Under-18 Shopify store setup

Technical Q&A
1

I’m 15 years old and want to start a Shopify store. My mom will be the account owner for Shopify Payments and will provide her SSN for verification.

I plan to have all payouts go directly to my own bank account, and she will not be receiving the money—she is only listed as the account owner for legal purposes.

Can you confirm:

  1. Will this setup affect my mom’s taxes in any way?

  2. Are there any specific steps we need to follow to ensure the income is correctly attributed to me and not her?

Thank you for your guidance!

2

There are peer to peer forums not personal support , or tax advisors or legal representation.

Probably shouldn’t , don’t muck about with financial structure like this.

For actual account questions contact shopify support DIRECTLY
https://help.shopify.com/

For legal and tax issues contact actual experts in real life not advice from randoms on the internet.
Don’t muck about with this.

3

Your parents should be the ones instructing you on your family business affairs. And they should be getting their information from qualified legal and tax professionals as well as Shopify Support. This is the way.

4

Hey,
we do appreciate you trying things, being self-supporting and collecting info yourself :heart:

However, there are valid points raised above plus you did not even say where are you based.

As we say in Australia, the below does not constitute a legal advice, but consider this:

  1. Start as if it’s fully moms business. While it’s small it should not affect her significantly*;
  2. When the business grows, you’d be able to afford consulting a real law and tax professionals and reorganize it;
  3. As an account owner your mom will be legally responsible for this business, so she needs to be comfortable with whatever setup you end up with.

* Things can get quite complicated depending on your country and what your moms current situation is (which we know nothing about).