What does "you" mean?

"You" are not allowed to have more than one AdSense account

[martingale]

When AdSense says a single individual or entity cannot have multiple AdSense accounts, does anyone know what exactly that means?

If you wanted to have several different sites each with its own AdSense account presumably you could do that by setting up a separate corporation for each site. Each corporation would then have its own AdSense account, being its own separate legal entity.

But can it be done with less than a full corporation? What if you just registered a business name? Or form a partnership with someone else? Or create at trust? Can the registered (non-corporate) business have its own AdSense account? Can the partnership? Can an unincoporated trust?

Anyone tried this? Setting up a corporation is a lot more work (especially at tax time) than setting up most of those other business entities. On the other hand, setting up a corporation has the advantage that if you sold the site you could just sell the corporation and the AdSense account would go with it.

[jhood]

An "entity" is a corporation, an individual who is a sole proprietor, an LLC, a partnership and so on. If each one has its own Social Security or Employer ID Number (or the equivalent outside the U.S.), its own checking account, address, etc., it's an entity. But it is expensive to set up a legal entity for each site and it is not true that it is simpler to sell a corporation than simply to sell a Web site.

A corporation can sell an asset with a very simple sales agreement, whereas selling a corporation -- whether as a stock sale or an asset sale -- can have unpleasant tax consequences for the individual shareholders. In most countries, there are also tax complications if the same individual is trying to balance a number of corporate "shell" entities.

[dak142]

Glad to see this Post....

I have been teaching my wife how to make affiliate sites. Since we both live in the same household, would it be permissable for her to have her own adsense account? She went through the process and had a site approved but did not yet complete the final step (entering SSN and other info). I got thinking about that and I wanted to make sure that is allowed before she completed it. Any input would be appreciated....

dak

[doingthistoolong]

Just one tidbit - and this is not a recommendation to set up multiple corporations or whatever...

When I set up my ONE LLC I looked around for an inexpensive way to do it. As it turns out - in New Jersey at least, you can do the filing completely by yourself over the state's website - for just the filing fee. The entire process took 15 minutes. I did speak to my lawyer and accountant about some of the details, and I recommend you do it too, but just to let you know you can do this very cheaply, without the aid of the "company corporations" or whatever they are out there.

BTW, for an LLC sole proprietorship, the "registered agent" can be you - and therefore free - unless you decide to charge yourself....

[rfung]

dak:

that's fine - i set up one website for my dad and one for my mom and applied under their names. Both have been accepted.