I need to start doing some research on making payments to members for a service site and the legal issues that I would need to consider. Say for example, I have a site similar to Rentacoder or an affiliate network. What are the issues I would need to consider. We would be paying members via paypal and maybe cheques. Currently I am looking at the US citizen tax forms, which I believe needs to be filled in by US members. Discussions on this topic would be appreciated.
Here are some of the issues you need to consider: - What tax reporting obligations you have - What affect your payments have on the status of your members (employees? independent contractors? no relationship) and what liabilities that raises for you - What liability you have for issues (fraud, illegal services, etc) that come up
Taxplanr, I am currently in Hong Kong. However, I suppose I can register a company in other countries if that helps. Methomps, Good questions... What payment relationship would an affiliate network and affiliates have? and what about Rentacoder and its coders? Liabilities, I think would be related to the above...