Will My Age Effect The Ability To Buy And Sell Domains/Sites?

[Clarkie]

Hey there,

If this should be in another section feel free to move it, I couldn't work out if it should be in the selling discussions or here.

Practically every domain sales website and hosting site has a minimum age limit of 16 or 18 and unfortunately for me, I am only 14. This means that I cannot register domains myself without breaking rules. That is a risk I am willing to take though, as buying and selling domains has its risks too.

Obviously there are various laws that effect things that may need to be taken into consideration. I live in the UK and I am a UK citizen so I am under UK laws.

If I do wish to buy or sell a domain, will my age effect things? If so, how and will it be significant enough to prevent me from entering this market?

Thanks for any answers/responses and I look forward to reading them.

Clarkie

//Clarified post title - tke\\

[crabfoot]

Yup, you are too young for the law. There's a lot of variations in national laws, but there are rules in a lot of places. You have to be 13 in a lot of US places to be eligible to hold an opinion, and you have to be 16 to officially own a website.
But you have to be 16 to have a "plastic card", officially. And you have to be 18 to have an eBay account.

If I were 40 years younger, I think I would learn to lie strategically. My dad would have let me use his name to start accounts - he would have trusted me to not get into ANY kind of debt. If no-one has a reason to question your credibility, you can make money whilst you are young. Mr Dell will vouch for that.

If I were starting out into the website/ domaining field 40 years ago, I would look at every free opportunity I could use. There are lots of free opportunities on the net. Free hosting and free information.

I would get a virtual credit card from a local newsagent or similar, so I could buy things on the net, like domain registrations. Use that so I could sell things on eBay whilst offering Paypal payments. A way to get money into a bank account which allowed me to control my destiny.

I could buy a couple of domains using a bogus name - I would use the name of a family member of legal age. You pay with that virtual card from your local newsagent. The important factor is the controlling email address, you buy the domain with money. Your granny never knew she bought it. Why would she care if you sold it?

Build a good site worth advertising, and you can put Smowtion ads on it. For a reasonable price, Smowtion will offer you a bank account with a plastic debit card which is intended to receive your ad revenue. Hey, did you intend to mislead anyone when you made a typo entering your DOB?

DO NOT GET INTO ANY KIND OF DEBT. OWE NOTHING TO ANYONE, and you can do a lot of good for yourself and others. DO NOT GET ANYONE ELSE INTO TROUBLE, and they will usually forgive you for using their name IF YOU ASKED THEM FIRST AND EXPLAINED THAT THERE IS NO RISK in what you are doing.

There was one young lad I heard of, not so long ago, who started a site when he was 12 and a bit, and sold it when he was approaching 15 for more than a million. You are not alone with your ambitions.

[Clarkie]

Although I am too young for the law, is it possible to avoid it using domain sites and flippa if I chance it and hope no problems arise?

My Dad woulnd't let me 'throw around' money in his name as we are not the most well off family, although he'd possibly put money into a site if it was doing well and making money back, but I do have a Debit card which I can use on Google Checkout etc and I have a Paypal account with my card linked to it.

I've found free hosting just isn't sufficient and I currently use a paid host called ByteBistro. I'm assuming that if I ever get into trouble with the law all the sites I am registered at with the wrong age would not protect me or anything?

If I register a domain in the name of someone legally old enough to do so but use my email address would that go unnoticed?

I won't go into debt, as long as I only buy new domains for the cheap $10ish prices that I can find at various reg sites. As for using someone's name, if I let my Dad know and things start going well but costing more, he'd probably put some money in to help, but I'd have to choose something he could help with, not that thats a bad thing considering that he runs networking events over the UK.

There is always a risk, I know that, but which risks are most likely to get me into trouble?

Thanks for your reply,
Clarkie

[Clinton]

Hey, did you intend to mislead anyone when you made a typo entering your DOB?

Even if it were intentional, I don't believe he could be prosecuted for it as he's below the age of responsibility.

Where the age problem arises is not so much in the building of the site, getting links, writing content, reaching private agreements with programmers and developers etc. It crops up where there's a contract involved and contracts are involved wherever there's money changing hands. So signing up for an affiliate program, an Adsense account, a Paypal account etc., requires an adult. You also need it to buy domains or sign up for hosting. However, with domains and hosting (and Flippa buying/selling) nobody actually verifies your age, suffice if you have a means of paying the applicable costs - somebody else's Paypal is fine if you have access to that. So perhaps your dad or an obliging relative can open a Paypal account specifically for your use. They could also lend their name for you to sign up with affiliate programs and other publisher earning programs.

I'm assuming that if I ever get into trouble with the law all the sites I am registered at with the wrong age would not protect me or anything?

What type of trouble? If it's something blatantly illegal then you're on thin ice whatever your age. However, if it's something that it's 100% legal for an adult to do then I wouldn't be too worried about the age.

[Clarkie]

That clears up a lot. However, surely having a Paypal account of my own which I use is going to be just as much of a problem as registering domains in my name? As I've previously said, I do have means of purchasing hosting/domains myself through my debit card and paypal account.

I'm not planning on doing anything illegal so I'm pretty sure I won't have that to worry about.

Does anyone else have any advice for me on this?

[Kay]

It sounds as though your Dad is the best option. If he agrees to let you use his name (and act on his behalf) then make sure to keep him informed about all the contracts you have entered into in his name. If he sees that you're behaving in a responsible and businesslike manner then he'll get more used to trusting your business decisions.

As everyone else is saying, don't get into any debt whatever you do. Start with a little bit of seed money and see how you can grow it. Your Dad might even get interested in it himself when he sees that you've doubled your starting fund.

Is there anything you could do to get other family members interested? Maybe a private forum for posting family messages. I guess most people use FaceBook for that these days, but if they saw that you had talent of creating things you might even get more support from them too.

[Clarkie]

I'm sure as long as he knows what I am purchasing and I do it with my money he'll be okay with it.

My Mum keeps suggesting different sites I could start but unfortunately we don't share too many interests...

I have an idea for a site that will be really popular around a certain time which I plan to work on soon, which I can get help from my Dad with and possibly my older sister if she studies law.

[crabfoot]

There are certain considerations about income tax. If you start making significant money, your "responsible adult" may have to explain what you are doing to the tax man, if they are named on the domain.

Rather than using your dad's name when registering domains, you would be better off using the name of an elderly pensioner relative who does not earn much money. People like that can officially earn up to £6k - £8k in addition to their pension without having to tell the taxman, so the tax man leaves them alone. Or you could register domains in an ambiguous name like Clark, Kent Associates. The registrars will not ask questions - but you can't apply privacy protection because it is not the name of a private individual, so the address has to be public. Make sure you pick a name that no-one is actually using, though.
Frankly, there should be no problems unless a domain is hijacked or stolen by Albanian bandits.

Regarding your payment arrangements, you should be OK with what you have already worked out. You have to be xx to do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean you have to be xx make the payments!

But - if you have £1700 or more paid into your Paypal account in a year, the account will be frozen unless you have verified it fully, and the taxman will be alerted about your account. Although it is very unlikely that anything else will happen, it can be a shock to the system if the account is frozen, and they might notice that the debit card is running from your registered bank account.

The card is supposed to be usable as a source of funds if your bank refuses to pay from your account, and that does happen by mistake sometimes. That's why it should be a credit card.

WTH this is no big deal, unless it has never happened to you ...
.

[Clarkie]

What it sounds like to me is I can enter the market or buying and selling websites as long as I am very cautious with what happens money wise. If I start needing larger amounts of money I can get my Dad's paypal to recieve payments and send them if necessary.

Unless anyone has any further input I'd say this thread is solved.

Thanks for all the help, now I'll start looking into a couple of domains I'm interested in and I hope to see you around the forums in future.

[Clinton]

My Mum keeps suggesting different sites I could start...

So does my mum! I don't know about yours, but when mine makes a suggestion I usually bin it as quickly as I can as it's never made from a business perspective (though she's always convinced it's a great "business idea") ...nor with any clue of where my skills, interests and abilities lie. I have aunts, cousins and other assorted relatives who come up with these brilliant ideas too. One bored me nearly to death last week explaining that travel is big business and I should therefore start a site selling air tickets. Duh! Why didn't someone think of that before? Further suggestion: I should sell tickets cheaper than everyone else. Duh, duh, duh!!

urely having a Paypal account of my own which I use is going to be just as much of a problem as registering domains in my name?

The Paypal account isn't in your name. I suggested they open one that "you can use". It would be in their name and you'd simply be operating it.

There are certain considerations about income tax. If you start making significant money, your "responsible adult" may have to explain what you are doing to the tax man, if they are named on the domain.

We've got an accountant or two around and I hope they chip in on this, but my guess is that your dad/responsible adult simply takes it on the chin i.e. they include your earnings on their self-assessment and pay the tax. That would be a lot simpler if the earnings are in their name.

Or you could register domains in an ambiguous name like Clark, Kent Associates. The registrars will not ask questions - but you can't apply privacy protection because it is not the name of a private individual, so the address has to be public.

Er, that's only with .co.uk. The rules are that if a private individual is registering a .uk domain they have the choice of leaving their personal details out of public view. If it's a company doing the reg, there is no choice with privacy. But outside of nominet (the register for the uk domains) there is no such restriction. Buy a .com, .net etc., through GoDaddy and you can opt to keep all the details private (for a small extra annual fee).

But - if you have £1700 or more paid into your Paypal account in a year .... the taxman will be alerted about your account.

crabfoot, can I ask where you got that from?