third year of operation, he earned $55,000 from the sale of grapes. In addition, he also incurred $10,000 of property taxes, $15,000 of mortgage interest on the property, $20,000 of salary expense, $20,000 in other operating expenses, and $15,000 of depreciation.

For Toms 2019 through 2021 income tax returns, his tax advisor deducted his losses from his grape growing operations for each year (2019, 2020, and 2021) on Schedule C of his Form 1040.

Was Toms tax advisor correct to record the income and expense on his Schedule C for his 2019, 2020, and 2021 federal tax returns and deduct the losses against his ordinary income?