Tina is a self-employed lawyer. One of her hobbies is songwriting. In 2008, however, she started taking songwriting more seriously and had one of her songs published in 2008. This was her first endeavor at a career in the entertainment industry. Over the following three years, Tina spent a considerable amount of time writing songs and meeting with producers. To date, she has not shown a profit from this activity in any year, except for 2008 ($15,000). Tina maintains a separate room in her house for the sole purpose of writing music, and she deducts a pro rata share of the interest, property taxes, utility bills and other home expenses as business expenses each year.
Tina is a new client for the firm. What tax advice should we provide Tina about her prior and current tax returns concerning her songwriting career?