vBulletin as a business?

[tedology]

Hello all,

I apologize if this is not the correct forum and kindly ask the moderators to move this thread to the appropriate forum, should that be the case.

My site is growing rather quickly... quicker than I anticipated in fact, and some users are asking if they can donate money to the cause.

So I got to thinking about putting up a "Donate" Paypal button... but then realized that would be considered income. Which means I'd have to pay taxes on it, yes?

Then I thought more (dangerous, I know!) and thought that if I ever want to create "subscripton services", that, too, would be income.

I'm wanting to hear from some veterans who have successful sites who charge their users a fee?

Do you have to get a business license? Register your site's name? Create a separate bank account and such?

If there is an article or someplace on the web I can find these answers (and more!), I'd greatly appreciate it.

Any information you can provide would be helpful. I've thought about meeting with a tax professional to find out my options so I don't do anything illegal.

Thanks for your help!

Ted