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I understood your wisdom and believe I can help!
You can further detach yourself from us who trod upon the earth, below, by sending me bank accounts routing numbers so I can relieve you of the mundane chore of concern about money. That's for us lowly soil-trodding mortals.
No praise or thank you's are necessary. The service I supply you, thereby, will be enough reward in itself.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Caveat: I am living in Australia
I was wondering.. I am working on this home project which I am pretty sure I could sell to, maybe, 1000 people!  
So I am thinking, maybe I could put in on the Windows Store and then start getting the money...
Now I wonder... what would be the best approach here?
- could I just give my bank account to Microsoft store?
- or should I setup a business and give them the business account?
I am asking from the perspective of what would be best from tax and support perspective...
And mostly, could I just start with my personal account and upgrade later if it works....
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I know nothing about Australia laws. But, if you lived in the US, I would strongly urge you to incorporate, meaning your business is a separate legal tax and financial entity. Helps protect your from personal liability, and from the US, reasonable tax benefits that sole proprietors don't enjoy. I cannot speak to the MS store, no experience at all.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I thought it might be so.... Thanks for chipping in! 
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If you face any possible liability or you seriously think taxes would be a consideration given possible income I'd hire a business lawyer - even if temporarily. They'll help you through the processes and ensure you cover bases you need to cover. As charlie said above, I'm from the US so no idea about Australia's laws but here you've got a ton of various types of businesses: sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, LLP, LLLP, LLC, corporation, non-profit, etc.
They all have different requirements and benefits.
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You need to work out if it counts as a business or a hobby
Beyond that all I know about is how taxes apply as a service provider - don't really know anything about product based businesses.
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In Aus you look up registering yourself as an individual contractor, it's treated vey much like a small business with way less requirements
- plenty of info online including ATO itself
- even the banks brochures on business accounts have some info/hints (see later regarding banks)
- no need to splash out for a lawyer, they will gouge you big time - NO NEED AT ALL
Small business end of year tax/accounts may be done by yourself, but if you're not good at that stuff (or just don't want to do it) you can use a HR Block like company
... even better support another business beginner (somebody just like you venturing into small business) - look for ads at the supermarket notices board. Talk to them, they will advise you what records to keep, how to keep them.
supposed to use a separate bank account for business
- if you go to the bank and ask for a "business account" (and show them proof of ATO registration etc) it that comes with way much higher fees (more gouging)
but...
- if you use your own name as the 'business entity' then you need only open a separate "personal" account (drivers license) and designate that for business.
... waaaay cheaper - and 100% not wrong, the requirement is: business must be run through it's own bank account [ideally with a name matching the entity] not used for personal purposes
- despite what the banks will say about "you cant use personal accounts for business" they are dead wrong! it says don't use your business account for personal purposes - nothing at all that it must be what the bank calls the account type.
Consider grabbing a copy of MYOB (Aus version), just plug in all your invoices when you buy/sell stuff, it'll help you or/and your accountant do those year end books really fast - and if you go on to register for GST it'll really simplify quarterly GST returns too (press the GST return button, select date range, print, send.)
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Wow.. thanks for that in depth answer 
one last question, say I have it all setup and some money comes into the account.
how / when should I transfer it from "business account" to "personal account"?!
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Quote: how / when should I transfer it from "business account" to "personal account"?!
As late as possible. Leave it in the business. Use it to pay 'business' expenses. New laptop, yep, tax deductible. Hosting fees, yep, tax deductible. cell phone, internet connection, office furniture for home. All sorts of things can be classed as an expense of the business.
The ATO will have their rules and guidelines, and I wouldn't push too hard. Its an area that does come under scrutiny.
Once funds are transferred from business to personal, it may be classified as personal income and potentially taxed.
Note. I'm not an accountant or a tax lawyer or an Australian (or a criminal of any other sort  )
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Aren't all Australians descendants of criminals and proud of it?  
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simple version is:
- first pay the company bills,
- then you pay yourself wages, expenses, bonus & directors fees (on which you would need to pay personal income tax)
- then the remainder (if any) is company profit on which you pay company tax.
depending on tax rates decide how much wages etc you pay yourself.
don't forget you can claim for your office rental (I'm guessing your home), electricity, petrol (if applicable) - but be reasonable, if it's your home and you 10% is used as "office" space then you could claim for instance 15%-20% of your electricity bill (because if you were working elsewhere you wouldn't have the air-con on during the day) and so it's more then the space.
Those amounts you pay yourself "out of pocket" means you don't declare it is personal income (so it's not taxed) - but again reasonable... don't get greedy - you need to justify the amounts if the ATO comes knocking.
- this is where an accountant comes in useful, they can give the full detail/limits.
(another good one is "entertainment" - going out for a meal, was business discussed? claim!)
if you buy equipment "for the business" that's off the company income (before tax)
- if it's a shared again split, again be reasonable... i.e. if you buy a fridge claim about half - because the office needs a fridge
(actually better theory is you buy the big fridge and claim on the price of the 'small one that the office needed' - and the office needs a "good" fridge: one that can make ice ect and so not the $50 k-mart bar fridge that cant freeze for sh*t).
Remember you are an IT business, anything IT is fully for the company, bigger monitor, NAS...
most important advice: keep every piece of paper, get into a habit of always asking for and keeping receipts, write notes on them if needed. even if it's the supermarket make it your habit to keep those annoying slips of paper - nothing worse than trying to claim for the $600 printer and you followed an old habit of tossing the receipt.
where you are say paying [some] for electricity write that down too (again if you've got MYOB etc record it there), but [despite the trees that will die] always keep it on paper too - keep the power whole bill and write on it how much you claimed.
Any time money moves in or out there must be a bit of paper, your wages too, medium to large out of pocket expenses - all needs a piece of paper. (though you can add another say $20 per week for receiptless small OPE - buying the newspaper for instance.)
sorry, above is a bit all over the place, brain dump.
check all that with the accountant, don't be afraid to ask questions.
btw, if/when you are "interviewing" accountants to see if they are OK that's free - ask as many questions as you can on anything that comes to mind.
subsequently when you have appointed an accountant they may start billing for time - if it's a young/new one just starting their business it may be OK, but a "professional" accountant may have some hefty fees (even though most of the work is done by their juniors anyway.)
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In the US, at least in my county, I can set up a DBA account (doing business as) without any of the expenses incurred with commercial accounts.
The question is, for 1000 copies, do you expect to make $1000 or $50,000? At the low end, there's little to no value-added (tax wise) for the hassles involved. Overall, you may well end up losing if you do any incorporation, etc.
I became an "LLC" (limited liability company), which supplies some of the legal isolation - and pay myself the LLC's income. Tax-wise, it's a pass-through, as though I was given the money directly. If the LLC is a partnership, it gets complicated - but the 'share holders' treat the money as though it just came to them directly as earned income. It is a legal entity and costs were involved. You can also deduct business expenses on either side.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Flickr limiting photos for free accounts, what about all the wonderful old photos? | Photrio.com Photography Forums[^]
I have only used Flicker as a way to have a website to show pictures of something I'm selling or otherwise describing in a forum (i.e., so that there would be a link to it, etc.), so the 1000 picture limit is still far above my needs. I have always found working with Flicker to be a PITA, as the drag & drop and album finagling always seem to work like cr@p; however, I have always been able to actually upload something and generate a link for it, so I have stuck with it. I had tried Pinterest, but for some reason I abandoned that, and I can't exactly remember why. I suppose these days I could set up another account at Facebook, although technically it would against the all-important TOS, but at least the pictures load up easily there.
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I second that motion. As I write this, I'm backing up again. With the outright deleted user files, unreported over-writing when extracting ZIP files, reports of Windows Pro losing activation status, etc., I've lost track of all the Windows 10 bugs that have caused people pain recently.
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I have a Windows backup that I fondly refer to as Ubuntu.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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That's a solid backup 
I've got a little bit of everything running under my desktop, including Ubuntu (on a NUC). Though, most of my work lately is in WinTel land.
Just curious, how well do VMs running on Ubuntu perform? I assume Ubuntu has a Hyper-V equivalent. Does it's equivalent take advantage of the hardware virtualization on later Intel generations?
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I spent *all day* yesterday setting up a Windows 7 VM under VMWare (even starting with a Win7/SP1 install, there were still hundreds of updates to apply, and I had to install VS2017 as well). I haven't yet installed Linux on my desktop (although it's getting pretty close). I think I've settled on Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu). The VM should run equally well on Linux.
My desktop is a 6-core AMD with 32GB of ram, and I've dedicated 4 cores and 16GB to the VM it runs pretty well. I chose VMWare over VirtualBox because VMWare is reportedly more reliable. VMWare Player is free, but only lets you run one VM at a time - if 6you want to pay $250, you get VMWare Workstation Pro, which removes that restriction.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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IF you don't have automated daily backups you're juggling nitroglycerin and will sooner or later get the award you deserve...
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Nonsense...I'm pouring nitroglycerin into my drinks right now, juggling them, and they taste awesome! A bit on the volatile side, but that's what gives it that extra bit of oomph!
Though, more seriously, I have RAID 1 on all my active disks. I backup, not quite daily, but frequently...to my NAS (also RAID 1...and in a different room). Additionally, I age out my hardware, generally well before the fifth year anniversary. And, finally, I make an effort to buy quality disks (thank you WD Red).
That said, I think I may be a bit over-cautious.
So far, in a bit over 25 years of personal ownership, I've had exactly one drive fail...badly (it was a Seagate).
Thankfully, even though I didn't fully understand the importance of frequent backups (then), I was able to recover about 95% of my data. Nothing important was lost.
However, it scared the heck out of me. I'll never, never (repeat once again...never) make that mistake again!
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oh elephant. I have not completed my transition to pure VMs yet.
Hell, we'll die from global warming, or cooling (lack of sunspots), or I may fall off the roof, etc. I place my hope in karma. One of my sons was a total screw up in high school. Oddly, the army (one drill Sergeant in particular) straightened his attitude out. He's now the Platoon Sergeant for his armor unit, and he must herd his group of individuals. My hope is that one day karma will take a huge chunk out of MS, Apple, Google... but esp. MS.
I really think all you need to do is pass a consumer rights bill for software and make them liable.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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charlieg wrote: I really think all you need to do is pass a consumer rights bill for software and make them liable.
That, unfortunately, will happen only on the day after lobbying is made illegal. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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concur...
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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