Do we have to own a business...

When you get money from affiliates programs, do you need to own a business first with a company name and a trademark and so on so you don't have any problems with your bank or i don't know it's kinda fuzzy for me all that.
Do you need all that, or you can run your business like that whenever you wanta on your website by example with amazon?

Thanks !!

 

You don't need to have a business name to join affiliate programs - just use your own name and don't enter a business name. A trademark plays no role in anything - other than you need to make sure you aren't using a name that is already being used to prevent any infringement issues down the road. If you use a business name when you sign up, your bank will not allow you to deposit or cash a check in a business name unless you have a business account or dba on file. This isn't a very complicated process, it usually means filing a fictitious business name statement in the county you live.

Whether or not you use a business name or just you own name, you are still technically running a business and will be responsible for paying taxes (including, Federal, State, Social Security, etc) on any revenue you receive (less allowed deductions). You will receive a 1099 at the end of the year and a copy is sent to the IRS to make sure you are reporting the income on your returns. This is assuming you live in the United States.

 

just create a dba to your bank account if you dont want your name to appear in checks.

 

Banks don't care where your checks come from, as long as it keeps coming.

 

I don't have any problems with banks for that
But Interesting question, and answer is NO

 

There are many posts here about people not being able to cash their checks because they were made out to a business name. A bank has no way of knowing if you legally own a business and they won't cash a check made out to a business name without something showing you are the owner of that business. The Patriot Act made legal restrictions even more strict to be able to track the flow of money.

If you have a long relationship with the bank, they may look the other way- but they are assuming risk if they cash the check, and banks don't usually take risks. Sometimes a teller won't notice who the check is made out to and they will deposit it, but that's only because they didn't notice.

I don't see any advantage to having a check made payable to a business name in a sole-proprietorship. Just have the check made out in your name - especially if you don't have a Federal Tax Id (instead of SS#).

 

Ok that cleared out all the clouds i got in the head about that. So i can run my affiliates programs on my own name without using the one of my company. Thats quite a good news
Thanks for all those explanations fellow Thats nice, i dont know nothing about that yet but i intend to have my website and get a little bit of money of course within it

Cheers !!! thanks again a lot