Business Licenses and Taxes

"Craft business plan"

Licenses are often over looked when people work from home. So put this on your list of “to do’s”. Where I live this is an easy process and very inexpensive. It is only a few dollars a year. This is a legitimate work at home business, so do not be careless with it.

Getting your license is really not a big deal. I just went to the county court house, filled out a short form. Paid a few dollars and that was it. I had my business license. Every year now they send me a card saying it is time to renew my business license. I return the care with my check and I am good to go. Don’t even have to leave the house.

Check with your courthouse for your local information that applies to your location. Every state, city and county is different. If you live in the city you may have to file city and county taxes. Or if you live in the country you may only need to file state taxes.

This is why I will not even attempt to advise you on what you need to apply for and how to do it. But your county court house can give you all the information you what and where you need to do all this.

At home craft business

State Tax

Federal Tax ID (EIN)

State tax information is the same. For our state we can apply for a tax number online. Also we file our state taxes online so there is no hassle. You get a printed receipt with a confirmation number for each filing.

Again, I do not know how your state does this so you will have to check it out. You may not even need a tax number. This is used mainly for buying wholesale and reselling.

Be diligent; do not mess around with taxes. I have found that filing taxes are no big deal as you fill in the blanks mainly. But if you do not do it on the schedule that your state tells you there may be some hefty fines even if you do not have any sales.

Late Fees

My daughter was in a near fatal accident last year. With all the hospital runs, and than the months of home care afterwards, I totally forgot about filing. Well let me tell you eventually they sent me a letter saying I owed a chunk of money. I did not have any sales during that time but they still want you to file.

They are not unreasonable. I call the state and explained what had happened with my daughter. I also explained that there had been no sales during that time. They than cleared the account to a 0 balance for me. Which I was very happy because I sure didn’t want to pay those late fees, especially when I had no sales coming in.