To those in the UK - selling your game - questions.

Hello,

this is mainly aimed at those who are from the UK  and are selling their game in the UK. I have been doing some research and have a couple of questions:

1) license - I cant seem to find anywhere that says we need a license to sell our games. Is this correct?

2) Type of business. I was thinking sole-trader as its easy to set up but LTD company also seems a good way to go. Perhaps if my game takes off (ha yeah right) I could move from sole trader to LTD. What are you thoughts on this? How did you go about it?

3) I have read the how to sell your game sticky thread/guide but curious to know: How do you UK guys and gals do it? Where/How do you sell your games?

I would also be interested in any info really, so tell me your experiences about how you did it, how you went about it. I am new to all this and I really would like some help. Do I need an accountant? A business adviser? should I set up a separate bank account to make it easier to manage cash flow/tax?

I am sure I will have many more questions but thats it for now.

It doesn't matter where you live, it makes sense to have a separate bank account that you can put all income and expenses through.  You might need an accountant to help you fill your annual returns, including tax.  You will, at this stage, almost certainly count as self-employed and you need to be aware of the complexities of tax for people in that category.  Even just paying for a couple of hours where someone talks you through the basics could save you a lot of time, money and frustration.  Having a separate bank account helps here, because you can easily identify relevant items.  So, right from the very beginning, keep a careful record of all items of expenditure, so that this can be offset against income and so reduce tax.  Keep receipts/invoices.  A decent set of files is just as important as any other business item, and if there is any query, the Inland Revenue expect to see proof.

As far as I am aware, no licence is required.

I would not have thought you would need a business adviser at this stage.

As for where you sell - you sell in the same places as everyone else, irrespective of where they live, because if someone is downloading digital content, the dev's location is irrelevant.

I would only recommend setting up a Ltd company if you intend to hire PAYE employees, or take out a bank loan in the business' name. There's a lot more that goes into the legalities of running a Ltd company, not to mention that you'll have to do TWO tax returns - one for yourself for income tax, and another for the company for corporation tax.

As ksjp17 said, we sell games in the same places as everyone else, with the exception of (possibly) local games expos/comicon events. 

Personally, I find the tax side of things really easy to deal with - just keep a record of ALL income/outgoings and log them each month (or every week, if you're keen) and you'll do fine. I've not yet needed an accountant at all, but I'm very financially aware/responsible.