I know you can sell apps using your own personal tax information, but what if there are several people working on the app? Our plan is to just have one of us register for the Google Merchant account and then we’ll privately divide up any revenue that comes to the PayPal account.
Is this legal? Or do we need to actually create an LLC and have a payroll, etc?
2
In short, yes your plans is good to go with a simple agreement between partners.
You may consider that agreement to define basic rights of each of you in the project.
However, if you are planning to grow the business and hit some point of substantial sale/revenue then you may probably want to consider registering business as LLC or Inc.
The rule of thumb is – when your revenue is the main source of the income, at that point you better register a business. This was advice of an accountant that makes my taxes in USA.
7
Its not required, but it is a good idea.
By not creating a separate company whoever registers to put apps on the app store assumes 100% of the liability and is also not required to actually divide any revenue you get unless you create a separate contract stating those requirements.
Creating a simple LLC is quick and cheap, the potential headaches in the future when it comes time to distribute revenue or worst case legal action is taken against you are more of a pain than the ~$100 it takes to avoid them entirely.