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[asa]

So i'm sitting on a finished game here, and I'm wondering how to best get it out there.
I would like to sell it through my website with services like BTMmicro or fastsprings, but it seems you need to have a registered company for those, is that correct?

As the sales expectations are quite small I haven't started a company yet, nor do I plan to do so in the near future.

Are there any services that would do this kind of business with individuals?

I send a questionnaire to both companies mentioned up, but haven't got a reply yet.

[TeeGee]

You don't have to be a registered company to sell through these eCommerce providers. Why not just create an account and see how it works for yourself?

[asa]

oh, but both sites have company inquiries in their registry forms. that's why I'm asking 

But cool, if that's the case. Another thing less to worry.

[Tumetsu]

It might depend on country. Noting you are from Finland I suggest you to check how taxes("ALV arvolisävero") works in your case. I remember hearing that to pay that, one needs company name, but that might be BS. It might be possible that your e-commerce service would handle taxes, but since Google Play store don't handle it here, I doubt BMT or Fastspring will either (while Apple does).

I suggest you to get advice from goverment to avoid possible problems with taxes. Especially you should ask do you need company name to handle taxes ("toiminimi" most likely in your case).

[moi]

I don't know all the service providers, but BMT acts as the seller, they take care of TVA and everything. What the develloper gets can be considered as royalties

[Tumetsu]

Yeah, in that case you shouldn't need a company name in Finland to my understanding (which is shallow at best). Though even royalties or any income from abroad may involve some unexpected bureaucracy so it is probably best to ask about it from Finnish tax authorities. The key question here is do you need to pay VAT yourself or not. If not things should be far easier for you.

[zalzane]

But if you don't register a company then how will you pay your business tax 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

But if you don't register a company then how will you pay your business tax 

you report it as personal income. that's how it works for people who have small hobbies that make them money (for instance, someone who plays music at weddings once in a while for money)

[RudyTheDev]

If you do some googling, you can find this same question on other forums. Bottom line: BMT and Fastspring handle VAT for you. You only need to pay royalty tax after a certain threshold.

To the best of my understanding, the e-commerce will take care of the VAT (i.e. EU's electronic goods VAT), because they are the ones selling the product. They pass VAT to the applicable countries. What you get is royalties. Depending on thresholds, you may need to declare those as royalty/personal income and possibly pay applicable royalty/income tax. You may also need to register as a sole trader (sole proprietor) at a certain income threshold, again depending on your legislation. Unless you go above a certain limit in certain legislations or really want to, you don't need to be VAT registered yourself and have a VAT number (because the e-commerce already did VAT). And you probably want to avoid a (limited) business and associated taxes.

P.S. This may not be true for all e-commerces and most direct payment processors like PayPal don't handle VAT at all.

[Chris Koźmik]

P.S. This may not be true for all e-commerces and most direct payment processors like PayPal don't handle VAT at all.

Which might be an advantage in many cases, since there is a threshold you need to meet before you are forced to pay VAT. So, if you just start and have low income using processors that "handle VAT" is just an additional cost to you/the player.

BTW, this topic would be more useful if you stated about which country we talk. These things are *usually* similar but not identical.

[Christian Knudsen]

Note that in some countries (that's certainly how it is in Denmark) if you haven't registered for VAT because you're below a certain threshold, you're not allowed to charge VAT either when selling.

[RudyTheDev]

So, if you just start and have low income using processors that "handle VAT" is just an additional cost to you/the player.

Going a little OT here, but those also don't provide executable hosting, certain customer service, fraud detection, serial keys, returns, checkout/card processing stuff, affiliates, etc.; so you would have to do it all yourself. Plus each country needs their own VAT rate and you need to keep track of all the sales. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. Depends on the VAT threshold though, for me it's very low, so I wouldn't bother.

[Oddball]

Note that in some countries (that's certainly how it is in Denmark) if you haven't registered for VAT because you're below a certain threshold, you're not allowed to charge VAT either when selling.

But also note that EU members have an agreement on digital distribution/services and VAT, where you must abide by the EU rules, and not your countries rules, when trading between EU countries.