[ApplianceJunk]

I am looking at getting a business license for our e-business?

I want to set up a business bank account using what's
called a DBA.

"DBA" stands for "doing business as."

A business license will enable me
to set up a business account and get checks printed with our
business name, giving us that all important air of
professionalism that many ebusinesses lack.

We are only making around $100-150 a month in affiliate payments at this time. We do not sell any products or have any employees.

I am wondering if it will be worth going through all the trouble or should I just keep putting the affiliate payments in my personal checking account?

What about tax time at the end of the year. I understand I have to report the affiliate payments as income, but is there any advantage to keeping the affiliate money out of my personal checking and in a business account?

I have also started to make small payments to some of the members that help use out a lot on our site. I just use paypal or cash at this time to pay them.

Would there be any advantage to paying them with a check from our business checking account come tax time?

We are so small time now I wonder if it's all worth it trying to set our .com up as a e-business or not.

Maybe it's the time to set it up when it is small yet?

Would love to hear some input.

Thanks,

[ADVERTISE HERE!]

This is just my opinion and not legal advice, but I don't think that a separate business account is necessary, other than to create the impression that the operation is more than it really is, as you already mentioned. However, you'll still want to make sure that you keep track of your business expenses, whether paid with personal check/paypal/cash or a business check, for deduction purposes. There is no reason to keep things separately for limited liability purposes, as you have unlimited liability since you're operating as a sole proprietor. The DBA just lets you call yourself something different than your name. Hope that helps a bit.