Confused about what business licenses I need for e-business

[Little Liza Jane]

[sugarrae]

[Lynn Terry]

I would also recommend getting more than one professional opinion. My experience was that everybody gave a different answer, and nobody really knew *for sure* - but then this was a few years ago and they may be more educated on it now. Calling the state about sales tax, for example, I got a different answer every time I spoke with a different person.

At the time I had an offline local business established, services for which I was already charging sales tax, and was inquiring about sales & services I was adding that were conducted online and out of state. In the end, it was agreed that I only had to charge sales tax on those sales & services that were conducted with a resident of my state... which made sense to me, but I had received conflicting information from other sources.

We already had a business license at that time, but when we split the business and I began working from home (and online) full-time, I inquired about obtaining a new business license... My CPA said it wasnt necessary as I wasnt conducting business out of my home (ie no traffic, signs, etc) - but I was told by other sources that I "should" (not that I had to, or needed to, it was a 'precautionary measures' suggestion). I'm still not 100% sure what the requirements are for this one... Anyone else?

[CorpRebel]

Hi All!

As Lynn mentioned, it's probabably a good idea to get a couple of professional opinions. And as she ALSO mentioned, it seems no one really seems to know for sure.

In my opinion (not legal, of course), I don't think this issue is EVER gonna be clear UNTIL they finally clarify the online "taxing" issues one way or the other. If they make Internet taxes binding everywhere, then you can bet your "whatever" that the politicians (Federal, State, & Local) will ALSO gleefully be requiring business licenses for ANY and ALL online business.

They must be licking their "chops" and "drooling" just thinking about all that potential XTRA revenue ...

Ain't the Internet just FULL of surprises?

My 3 cents ...


To YOUR Online Success!

Rick Wilson aka Corprebel