Do I need a DBA for my iOS app?

[pawsys]

I and my cofounder want to avoid incorporation and I wonder if we need to file a DBA (doing business as) for our iOS app? We will be credited as "Surname & Surname" in Terms of Service and on our website. Our app will charge users from the start.

[davismwfl]

A D/B/A provides you no asset protection, your personal assets could be attached to any legal matter. I have been advised over the years from many attorney's for different businesses, the best usage for d/b/a's is as a marketing method for individual products, product lines, or services but those are held within a LLC or standard corporation.

Do yourself a favor, if you are a US citizen and doing business in the US, get a little legal advice and decide on an LLC or S Corp. I use LLC's for most everything but I also don't generally raise money from institutional investors so that's fine. But at least with the LLC I have more protections and a separation between private and business assets and accounts. Lots of details I am just glossing over, but you get the picture. Setting up an LLC (or corp for that matter) is not expensive, do it in your home state don't mess with Delaware and then foreign registration within your state etc. Of course, if you are looking to raise institutional funds then my advice would be different.

[tstegart]

I just used my name when launching our app. Since it didn't take off it worked out just fine. The plan was always to incorporate if we started making money, so we saved when the app went nowhere. If you already have people paying you money and this app will be a part of that, its probably time to think of incorporating.

[pawsys]

Do you mean you used your name as a name of the app?

[tstegart]

No, we had an app name, but my real name was visible as the developer. We didn't incorporate or have any legal protection, but it was just a travel magazine app.

[chmaynard]

Seems to me that if you file a Schedule C in your federal tax return, your own name should be sufficient.

[pawsys]

Do you mean it is okay to just put it in credits?

[chmaynard]

Not sure what you're referring to. If you're a sole proprietor, then you'd file a Schedule C with your individual tax return. If you have a co-founder, he/she would need to file separately. Is that your plan or do you want to create a business together?

[downrightmike]

A simple LLC provides more protections.