Accidental Business

[LordDamax]

It would cost me 50 dollars to get a revenue permit, 1200 dollars to begin the process to get a home based business license, plus a cartload of money I don't have.

Are you fricking serious? $1200 to begin to get a license for a home based business? You sure you're not in India or something? I'm in the process of getting a contracting licence here in MD that would allow me to build $50,000 additions onto people's homes. $55 for the test, and $380 for the 2 year license. To build a NEW home it's a $45 license fee.

What state you live in again? SC or GA I believe? Remind me to never move there.

[Iolaus]

My mother was going to start up a wedding cake business, here in California, 'til she found out that she would have to have a whole seperate kitchen, dedicated only to her business. She decided to do it as a hobby instead.

[Dreadbelly]

City of Greenville Business and Permit Fees. I have the paper right here.

Resident Home or Small Business Application and Paperwork Fee. $1200.00. And that's just for the FEES and PAPERWORK. Plus the cost of lawyers and such and actually getting the license it self. And this is a YEARLY fee, with a 15% penalty fee if if it is late, with an additional 10% per day each day after April first. There is also a 200 dollar filing fee for the city to maintain a copy of your records, license, and various paperwork each year. There are also fees based on the revenue you take in. 80 dollars on the first 2000 gross that you take in. $1.67 per 1000 or portion thereof on the next $98,000, with is the cap on home based business incomes. If you excede this ceiling cap on home based business income, you can be fined upwards of $10,000 for various violations of revenue laws and go to prison for up to one year.

Adam Smith is rolling in his grave right about now.

I ripped the people down at city hall a new one. They demanded that the officer present drag me away, but he refused to do it. He knows me rather well. He's not Officer Friendly, but I see this one down at the coffee shop a lot. He said as long as I kept profanity to a minimum and did not actually make any threats, that I had not broken the law and I as an American citizen and a resident of Greenville county had the right to say whatever I damn well pleased. So I did. And then some. Grr. And he kept covering up his mouth with his hand and acting like he had a cough.

It's nuts I tell you, nuts.

No sane person would open a business under these conditions.

[davedove]

The laws are crazy in most states. Some are put in place for very good reasons (public safety and such), but most are just there so the state can make some more money.

[Iolaus]

Some day, they'll go too far and the people will rise up. The politicians are going to look at each other in confusion and say "What are they mad at? ... What'd we do?"

That's what happened the first time around anyway. ;)

[LordDamax]

The laws are crazy in most states. Some are put in place for very good reasons (public safety and such), but most are just there so the state can make some more money.

The seperate kitchen thing I understand, makes sense to me. Hell, I'd WANT a seperate kitchen. My mom did hair for years, wanted to do it in her home (whole section of the basement was a hair studio... she had the professional hair washing sink, the sit-down hair dryer things, etc) but didnt because of regulations. Seperate bathroom (I get that), seperate entrance (eeh, not sure on that one) and stuff like that.

But $1200 for application fees?? Sounds like the city doesnt WANT anyone to own a business there. It's proven fact that cities, towns, states, countries that stifle businesses from opening are financially worse off than those that encourage it. In India you damn near need to inherit your business license, and the place is poor as dirt. Hong Kong it costs about $5 for a business license, and it's rolling in economical prosperity.

But, I digress. The capatailst in me was breaking free there for a moment.

Any chance of moving somewhere that you won't be told by your town, "Sorry, we don't want you doing business here!"? If there is $1200 in fees just to APPLY for the license, I'd imagine the fines for operating a business without a license would be astronomical. I'd be careful. Here in MD if I do home contracting without a license there's jail time involved.

[Dreadbelly]

If I actually owned a brick and mortar store, the fees would be peanuts. They want to revitalise the downtown area. So they hiked the home based business fees right through the roof and getting a business license if you own a store is super cheap.

I can't afford a store. I can't open a brick and mortar business and sell to the tourists and become a solid fixture in the downtown economy. Heck, like I said, just to get a one day permit to sell things to passersby, just to sit at one of the bistro tables down at the plaza and sell trinkets and shinies to the foot traffic that goes by would be 375 dollars between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm. Past 3 pm evening hours apply and the fee goes up an additional 25 dollars PER HOUR PAST 3 O' CLOCK.

They don't want small home based business stealing sales away from the regular fixtures downtown.

I am not sure what this might do for my metal working business, but I reckon most of it will be online. Probably eBay, if I can get away with operating a business there with out a license. So much for being a law abiding tax paying citizen. This is robbery.

What's really scary, is there is no mention at all what the actual license cost is. Only the fees and the paperwork costs. Not one mention of the actual license cost. Which honestly frightens me. It's probably an astronomical figure. I never bothered to ask.

Oh. And it seems that according to the back of this piece of paper, it is illegal in the city limits to operate a business out of a rented residence. Home based business must be run out of an actual home it seems, not a rented apartment.

You know, this just, erm, well, I don't want to offend our kind and gracious hosts of this forum, but this just inhales sharply.

[Archangel]

Dread, I really sympathize, I wanted to start a business years ago and the costs here were so prohibitive.
Now the city seems to be realizing the damage it created.

Here's one that might help you. They've recently changed/modified that last bylaw so the reverse is legal. You can live in an apartment over, or back of, your store but you can't have a store in your house. That subtle difference is revitalizing our end of town.

[Dreadbelly]

Dread, I really sympathize, I wanted to start a business years ago and the costs here were so prohibitive.
Now the city seems to be realizing the damage it created.

Here's one that might help you. They've recently changed/modified that last bylaw so the reverse is legal. You can live in an apartment over, or back of, your store but you can't have a store in your house. That subtle difference is revitalizing our end of town.

I live on 800 dollars a month in disability. I pay 250 dollars a month on rent for an apartment in a retirement community. All the apartments in the back of the store in the world can't help me now. I am not trying to get rich quick here. I am not even trying to cheat the system. I am trying to keep food on the table and maybe an extra kilt or two around my middle. And I can't just go back to work... I have $80,000 dollars in hospital bills waiting to be garnished off my wages and if I did get a job, I would have 30 days to move out of where I live. I just wanted a little tiny bit of work to bring in the odd dollar here and there just to try and buy a creature comfort here and there. And even if I wanted to get a "regular job" no outfit in the world would even think of hiring me because of my medical expenses.

I am not trying to create some massive empire. Just a buck here and there is all I want... And I truly believe that it is entirely reasonable to ask for it. I am willing to work for it... And it doesn't seem like I am allowed to.

I also found out if I applied for a revenue permit that they would kill my social security disability checks and cut my medicare and medicaid.

Which is farking stupid if you ask me. I am just trying to keep my head above water here, not cheat the bloody system.

You know, if I really wanted to make money, I could start making money hand over fist selling drugs or doing illegal stuff on the computer, which would be all to easy for me. But I have this problem about being a good and decent person which I am always being kicked in my fecking teeth for.

I don't think I am being unreasonable here. I just want a chance to tread water and have some sort of life.

It's so frusterating and it pisses me off... And it makes me want to drink to go and shut my damn brain up. Everything. It all builds up to so much pressure.

[davedove]

If I actually owned a brick and mortar store, the fees would be peanuts. They want to revitalise the downtown area. So they hiked the home based business fees right through the roof and getting a business license if you own a store is super cheap.

I understand their line of thinking. They don't want temporary, fly by night salesmen. They want the solid permanent business owners who are going to stay a while. But their thinking doesn't go far enough. Who do they think grows their business enough to eventually buy a store - the small time businesses working out of basements and garages. I guess all they want is corporate chains to come in.