Well, if you decide to withdraw the money to your PayPal account and spend it from there, I wouldn't worry too much. But if you are making a nice income and withdrawing in to your bank account, you definitely need something. We have a few options here, which are very favorable, if you are employed (like 35 USD per month for business costs, maybe 30 USD for an accountant, and that's it).
When you sign up for a service like Admob they ask you for either your SSN (social security number) or your EIN (employer identification number if you are a business). So either way works really. I personally just used my SSN. When Admob pays out to my PayPal account I always withdraw it to my bank account and have had no problems thus far. I'm sure when tax time comes around next year Admob will probably send me some sort of form to report my earnings to the IRS. So I'll just do that on my personal taxes when the time comes.
In short, no you do not need to have a business in order to have ads in your apps.
adge / shaney_g If you earn "disposable income" (ie, you consume items from your earnings) you need to declare for tax. It's as simple as filling out a tax form (although, in the UK, you need to register as "self-employed" aswell, (even if you have a regular job). But it literally is just filling out a form. If you use Admob revenue for admob spending, that's fine all day long no need to declare but it's not up to Admob to send you documents, I'm sure it's up to you to declare.
But I assume that it is like ebay. After you make a certain amount of money they automatically send you a tax form with your earnings, and report those earnings to the IRS.
Yes I do believe that they are required by law to do that in the US. Just like if you went to a casino here in the US and win over a certain amount of money, the casino has you sign a tax form and then they send it in to the IRS.
Granted that the limit you have to hit on ebay before they send a tax form is something like 200+ sales and you made over $20,000. Those numbers are not exact, but close enough for argument purposes.
So I don't know if Admob has a similar policy or not, I was just saying that chances are if you made enough money that they will send you a form.
Admob/Google will not send you anything. Nor, for that matter, will Amazon. The only form I received last year was from Barnes & Noble, calling my income "royalties."
But regardless of whether you receive any forms, you should declare all your income on your taxes if you are in the US, whether you have a business set up or not.
@tholyoak Are you in the US? In the US they make you fill out a W-9 form when you sign up for Admob. I am fairly certain they send that in to the IRS if you make over a certain amount and then send a copy to you for tax purposes.
I am in the US, and did have to submit my tax information. But they still didn't send me anything. I think the amount that has to be paid is very substantial before they have to send you anything - I did some checking when I did my taxes and was wondering why I didn't get anything, and there is a new rule that sets a very high bar.
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In short, no you do not need to have a business in order to have ads in your apps.
So I don't know if Admob has a similar policy or not, I was just saying that chances are if you made enough money that they will send you a form.
But regardless of whether you receive any forms, you should declare all your income on your taxes if you are in the US, whether you have a business set up or not.