Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Of course, AdSense is a significant portion of that. But they don't offer you the ability to just change your tax ID and payable. That would be too easy. You have to request a whole new account.
So I did, and it was approved within a couple of days, which is nice. But then came the business of trying to move things over - and that's where the nightmare comes in.
There's no easy way to export your ads or channels or reports, or any of that stuff from your existing AdSense account. That's been taking me the better part of a month (and that's only for one site - I have a lot more)
I got some assistance on getting my old AdSense account unhooked from my Analytics, but apparently I can't hook the new one to my Analytics, because they are different Google Accounts. I can create a new Analytics account under the new Google Account, but then I lose years worth of data. Not an option. So no AdSense/Analytics hookup.
I have a lot of custom search engines created in Google CSE. I can unhook them from my old AdSense account, but I can't hook them to my new account - it says I don't have AdSense for Search set up. Well no, all my search stuff was created in CSE. I have to re-create hundreds of search boxes and code results pages now too?
Not to mention the other services, like iGoogle, and my AdWords account (AdWords doesn't seem to have a problem with my corporate identity) These things are important, because they allow me to keep a lot of the site feeds and bookmarks I need to keep synced on different computers - but between my own accounts and my client accounts, I'm bopping in and out of different Google accounts a hundred times a day, because there's no way to be in more than one at the same time unless you use different browsers - I'm up to three, I need 22 more browsers to cover all my accounts.
ALL of this could have been spared had Google let me change my tax ID number. That's all.
Now I'm looking at significant downtime, right at my peak season, and I'll probably never get back everything I had working on the old account, or get the same data and the same reports and same search engines as I was.
And of course, all through this, I can't get any support. If I send an email to support, it just bounces back and tells me to get USER support in the forums. Well I don't think USER support is going to do me any good here.
I guess nobody else in the history of Google ever tried to do this before, because there's absolutely no clear or easy way to do it.
Whatever account or payable you have now - keep it for life.
1. My website has grown into a business and my accountant says I need to use my business's new tax id with AdSense.
The best thing to do in this situation is to change your payee name for your account [google.com] from your individual name to your business name. That will lead to a prompt to update your tax information, at which point you can put in your new tax ID. If you want to update your tax ID without changing your payee name, you can do that from right within your account [google.com]. You can keep your same old AdSense account and just update the information. For non-Western-Union countries, I wouldn't worry about whether your account is technically classified as an individual account or a business account, as long as your payment and tax information is up-to-date. If you do live in a country where AdSense payments are issued through Western Union, please check this Help Center entry [google.com] for more information.
2. I want to join my AdSense account to my Analytics account, but I don't use the same login for both.
A few people mentioned this already, but you need to add your AdSense account login as an administrator [google.com] on the Analytics account you want to link to. You can find more information on linking AdSense to Analytics in the AdSense Help Center here [google.com].
3. I'm concerned about what my loved ones will do if I die unexpectedly.
My advice if you're worried about this is to make sure your loved ones are informed. Tell them that you have an AdSense account, share your login name and password, and show them how to update the payee name and information in the account.
ASA
(Sorry for adding a tangent to the thread, but I see it as very related)
You probably have time to settle the details long term in case something ever does happen, rather then going nuts trying to change everything at once. When you do a piece a day it become easy.
My advice if you're worried about this is to make sure your loved ones are informed. Tell them that you have an AdSense account, share your login name and password, and show them how to update the payee name and information in the account.
ASA, I'm no attorney, but I have dealt with the legal issues surrounding the deaths of family members. Based on that experience, I don't believe it is legally permissable for a survivor to simply update the payee name and information of a deceased person and assume the account.
If I die, for example, and have debts, those debtors may have legal claim to my assets and/or income. My family members can't just change the name on the account and pretend it wasn't mine.
And then there are estate income tax issues to deal with, among other legal considerations.
A couple of years ago the topic of death of a publisher and survivors was discussed on this forum and the ASA of that time indicated he/she would make Google aware of the concern and offer some assistance and guidance to publishers. I would appreciate if you could check on that and see if there is any official guidance.
FarmBoy
Previously Google stated that if the account creator is no longer available, it was mandatory for the new person in charge to apply for a new account, hence the mess and recreating channels and new code generation and inserting.., from what you say is is now as simple as updating the payee name, great!
Again, I'm no attorney, but in regards to death of a publisher, I wouldn't advise anyone (in the U.S. at least) to follow the instructions provided in ASA's #3 above without consulting an attorney.
FarmBoy
1. My website has grown into a business and my accountant says I need to use my business's new tax id with AdSense.
But this misses the point of what netmeg has done. She didn't simply "grow into a business" - that could have several meanings.
Instead, she has created a corporation, a new legal entity.
An active AdSense account has value - it produces income.
If netmeg changed her account's payee name and tax ID to my name and my tax ID, she would essentially be giving me an income producing gift. In the U.S., the giving of a gift has income tax consequences.
If she formed a corporation and changed the name on her account to the corporation's name and tax ID, she is essentially giving the corporation a gift. Once again, I'm no attorney, but that gift may have create tax consequences.
All due respect to ASA, but I wouldn't take legal/accounting advice off a message forum.
FarmBoy
Remember that if there was ever a lawsuit their lawyer would have to find and obtain records of these things.
I don't know who you mean by "their", but when you're discussing moving business assets from one entity to another, "their" might just be the IRS and they have the time and the lawyers necessary to accomplish the task.
FarmBoy
ASA
Transferring an account from an individual to a corporation by changing the name of the payee is interesting as it's simple to do (it wasn't possible when I had to change accounts).
But if you go to the warning page before you can change the name:
[google.com...]
My emphasys.
* AdSense accounts cannot be transferred or sold, per our program policies. We will not be able to update your payee name if this is the case.
*[...]If you would like to proceed with changing your payee name, you will need to read and accept the following Terms and Conditions:
1. I am not transferring or selling my AdSense account.
Are you sure it's Google's policy this is approved ? If so, some clarification in those terms would be helpful.
FarmBoy
