[sfcom]

Sole Prop or LLC? Do publishers benefit from either one of these over the other? I just work as a sole prop now but am considering registering a business name, etc. Any thoughts?

-sfcom

[Witzer]

An LLC is more that just registering a name. You really need to discuss these items with your accountant to see which setup is most benificial tax wise.

[AffiliateHound]

There have been a few detailed discussions of the pros and cons both tax-wise and liability-wise of various type of business entities, and the necessities of fictitious business statements, business licenses, liability insurance, and more. Try searching for these to find a lot of valuable information that is already available here.

[Chuck Hamrick]

If you have assets to protect then its worth looking into an LLC. Also, if you have bad personal credit you can possibly get business credit with an LLC. Make sure you are going into it for the right reasons. Otherwise you will end up spending several hundred dollars for a legal entity with no real benefit. Also, you will have to have things in place when you try to deposit a check. Otherwise the bank will require the proper business name on the check and reject it if not. Quite a pain if you are trying to deposit a commission check and are relying on the money.

[Trust]

What Witzer said. Getting an accountant was one of the best things I did after I went full time with it. They'll go thru it with you, help you get setup with whatever you decide, handle your taxes, fed, local, whatever else there is. Just checking out what I paid last year for mine:

Accounting Service for 2006 $255.00

and that's tax deductible :)

[dmarques1]

One of the biggest benefits of creating any type of legal entity as opposed to a sole proprietorship or general partnership is the liability protection. If someone (visitor, merchant, affiliate network, or whomever) sues your legal entity, you are not personally liable. However, if you are just operating as a sole proprietorship or general partnership they can potentially take all your personal assets (car, house, etc.)