E-commerce website legal question

I'm new here and I'm grateful there is a community that could help me.

I have a small e-commerce website that I originally made for my sister to sell her paintings, she end up not helping me at all and not paying any interest. I feel like the website has a lot of potential and I made an offer to friend if she could feature her paintings on the website as well for a commission. She love the idea and we are in the process of adding her artwork.

My question, should I create a LLC for the website? I haven't made any income yet and only applying for a LLC would be almost $200. But I don't want to get in trouble with IRS.

I was thinking to create some kind of contract with my friend to confirm the commission and all the terms, I finding it hard to find this kind of contract sample online, do you know any source where I could get inspired for the contract?

My situation is a little tricky and would appreciate any help!

Thank you so much!

Getting in trouble with the IRS is not a consequence of operating as a sole proprietorship (which is what you have if you don't form an LLC). The IRS disregards the existence of the single member LLC for tax purposes anyway, so it could not care less whether or not you have an LLC.

When you have just a single individual owning and running the business, the principal advantage of an LLC is that is protects the owner from some (but not all) types of liability. With an e-commerce website selling paintings on a commission, it would be reasonable for you to decide that the risk of the potential liabilities does not justify the cost of setting up an LLC.

Besides, you can always create the LLC after you begin having revenues.