software business tax-law
Is any software/product operated under a name a business?
<p>If make an app and publish that I alone operate under a made up name, am I legally a business or an individual?</p>

<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_person" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Legal personhood</a></h2>

<p>To have standing under the law you have to be a person - individuals (among other things) are people; businesses are not. For an analogy - a football club is (probably) a legal person; a game of football isn't.</p>

<p>Things that are legal people include:</p>

<ul>
<li>natural persons;</li>
<li>corporations and companies;</li>
<li>governments;</li>
<li>some supra-national organisations;</li>
<li>The Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Ganges River in India.</li>
</ul>

<p>You are free to call yourself whatever you like - most legal systems accept that your name is whatever you are known as. If you sell your software then you are you running a business selling software.</p>

<p>The post is tagged "taxes" so I'll address it from a tax perspective.</p>

<p>Generally, activities conducted for profit by an individual who has not formed an entity such as a corporation or a limited liability company are taxed in one of two ways (which often are indistinguishable in tax outcome by not always).</p>

<p>Sometimes they are treated as a kind of business called a "sole proprietorship". In this case the income and expenses of the business are determined in accordance with tax rules and the proprietor (you) are taxed on the profit as income.</p>

<p>Sometimes the activity is taxed as investment income as a private person. In this case, the revenues are income to you for income tax purposes, but the expenses related to the activity are not always allowed as deductions.</p>

<p>The fact that some activity is not a business does not mean that income from it is tax free. Usually, the tax treatment that arises if your activity is not a business is worse and not better.</p>

<p>But, some business regulations apply to sole proprietorships but not to mere investment activities of individuals.</p>

<p>The rules for determining which regime applies for tax purposes vary considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.</p>
