Adsense Question

[Radejr]

I own a gaming website typically for cheating and what not, but I signed up for adsense before, but I noticed it asks for your tax information. How much money do you have to make before reporting it? I only get about 1,000 unqiue hits a day and around 7,000-8,000 unqiue people a month. I would use the money to basically pay for my hosting and the time I spend on it. I am not all sure about how much a person has to make to report it. Why does it also ask you for tax information do they send you a thing every year of how much you earned from them?

Edit: I get also about 125,000 page views a day.

[sailorjwd]

Yes, they send you a 1099 each year. And, they send a copy to the IRS in case you were thinking of cheating on your taxes :)

[Radejr]

I wasn't thinking of cheating on them I just waundered because I am only 19 I wanna make a bit of money through this, but I didn't want to have to worry about paying taxes. I wouldn't mind paying the taxes, but I have never done it and didn't really want to bother with it.

[nanotopia]

I didn't want to have to worry about paying taxes. I wouldn't mind paying the taxes, but I have never done it and didn't really want to bother with it.

Don't worry, your taxes will be simple. In fact, you could buy some off-the-shelf tax prep software and do your own taxes without the need of an accountant. Plus, you gotta start sometime. ;)

[spaceylacie]

I think the US limit for claiming is $400(for the year), that's profit. Save receipts for your expenses for the year(games you buy to review on your site, computer expenses, hosting, Internet service...).

If your profit is under $400, just save the receipts in case, at a later time, the IRS asks why you didn't file. You can then prove that you didn't make any money, that's why.

[Radejr]

Well i just bought a 1,400 laptop to help manage the site :)

I pay taxes because I work already, but I didn't know how different it would be to combine those and instead of getting a refund like if you worked a job how much I would end up owing the IRS.

[andrea99]

Income is income is income, unless you spend it to make income--then it is a business expense.

It's best not to get on the wrong side of the IRS. An individual agent can be petty and vindictive years down the road just because it appears you cheated on something small when you were 19.

If you can't get away with billions don't bother trying to cheat--it's just not worth it.

[elsewhen]

Radejr... i hope by "gaming" you mean computer games because adsense is not allowed on sites with "Gambling or casino-related content." see the "Site Content" section of the following page:

[google.com...]

i am not sure how strict they are on this.

[incrediBILL]

The answer is simple - you report 100% of the income.

Then you offset it with expenses like web hosting, internet access, business phone, etc. until it's reduced as much as possible.

You'll get taxed on what's leftover.

[sirkei]

Erm, i am currently a student but i have never filed a tax before. My parents did not even know this. Should i do it now?

I started earning last year and with the current profit going, my profit is going to be over $400 this year. So should i file a report next year?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Radejr I loved this one ...

but I didn't want to have to worry about paying taxes :)

[7_Driver]

I wanna make a bit of money through this, but I didn't want to have to worry about paying taxes.

Must admit I had a chuckle about that too.

You're not alone - most of us are much more interested in making money, than in paying taxes. :-)

[diamondgrl]

You have to report all income to the IRS, whether it is $20 or $200,000. Not sure where the $400 number came from.

But it's not just income tax that you have to worry about. There's also FICA taxes - also paid to the IRS. And you also have to worry about when to pay. It's not just annually. Quarterly filings are required in many circumstances with self-employment income.

So you should read up a little on taxes or talk to an accountant. Yes, you're only 19 and it may seem like a big new responsibility but you're going to have to learn how to do it (or have someone do it) anyway, so why not learn now?