Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I have a website that offers services and has portfolio, I don't have a company name.
However, consult with the IRS or an accountant. If you make a substantial amount you may be required to make quarterly tax payments and if you fail to do this you can be assessed a fine/charge.
If you get all of your income from being self-employed, there can be advantages to incorporating and 'starting a business' formally ... checking with an accountant or lawyer is a good idea.
I'm actually from Canada but I assume the business laws are similar.
I am employeed full time for a web company, I just do an ocasional job on the side.
If however you employ paid workers, or have business partners, then you have to apply for a Tax ID number for your business.
It's my understanding that biz licenses can be city, county, or state implemented, and since everyone is hunting for funds these days don't assume that just because your state doesn't have a fee your city or county won't either. I've found the local Chamber of Commerce is usually a good resource for which fees apply -- the Mt View Chamber had a nice little folder you could buy for starting a business that contained all necessary forms and detailed which fees applied and where/how to pay.
Keep in mind that a business license is separate from registering your name as a legal entity -- if you're doing business as your name (Joe Smith) you don't need to register a dba (doing business as), but if you want to do business as WebMeister Services you need to register that name for it to be legal for you to do business. Names are usually registered with the county -- in Oregon they have a lovely little website where you can register the name in all Oregon counties at once, but in California back in 1995 I had to drive to each different county office (bleah).
I've had an EIN (employee ID) from the IRS since '93, and got it originally because of the crack-down on 1099 workers in the Silicon Valley was causing a lot of us to jump through some strange hoops to avoid looking like a part-time employee. But I like having an EIN instead of using my social -- I like the idea that I'm *not* giving out my social to a bunch of companies, especially since I have no control over who they might hire as a temp in their accounting/filing area.
Regards,
Shane
I'm planning to incorporate once I'm making enough money for it to be worthwhile. (I'm also planning on distilling all my findings on the topic into a coherent article, but I can't promise a publication date so don't hold your breath. Sigh.)
What I was told was that a good, rock-solid, easy-to-understand, thorough contract will do more for protecting you than anything else. So that seems to be the most important thing of all.
We bought a book online with tons of legal forms for our profession and along with what we found online we put some documents together that covered all of the things we needed it to cover.
The best thing we had was a client that was a lawyer. He proof read one of our documents and suggested a more simple wording. As he put it, "It doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to clearly say what you intend."
True. I think in the US it largely depends upon the corporate structure you choose to use as to how exposed you leave yourself.
I was under the impression that If a deal with a client went south, I would simply just not get paid.
what could a client sue for other than their money back?
If the order data was lost or the website was down and lost sales or a piece of code that wasn't tested thoroughly broght the webserver to it's knees or? they could easily point the finger at you and pursue lost revenues, damages, or "pain & suffering". Of course, having good contracts in place help to some degree. On the bright side - I do not know of anyone who has been litigated by a client. But then again... protect yourself.
