Paying People

[Guest Rogue Ego]

I have some legal business tax and payroll questions that I hope someone here can help me with. My plan is to have an online business selling movies, games, books, etc. that I've made online via my web site. I know I have to get a sales tax permit, hosting, and other online shop matters.

My questions relates on how to pay people on the products they helped to make. We'll agree on a percentage of sales. How should I pay everyone after the item sales a bit? Do I need a payroll company? Should I get a business checking account to pay with? How do I report taxes and business expenses? Should I set up an LLC? What other things should I look into and know about? I should note that I live in the USA in the State of Oklahoma. (I know that information is very important since taxes are different everywhere.)

Thank you for your time.

[roban]

If you're serious about your business, you should get a business license as a sole proprietor. You will need that license to open a business checking account. It's cheap and quick and you'll use your social security number as your tax id. You should also keep accurate records. I use Quickbooks but any accounting software will work. Quicken is also a good choice especially if you're not doing anything too complicated and when it comes time for taxes you can use Turbo Tax and download all your information right from Quicken. The people who are sub contracting to you will also have to give you their tax info so you can report it when you do your taxes.

If you don't want to get 'legal' just yet you can always do a Pay Pal thing.

[Guest Rogue Ego]

Thanks for the advice, but how should I go about paying people commissions?