You need a sales tax ID from from your state government

good to see discussions in here, great ideas exchangrd!

  I'm just starting out learning about what it means to run a small business, but I've found Nolo's Running a Side Business very easy to read and informative.  It deals with more of the regulatory aspects of running a business.  Check out their website www.nolo.com, and look at the business section.  I know that this reply is quite late but maybe it'll help?

One thing you will need to do if you're serious about making use of a website as an online business vehicle is to work on building that website up into a place that potential customers will feel comfortable visiting and doing business with. You have two things to bear in mind here. 1. Your website must be user friendly and easily navigable, with plenty of useful information on what your business is all about. This is so that potential customers will feel they can trust your website while viewing it as an authority on its subject. 2. The website must also be visible so that people can find you. That means working towards being ranked in the major search engines. The first point can be satisfied by you as I'm sure you are highly knowledgeable on the subject that you intend building yoru website business around. The second point will involve some SEO work. You can do a lot of this yourself as basic SEO is all about making sure your site complies with Google's TOS, while making sure the internal linking structure is such that relevant pages can easily be located, along with strategic use of H1/H2 tags that include the keywords that you wish your site to be found for. The other side of SEO involves obtaining a natural appearing flow of inbound links anchored with a variety of relevant keywords that describe your site and its products or services. This you can do yourself although it is a long hard slog, or you can employ a SEO service to do it for you. Just be wary of this as many SEO services are not as good as they should be, preying on new website owners and relying on their inexperience to have them believe they can rank their site when often they cannot, or just rank it for unbelievably easy to rank keywords which you could have done yourself with a handful of inbound links. In the long run, it will pay you to learn how SEO works, as its reallly not so difficult as some SEO's would have you believe. It is more a case of rolling up your sleeves and doing a lot of boring, repetitive work rather than anything so esoteric. Anyway, good luck with your venture!

You know, forget about all that paper stuff for now. Focus on building your online business. By the time you become really profitable, you will  have come across many other online businesses that will help you will the tax issue. You want a profitable business first. That is what you should worry about at this point.   Keep all the informational websites, you have receive does far. Keep your information as you focus your time and energy on laying the foundation of your business.   Hope this helps.

Sorry, I just joined today.  My suggestion is that you do some more homework before you register your website. I would suggest that you visit your local SBDC. They would be the best to help you answer some of the questions that you've regarding filing taxes etc. They would know what is required in your state and local. I would also suggest getting a mentor through SCORE or http://www.micromentor.org/.  I used all three. I bought a website first. It was a big mistake. I ended up buying several more after I had learnt the importance of a name for a website. The other big mistake I made was that I thought the website will automatically generate traffic. You need to have everything lined up before you get the website. It's like renting a store before you've merchandize etc. You'll be paying for the rent or mortgage a long time before you actually occupy it.  I would suggest that you do not choose a sole proprietor. That was another big mistake that I made. Later, I realized that my name, GIA, was so common that I could not register it with the state. I've to compete for the name where ever I go online. It makes it difficult for branding. I hope this is useful.

First, congratulations on starting your new business! Since you already have your EIN and have established your business entity (partnership), you're well on your way. To help understand the other steps you will need to take make your business legal - including how to register your business name and pay taxes - read the SBA's guide to Starting a Business. The guide features a simple 10-step list that will walk you through the process. You can find the 10 Step Guide here: http://www.sba.gov/content/follow-these-steps-starting-business As for your tax requirements, a partnership must file an annual information return to report the income, deductions, gains, and losses from the business’s operations, but the business itself does not pay income tax. Instead, the business 'passes through' any profits or losses to its partners. Each partner includes their share of the partnership's income or loss on his or her personal tax return. The IRS guide to Partnerships provides all relevant tax forms and additional information regarding their use: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98214,00.html Keep in mind that similar to proprietorships, partnerships retain full, shared liability among the owners. Partners are not only liable for their own actions, they are also liable for the business debts and decisions made by other partners. In addition, the personal assets of all partners can be used to satisfy the parternship’s debt. As NRiddle mentioned, if you want to obtain liability protection for yourself and your partner, you may want to consider a limited liability partnership or an LLC. For more information about forming an LLC or partnership in NJ, you can look online at the NJ Business Gateway: https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/revenue/dcr/filing/leadpg.htm

Well, you guys might want to consider forming an LLC in your state; you can simply make it a disregarded entity and have all income pass directly through to the members (owners). This makes the income tax situation easier on both sides. You can visit the link below to the New Jersey Division of Taxation to get more information on sales tax; remember, you only collect sale taxes on sales in your state. http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/