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Ask HN: What is the best way to sell sofware, legally, as an individual dev?

5 points by walclick ↗ HN
Is there any legal way to sell software as an individual dev, without a company?

I want to test a SaaS product but I don't want to set up a company yet. I just need a temporary method to handle payments & legal stuff until I validate the product.

4 comments

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Hackbraten
This varies by jurisdiction. It’s nearly impossible to answer your question without knowing in which countries you and your target audience are.
walclick
Let's say, for example, that I sell a book from country X to country Y. I pack the book, ship it and get the money (somehow, maybe with paypal?). It's legal to do that no matter what jurisdiction X & Y countries have. I don't have yet a book selling business, I just sell one or a few items.

Can you sell software like you sell any other items that you own, as an individual?

Hackbraten
While IANAL, there’s more to selling a product than just shipping.

For example, if you have a website that caters to European users, it may be subject to EU regulations, for example GDPR.

What’s written inside your book may also matter. For example, your book may contain a picture of a swastika in the US and be perfectly legal. But at the same time, selling that book to a German customer may be a criminal offense under German law.

saluki
In the US you can run a business as a sole proprietorship. Sign up for Stripe and start selling subscriptions to test things out.

You should probably check in to sales tax in the US and Europe that you might be responsible for. Checkout TaxJar. In the beginning this is less critical as most have minimums that apply, but worth checking in to.

Once you have revenue you can form an LLC or other entity.