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Comment by gonzo | Hacker News Reader

If you make more than the minimum, you have to file (if you don't make more than the minimum, you don't have to file.)

Since your parents are the 'developer', they can probably depreciate the Mac you're using, and write off the $99/year fee.

Yes, Apple sends the full 70%. Yes, they want a SSN (or EIN) so they can tell the government (IRS) what they paid (your parents).

Are your parents technically sophisticated enough to deal with Apple, etc? Perhaps a better option would be to find a kind soul who is already an Apple registered developer who can publish your app, and pay you a (high) percentage of the proceeds.

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What do you mean by the last statement? Of course my parents can sign off on contracts, etc.. They're not programmers, but they don't have to be - after all, I am the one developing the application. My point is that I do not want to pay taxes under their bracket. They can submit, etc.

I think he's trying to indicate that your parents may have some trouble dealing with Apple if they're not technically inclined. It just depends on their personality, they definitely don't have to be programmers, but they should be able to reason through a process, deal with third parties (potentially several people within third parties), and be willing to take on the potential legal and fiduciary burdens without getting frustrated or giving up.

Anyway, my advice is dangerous and I know little about tax law, but if you can afford to register an LLC for your projects, you definitely should. It's only a couple hundred bucks in most states and you can get tax ID numbers from the feds and the state. These are accepted in lieu of SSN and other personal tax identifiers. You can file as a disregarded entity and avoid most of the business-related tax overhead (as long as you register the LLC properly), and it will just be less confusing all around; the IRS won't have incongruent numbers for your parents, you won't get taxed outside of the correct bracket, and you don't have to have anyone's personal info floating around out there.

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