(Assumption: you live in the USA, I'm not at all familliar with other localities...)

Becoming your own company, ie. Incorporating, is actually relatively cheap. To do so, one simply needs to find a lawyer that does this, and pay them. I've had my own corporation setup for about 5 years now, even though I also hold down a "normal" job. Back when I incorporated, it cost less than $700 for the whole setup.

There are several reasons it is a good idea to create a corporation, taxes is one, and protection is the other big one. It protects your client, as they don't have to worry about tax and employment issues that could come up if they did a 1099 type payment. And, it protects your personal assets should something happen in the line of business, and someone wants to sue the corporation (this isn't fool proof, ask the lawyer about the details).

It also frees you up to be able to get or offer other benefits. Buying wholesale is easy, just hand them your corporate tax id number. And in general Companies (ie. people within these companies) are much more at ease when dealing with a corporation than they are when dealing with individuals.

So, just because you don't plan to make this corporation the center of your universe now, I still suggest you look into the benefits that can come from setting it up...

-Scott

In reply to Re^4: On Code Ownership by 5mi11er
in thread On Code Ownership by mrborisguy

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