Liability & Legality

**lasvegascom** · 07-03-2006, 08:43 PM

I am in the planning phase of launching a few websites (not all at once though). Earning will be from the normal sources depending on the website (affilliate, adsense and similar, membership/submission fees, possibly actual services like SEO and so on). My question is, how does everyone report the earnings/expenses from their websites (company or personal)?

Do I have to set up a business? If so, what type of business do you recommend, s-corp, c-corp, llc or something else? How would I go about doing this? Is there anything else i would need to consider?

Or do you file the income as part of your personal tax filings? if you do it this way, can you deduct expenses like hosting, or whatever?

I know that location matters, so I live in you guessed it, Las Vegas, Nevada.

**abuzant** · 07-04-2006, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Do I have to set up a business? If so, what type of business do you recommend, s-corp, c-corp, llc or something else? How would I go about doing this? Is there anything else i would need to consider?

Offshore, save yourself lots of headache.

**Mike** · 07-04-2006, 05:57 AM

You definatetly need to report it. If you are not making alot of money, you can handle the expenses yourself without much trouble. A simple $30.00 program like Kiplinger's Tax Cut will walk you through things very easily.

If you are making some nice profit, you might want to consider hiring a CPA. At the very least, you need to be paying estimated taxes in quarterly to avoid penalties at the end of the year.

As for the offshore comment above, doing something like that only creates a heavier tax burden on those that live around you. Not a practice I would be proud of.

**lasvegascom** · 07-04-2006, 09:47 PM

There is no doubt that I am going to report all my earnings. It was just a question of:

Do I need to set up a business to report the earnings or can I report the earnings on my personal income tax?

**Mike** · 07-04-2006, 11:12 PM

You can do it in your personal taxes.

**petertdavis** · 07-04-2006, 11:14 PM

I report earnings, and pay taxes, because it's better to pay taxes than spend time in federal prison. Anyone going into any kind of business is well advised to always 'do the right thing' whether that means complying with the laws of your country/state/city, or treating people you deal with in a fair and honest manner.

**ForgottenCreature** · 07-04-2006, 11:31 PM

You do not need to open a business to report the taxes.

**lasvegascom** · 07-08-2006, 12:32 AM

should i wait until i start earning a certain amount of money before forming my own business or should i do it right away? what are the benefits from each way? if i form my own business, which is the best one?

**imported_Max** · 07-08-2006, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petertdavis

I report earnings, and pay taxes, because it's better to pay taxes than spend time in federal prison. Anyone going into any kind of business is well advised to always 'do the right thing' whether that means complying with the laws of your country/state/city, or treating people you deal with in a fair and honest manner.

I couldn't have said it better myself. :thumbup:

**classifieds** · 07-08-2006, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lasvegascom

should i wait until i start earning a certain amount of money before forming my own business or should i do it right away? what are the benefits from each way? if i form my own business, which is the best one?

If you don't have employees don't worry about it - just report the income on your personal income tax filings. Don't incorporate until you need to and as someone else posted, talk to a CPA about it. If your revenue is significant then you'll probably have one plus an attorney anyway.

btw I operate as an single shareholder LLC and all income is treated as personal AND I don't have to file a corporate tax return so it makes it easy.

And PeterDavis's advice is golden. Follow it and you'll never have problems with the IRS.

-jay

**imported_Randy** · 07-08-2006, 10:58 AM

Definitely use the services of a good CPA and a good lawyer and get their advice about this. The cost of doing so is minimal compared to what your returns will be. The best hiring decision I ever made was my CPA, and thank God I have him to talk to the IRS for me.

One advantage to having your CPA do all your talking to the IRS is that he can say things like, "I don't know. I'll have to ask my client." when they ask a question. A lot of times you can't get away with saying I don't know when you're dealing with them directly.

**findinforums** · 07-09-2006, 08:02 AM

i report taxes on all money I put in my bank account, my accountant takes care of that.
paying taxes sucks though

**petertdavis** · 07-09-2006, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randy

Definitely use the services of a good CPA and a good lawyer and get their advice about this. The cost of doing so is minimal compared to what your returns will be. The best hiring decision I ever made was my CPA, and thank God I have him to talk to the IRS for me.

One advantage to having your CPA do all your talking to the IRS is that he can say things like, "I don't know. I'll have to ask my client." when they ask a question. A lot of times you can't get away with saying I don't know when you're dealing with them directly.

Yep, a good CPA can save you his fees many times over.

**ltn1dr** · 07-11-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lasvegascom

I am in the planning phase of launching a few websites (not all at once though). Earning will be from the normal sources depending on the website (affilliate, adsense and similar, membership/submission fees, possibly actual services like SEO and so on). My question is, how does everyone report the earnings/expenses from their websites (company or personal)?

Do I have to set up a business? If so, what type of business do you recommend, s-corp, c-corp, llc or something else? How would I go about doing this? Is there anything else i would need to consider?

Or do you file the income as part of your personal tax filings? if you do it this way, can you deduct expenses like hosting, or whatever?

I know that location matters, so I live in you guessed it, Las Vegas, Nevada.

For a web business, I'd recommend an LLC for most cases. As for reporting income, companies like YPN and Google will send you, erm, 10-99's I think and then you'll just file you're return.

To go about filing an LLC, just read some guides, get the appropriate paperwork from your state's Corporate Commission and send it back to them with like $100+ and voila, your done