Releasing an App

Elohim

I've been developing a few apps for the iphone and was just wondering a few things on the legal/business side of things.

Let's say they get accepted to the App Store and started making money etc.
Do I have to set myself up as some kind of Sole Trader with the government or any of that stuff? Or can I just put them on the store, get some income and just declare that income when they come asking for tax and stuff.

Draco

All income needs to be declared to revenue. But you can offset legitimate expenses (I.e. Your dev license, mac, iPhone handset/iPad/touch). The most tax efficient thing to do as well is to dumP the money in a pension fund.

Elohim

So before I actually start selling these apps I don't have to fill out forms and stuff for the government stating that I'm selling these things on the app store?

Don't think I'll be sensible enough to start a pension fund, I just wanted to test the waters and see what could be done. Will probably spend any little money (if any) that comes in.

Draco

I think you just need to be registered before 31st of October. You fill out a TR1 form and mark yourself as a sole trader and send it in. There's some numbers at the bottom of that form you can ring and get a definite answer.

The Corinthian

Elohim wrote: »

Do I have to set myself up as some kind of Sole Trader with the government or any of that stuff? Or can I just put them on the store, get some income and just declare that income when they come asking for tax and stuff.

There's no reason to set yourself up as a sole trader if you trade under your own name. All you need do is declare the tax via self-assessment. Waiting for them to come looking for the tax is actually called tax evasion.

In reality, if you are only making a few hundred, or even a grand or two, the Revenue really don't care - it would cost them more in paperwork to process your taxes than the taxes they'd collect (especially after deductibles). Of course, technically you should anyway and I am not advising you not to declare your income, only that in practice this has been my experience.

Elohim

The Corinthian wrote: »

There's no reason to set yourself up as a sole trader if you trade under your own name. All you need do is declare the tax via self-assessment. Waiting for them to come looking for the tax is actually called tax evasion.

In reality, if you are only making a few hundred, or even a grand or two, the Revenue really don't care - it would cost them more in paperwork to process your taxes than the taxes they'd collect (especially after deductibles). Of course, technically you should anyway and I am not advising you not to declare your income, only that in practice this has been my experience.

Thanks for that, I've no intention of not declaring income, I just hadn't a clue how to go about it, still a student so never done any tax declarations etc.