Hello, I was contemplating putting something I made up on the Android Marketplace. The program was made by me only, so I don't have a company or anything. For selling these $0.99 apps (or free ones), do you need to create a business or anything for legal protection? I vaugely remember something from my one business law class in college about protecting your personal assets in the event you get sued. Is there something cheap to do for legal protection? I also doubt the app will make much, so I want to minimize any work needing to be done when filing taxes in April or whenever. Any suggestions on what I should be looking at?

Since you're in the United States, I recommend you visit your local SBA office. They'd be absolutely delighted to help you with all kinds of small-business-type questions. That's what they exist for!
And you should probably also View the FAQ for this Forum by clicking "View Forum FAQ" above.

Quote: Original post by MalekMordal
Hello, I was contemplating putting something I made up on the Android Marketplace. The program was made by me only, so I don't have a company or anything.

For selling these $0.99 apps (or free ones), do you need to create a business or anything for legal protection? I vaugely remember something from my one business law class in college about protecting your personal assets in the event you get sued.

Is there something cheap to do for legal protection? I also doubt the app will make much, so I want to minimize any work needing to be done when filing taxes in April or whenever. Any suggestions on what I should be looking at?

I'm assuming that the Android marketplace is comparable to the iphone app store. Creating a business entity, even if you're working solo, is usually a good idea for the reason you suggested-- under LLC or corp. status your personal assets will hopefully be shielded from any potential liability you come up against.

As Tom said, contact your local SBA or a business or entertainment attorney familiar with starting up single-person entities.

You may also want to check out some of the other issues that can come up in app development.