--Tax Question :(--

FallacyStudios

Last year was my first year as a developer. Where do I get the information needed for taxes from Google and Apple?

The_Gamesalad_Guru

I would recommend reading the iTunes connect developer guide as it covers all that stuff and just a note, if you haven't been downloading your apple reports on sales you have lost a lot of data because apple only saves 26 week back and then deletes the rest.

tenrdrmer

Apple Sends you monthly Reports. I know in the US if you do not receive over $600 from them they will not send you anything. If you do get over $600 you will receive a Form 1099. If you did not get $600 you will have to pull all your old reports and use those. If you are outside the US I have no idea. Contacting Apple is the route you will have to go.

jonmulcahy

you received a 1099 from apple? I have never received any sort of tax forms from apple in the US. I've always had to manually report my earnings.

tenrdrmer

@jonmulcahy Check your PM

FallacyStudios

Thanks all. No I didn't receive a 1099 from Apple. Shouldn't I be getting one from Google though? I made drastically over $600 from them. I just didn't get the amounts way over $600 until the very end of Dec from Apple though because I had just joined them a couple months prior.

FallacyStudios

@tenrdrmer

I never received a PM

tenrdrmer

@FallacyStudios I never sent you a PM. And I have no idea about Google. You really need to contact Both Google and Apple Directly. Its the only possible way you will get an official Answer.

FallacyStudios

Ok thanks

ultima

hi tenrdrmer. could you pm me as well on details regarding 1099?

The_Gamesalad_Guru

As long as you report the income old Uncle Sam won't bother you as if you e file you don't need to incude the 1099 just report the income.

ultima

so what you do is report it under 1099 as royalty or misc income? or do you report it as sales on schedule c? I thought we'll get a 1099 and it'd be easy but talked to my accountant today and he said that from the looks of it i have to use schedule C

Steverd

I just put sales down as income and my tax account does the rest. I also claim all of my Google checks as income also.
Never had any problems. A good tax accountant is worth the price, plus that's a business expense you can claim also.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

As long as there is no tax difference I would go with C. But on your state taxes you might run into a sales tax issue so that has to be taken into account.

Steverd

As long as there is no tax difference I would go with C. But on your state taxes you might run into a sales tax issue so that has to be taken into account.

I am lucky I live in a state with no state income tax (Washington), BUT I still have to pay business tax on anything sold IN the state, but not on anything sold OUTSIDE the state. Then The tax rate is set by the buyers location and not mine, so for every sale in the state I had to get their different tax rates. It's a pain, but luckily I only have about 5% of sales in the state. I hate tax laws/code. As I mentioned about just be sure to have a good Tax Accountant and get receipts and records on EVERYTHING.

Good luck!

tenrdrmer

Sales tax should not be an issue for any of us. Apple is selling the product therefore sales tax is thier problem. They are just paying you a royalty in essence for what they sold. Same with google. Of coarse I'm not an accountant so in the end you need to talk to someone who can legally offer tax advice.

Cheers

ultima

ok. i got this figured out.. @Steverd i did go with a professional accountant..

sales tax are not required because apple charges them and deals with sales tax... so unless they provide detailed sales info (like which state and what customer's names are).. even if they didn't we are not responsible for them because what we are not selling anything tangible(unlike apple we do not have physical presence in every major state)... and apple went the route of "taking royalties from us " to avoid the need of tracking sales on their side..so FryingBaconStudios is right.. you have to download the sales figures to keep for your own record in case you get audited.. and sales are reported in schedule C if you are a sole proprietor.. and if you are LLC or corporation you'll probably use something else... tenrdrmer got 1099 (and i contact apple for this) because the revenue came from iAd, when your iAd revenue is over $600 they will send you 1099 ... otherwise no information is send to you.(if your revenue doesn't come from iAd, or does not exceed $600)... if you use schedule C instead of 1099 you'll have to end up paying social security tax and income tax, if you use 1099 only income tax is due... and yes.. i think someone also mention somewhere that you have to pay quarterly estimate (in our case that's pretty easy)


now... yes there are a bunch of things you can offset your earnings with... and those are the things that an accountant is good with..

I guess if you find an accountant that's familiar with digital product/software/apps it helps... in my case i had to find these materials for them...

p.s. because it's case by case.. it's still better to talk to your own accountant.. in my case.. i'm not a dependent as some of you may be... and not an LLC as some of you are... or other variants... hope these info clear things up... tax times are stressful...