Hi folks,

I'm looking for a bit of advice.

So I realised a while back (being more than a little allergic to legal/financial stuff) that I made an error in my Contract details when I set it up.

I started a tiny company last year and created the developer account in the company name. However, when it came to the contract, I mistakenly stated that I was 'Sole Proprietor/Individual' (I'm the only person in the company) rather than a 'Corporation'.

I've only just noticed this, and have contacted Apple to tell them of the mistake. Has anyone else mucked this kind of thing up, and have any experiences they'd care to share?

Yeah but it doesn't really matter. Howling moon software sells under my name, but the income is the partnership's. Changing the name is a bunch of paperwork that involves faxing apple a bunch of junk. I don't care enough to find a fax machine or use an online service, and it has not been a problem yet. Apple does not send out 1099-misc forms, so it does not seem to matter if you have a different seller name on it, especially for a one man company.

It's just a matter of liability towards Apple, should push come to shove. Though I doubt you'd get sued unless doing something ridiculously stupid.

As far as taxes go, yea, I doubt it makes a difference. But I'm not a lawayer.

Madrayken Wrote:... stated that I was 'Sole Proprietor/Individual' (I'm the only person in the company) rather than a 'Corporation'.

IANAL, but IIRC if you are the only guy in the group then it is a sole proprietorship. Under SEC law or something like that a corporation must be registered with staff distinct roles, SEC filings, etc. What that gets you is corporate liability (instead of personal liability). It also decouples your personal assets (read: finances) from the corporate warchest (and it's liability. If MSFT were in debt, it wouldn't effect Bill Gates because MSFT is a real corporation and the finances of it are distinctly separate from Bill's personal wealth. If MSFT were still a sole proprietorship, then if MSFT were in the hole, Bill would be too, or at least he'd have accounts in his name that were in the hole).

So it's probably correct as is. You should probably find a real lawyer and ask though, as asking a bunch of coders and designers isn't the best path for bullet-proof legal advice. This is just what I remember from high-school, and what I learned there has never been wrong before...

(I'm still kind of pissed off about that whole divide-by-zero debacle).

cmiller Wrote:IANAL, but IIRC if you are the only guy in the group then it is a sole proprietorship. Under SEC law or something like that a corporation must be registered with staff distinct roles, SEC filings, etc. What that gets you is corporate liability (instead of personal liability). It also decouples your personal assets (read: finances) from the corporate warchest (and it's liability. If MSFT were in debt, it wouldn't effect Bill Gates because MSFT is a real corporation and the finances of it are distinctly separate from Bill's personal wealth. If MSFT were still a sole proprietorship, then if MSFT were in the hole, Bill would be too, or at least he'd have accounts in his name that were in the hole).

So it's probably correct as is. You should probably find a real lawyer and ask though, as asking a bunch of coders and designers isn't the best path for bullet-proof legal advice. This is just what I remember from high-school, and what I learned there has never been wrong before...

(I'm still kind of pissed off about that whole divide-by-zero debacle).

Lawyer? Sorry - I thought you said 'Satan' for a moment and had to grab the holy water.

I bought an off-the-shelf LLC and used that to start my Apple Dev account. It's only in the Tax info that I screwed up. I'm hoping it just means my company makes no cash this year rather than Apple pulls my app. :-)