Can minors start a business on Shopify in Australia?

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello,

I am 17 and looking to start a Shopify store for my business as I currently take payment through bank transfer but, that looses me lots of potential customers. I know that you have to be 18 to use Shopify and my parents have offered to setup an account and add me as a staff member (I think that’s allowed?), though I have a couple of concerns:

1. I have seen around that the money I earn will affect my parents taxes, is this true in Australia as well? As all the threads I’ve see have been from America.

2. How will banking work? Will the money go into my parents account? Can it go into my account?

2

Hi @AlexHull ,

Great to see you starting a store so young and getting into the entrepreneurial game. You are correct in saying you need to be 18 to be the account owner (AO) for a store as it states in our terms of service. Your parents will need to be the AO’s but you can definitely be a staff member with full permissions, that is allowed.

You have some really great questions with the above in mind, let’s look into them:

  1. With regards to th emoney earned, it more than likely will affect your parents taxes (As seen in the other threads which are US based), but I am not overly familiar with Australian business laws especially regarding taxes. My advice would be to speak to a local tax representative such as a professional accountant or lawyer to find out the exact details for this. I can’t stress seeing a professional about this enough as they would know best for the legalities in your area.
  2. Because your parents are the AO’s it will need to be their bank account attached to the store until you are 18 so the money would go to their account in this instance. You would need to discuss with your parents how that would work in terms of you accessing the money. Something to note is that because you’re based in Australia you are eligible to use Shopify Payments as the gateway.

Once you turn 18, you can become the account owner and you would need to contact our support team directly to change some of the other aspects on your store such as bank details as they would be attached to your parents name and account.

What are you looking to sell? Let me know if you have any other questions!