kreci, wanted to thank you for sharing your income with us; it helps everyone else figure out what they are doing right/wrong or at least have a point of reference.
You mix the income reports with self-promotion just right so you get visibility to the things you want to promote (ebook) and give us visibility into the things we are interested in (income).
Also had no idea iStockPhoto brought in any money at all... interesting!
Kreci, is your Android market income 100% from ads? I wonder how Polish developers are coping or getting around the restriction of not being able to sell their apps. Your write-ups are always welcome, keep it up. Mile to widzieć, pozdrowienia z za oceanu.
I hate to be that person, especially as I an a nonnative English speaker myself, but have you considered getting somebody to copy-edit your blog posts?
After seeing the quality of the writing, I would be somewhat concerned about buying the ebook (in addition to the concern I already feel about its tiny size).
It would be interesting to know what apps you have out there and some numbers. Maybe that's another post though (price, #installed, ad revenue, ad stats..).
I'm a U.S. college student and I'm looking to make some side income from Android apps. I've already developed my first very basic app, but I'm getting stuck on the financial side of things. I haven't been able to find any good answers to questions such as:
* What do I do about taxes?
* How do I report any income I make?
* Should I put my income in my personal bank account? Or should I put it somewhere else?
* How should I track sales, and what should I keep track of?
I'd appreciate any advice you or anyone else can give.
Basically income is income. You could set up a separate legal entity, but until you're doing a significant income on it (>$50k? YMMV) it won't afford you any real serious tax breaks. You may want to investigate that for other legal/liability issues, though.
1. Keep track of all income related to this project (or to mobile dev in general).
2. Keep track of all expenses.
3. Itemize these on a distinct "schedule C" when doing your taxes next year.
That's really about it. It would probably make sense to keep the money in a separate bank account, but the more important thing is being able to prove your income and expenses - keep track of everything - receipts, etc.
edit: re taxes - your first year it probably won't matter, but the second year, you'll probably need to start making estimated quarterly tax payments to the US and to your state. If your current withholdings basically cover whatever taxes you estimate you'll owe including your sales, you won't be in trouble. However, let's say you've got a current job making, say, $30k, and your withholding every month comes out to, say, $6k for the year. You might normally get a refund, but with your android sales, you now owe $6k. You're OK. BUT... let's say your android sales add another $20k to your income - you'd owe more than the $6k that was withheld. First year you're OK, but you'll get an IRS letter indicating that you should start making quarterly payments. You can do this electronically at eftps.gov.
I mention a separate schedule C because if you do other stuff totally unrelated - pure consulting, for example, it's better to keep those 'businesses' separate from an expense and income perspective. I've run multiple operations which overlap a bit, but are basically different 'things' - pure consulting/development, specific PDF journals, conferences/events, etc. Each is fairly distinct (though there's promotional overlap), so each is kept separate from an accounting standpoint.
[plug] We may have a whole session on this at the next indieconf.com conference later this year. :)
You mix the income reports with self-promotion just right so you get visibility to the things you want to promote (ebook) and give us visibility into the things we are interested in (income).
Also had no idea iStockPhoto brought in any money at all... interesting!