Does creating a partnership also require filing a fictitious business name

[Pam]

I am in California and considering entering a partnership with three other writers to collaborate on a self-published anthology. Do we also need to register a fictitious business name? We would split all royalty profits equally.

I have an author account at Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing platform) that is linked to my personal social security number, so I am responsible for paying taxes on my own profits. I do not want this project being released under my personal account, if at all possible. To create a new account at Amazon for this project, I would need a Tax ID number. Do partnerships get Tax ID numbers? Fictitious business registrations? Both, neither?


My main goals are
1) I don't get held responsible for paying the taxes on %100 of the royalty profits
2) Obtain a unique Tax ID number
3) avoid paying large license and tax fees on what might flop (others have formed LLC but yikes that's expensive)

Thanks
Pam

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Pam. I think you probably do want to come up with a business name and run things through the business. You could set it up as a partnership or an LLC or another corporation. All essentially involve filling out some forms. The partnership agreement forms will be the easiest and least expensive to file. I'm not sure if you're all in the same state, but you'll want to file and register the business in one of your states. The agreement will spell out each person's responsibilities under the partnership and the split of the profits.

Obtaining a Tax ID (or EIN, which stands for employer identification number) is easy. Here's a link to a page on the IRS.gov site with the information you need to apply (http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-%28EIN%29-Online). You'll want to set up the partnership first.

You won't need to pay a lot to set up a partnership. There will be some cost in filing and how much depends a little on the state in which you file, but it shouldn't be a lot. The Tax ID doesn't cost anything if I'm remembering correctly.

As long as you set up a business entity you personally aren't on the hook for paying all the taxes. What happens with a partnership is there's an additional set of tax forms to fill out for the business and those forms ultimately function like W2s for each partner. Say you the business earns $10,000 in profit. Since each partner shares that money equally, you each earned $2,500, which you each record on your individual tax returns. Instead of a W2 you get a form from the business indicating the money. I'm simplifying it, but that's basically how it works.

[Mr Rewire]

You will need to file a ficticious name registration if you will be doing business under any name other than your own Pam DBA Mycompany then Mycompany would be the ficticious name. Now if you set up an LLC with members (partners) the you would do business under the LLC so you would be Mybusiness LLC and you would not need the ficticious name registration. Now the key is everything legal must bear the name Mybusiness LLC putting the LLC designation is important to maintain the protection of the LLC. If you open a bank account you will need documentation of the LLC dont open an account under just the name Mybusiness or it will be considered as a DBA . after you set up the business then you should decide how you will be taxed that is where you will want an accountant. We are a sole member LLC but tax as an S-corp.

[harvy]

I am also searching for a partner or partners in my business. The ideas given above are very useful to me to think over again to share my business.

[harvy]

I want to do my business with proper documents and government approved licensee.