Just curious.. Are you an individual or a business? Also, if you are a business (obv. you're a person, but you know what I mean, legal entity etc), what kind of things did you need to think about for the transition from individual to business? What are the pros and cons of each?
Initial thing I thought about was the four grand a year I'd be better off for simply filling in the form. (You get better tax breaks as a business) Can't think of any cons at all tbh. Dunno why anyone wouldn't register as either a proper ltd company or at least a sole trader.
Thanks Paul, Yeah, things are working out quite well at the moment, current game doing better than I anticipated. Wooo! One of my main concerns is not getting killed in taxes. Can also see myself being over the VAT threshold, so expect I need a good accountant and also need to consider implications of various business types too. Just all a bit sudden and new for me.
Get the phone book out, go visit a local small accountant. You'll get a free consultation where all your questions will be answered, and then they'll go on to push themselves as actually saving you money as opposed to costing it. And the best bit is, they're almost definitely right. This stuff isn't half as scary as you think and there's surprisingly little you actually need to do. With an accountant doing your returns, it's practically nothing tbh and like I said they'll basically pay you to make your life easier. Glad you're getting some success!
Yeah I've had a Ltd. UK company since 2002 and use an accountancy firm who saves me money and time, totally worth it. The company is VAT registered too which was cool in the UK as I could claim VAT back on purchasing computer stuff, and I rarely charged VAT on sales because royalties are paid to you with any VAT - it's only direct sales via Paypal or something where you have to account for VAT. Oh and congrats on the success of your game!
I'm an individual. My income from Indieproofing is small, and being a "proper" business would mean more hassle than any tax savings would be worth. It is, alas, a self-limiting business. I can only do so much work.
Can you mail me your rates? We have a few thousand lines of quickly and badly done flavour texts and stuff that could use some love.
I'm business here too... but unlike others, I just 'converted' because I had to - otherwise would lose a big contract. Here in Brazil taxes are brutal - and you actually pay way more taxes being a business than an individual; and there are no tax breaks whatsoever
I'm in France too, we're a registered business because sole trader has limited scalability here. From a tax standpoint sole trader would be much more interesting.