How Many Slots?

[Spartanfrog]

Ah so you are starting a GSP?

[KingJ]

Well, sort of. I'm hosting my own server for a source mod (Synergy) and since that server dosen't need a whole server to itself, I thought I'd be a GSP for the spare slots, make some money back on monthly rental fee.

[Drocona]

Note that you have to take legal steps to be a company, it's not as simple as getting a server and rent out the gameservers, you have to pay taxes over income, you need an administration.

Overall (looking at my own experience) I spend 100$ on equipment and 200$ on legal stuff which has nothing to do with the webhosting/GSP at all, you need quite a bit of customers to get that money back.

Not doing the legal stuff is risky, you can get caught and other companies won't be able to rent servers from you cause you have to be registered to get tax free products.

[Spartanfrog]

Personally, I would love to start a GSP. Monetary and Educational wise, I simply cant. You really gotta invest in legal documents, such as TOS. They can cost a pretty penny, believe me, I have been looking. Equipment you wanna make sure you get backups, just in case, and look at your bandwidth providors also.

[Drocona]

You can actually write the legal documents yourself, although it is recommended to be checked by a legal guy (dunno what they are called in english lol), it's not a requirement, just look around at other companies' TOS' and cover it all in your own.

Those legal guys cost quite a bit, best thing is to have a friend that studies rights or lawyer or something like that and ask them if they could check it for you, that's how I do it, saves a lot.

[KingJ]

Drocona Wrote:You can actually write the legal documents yourself, although it is recommended to be checked by a legal guy (dunno what they are called in english lol)

Lawyer?

I'm going to write the TOS myself, I've know people who can check through it and find loopholes. Importantly, i'm going to have to put in a liability section so if there is a loophole, i'm only liable for a certain amount of money.


As for the legal stuff, i've got it covered. In the UK:

(Assumes you are a sole trader)
Any profits can be added to your income tax. In the UK, you get a certain amount of income tax free (approx £5000) before they start to tax income above £5000. Of course, this is profits, i.e Income minus Costs, so if you don't profit, no tax.
You will need to register as self-employed with the inland revenue. This costs nothing. You will also need to fill out a tax return form every year (but it's not too difficult for a small operation). Hence, you will need to keep records for the tax year, in case an inspector wishes to view them. There is no cost to register as self employed or fill out the tax return apart from time, and any tax you may owe the inland revenue!

Disclaimer: This is not a substitute for proper legal advice, only a basic guideline

[Spartanfrog]

Dam you are lucky. Much harder here in the US.