I make a decent ammount of money from clickbank as an affiliate. Should I register myself a business name for tax purposes. If so, what are the benifits. Thanks.
I'll assume you're based in the US. When I was doing strictly e-commerce (1998-2007) I had a dba along with all the related stuff. So I was a sole-proprietor. You might want to consider the same. The benefits were that I could work from home, claim a home office deduction (nice) and all other expenses. As biz went in the toilet I got more and more involved with aff networks in 2007. Now, I have a handful of 1099's I need to file. Thankfully, I have enough stashed for taxes. You might want to consider the same (filing a dba with your county and acting as a sole propietor filing a Schedule C). Your other options of course, would be to incorporate which I don't know much about other than you have to pay corp taxes (minimum $800/month unless I'm wrong). You have to pay yourself as an employee because you would be the sole employee of the corp. This also means that your corp writes you a check. It takes out half of the self employment taxes and then YOU as the employee also do the same. Just as if you worked for any other company (whatever social security, medicare etc taxes you have taken out, the employer matches). It always just seemed to be a hassle to me considering the money I was making (not much). As a sole proprietor, you just take a draw each month. It's not taxed. Of course, you still have to file quarterly self employment taxes and then a return on April 15. Bottom line, you might want to pay a couple/three hundred bucks and consult with a CPA.
Most of that first part is wrong. There is no $800/monthly tax. You do not need to pay yourself as an employee. There are many options. (California does have a minimum yearly tax on LLC's of $800, but no monthly tax.) The second part about advising him to see an accountant is the best advice.