taxes and scrapping?

According to the federal government you are supposed to report all of your income. Different states have different rules in terms of how much you can make without reporting. In Michigan is 600.00 per year. Note that this means anything over that amount has to be reported, NOT if you made more than that in addition to your regular job.

Keep all of your payout receipts from your buyers/scrap yard, and receipts for any expenses. If you do not have a large amount of income from scrapping the IRS will probably not notice, but if you are making thousands and not reporting it you might wind up in some trouble.