I've been in a similar place. When my wife lost her job a couple years ago and we lost our housing (came and went with the job), I went full-time with my freela

I've been in a similar place. When my wife lost her job a couple years ago and we lost our housing (came and went with the job), I went full-time with my freelance work and became our sole income. Think of the business entity as a form of insurance. You have to go through some hassle to set it up, and you have to maintain it at a minimal financial cost and possibly more significant paperwork time cost. If properly maintained it provides some legal protection of your personal assets if you are sued, but less than you'd think for a freelancing business. You decide whether it's worth the bother. I went ahead and did the LLC--it just seemed like a good idea to me, and it helps my brain a bit to have a separate legal entity for the business. When you get ready to actually release software, you may want to have a lawyer help you revisit your decision, whatever it was. A separate business bank account is essential regardless of your organization you will need an EIN from the IRS. Just google for how to get one. It's free. I use fresh books but have not found it to be really adequate for forming a solid financial picture. I'm currently using a beta version of gnu cash, but it won't be just right until I get around to enhancing it with some reports of my own. Your tax situation will change. You will have no withholding, so you'll need to make quarterly payments. IRS interest charges are not out of line, but they can really add up over the year if you don't pay attention to this at all. Google "estimated payments safe harbor". Of course you're also going to be responsible for self-employment tax, which looks like it will be considerably more than my income tax this year. Use the google for calculators to estimate both so you know how much to be saving along the way. Good luck, and ping me via letterblock.com if you want.