Was this city a snobby upclass type like Normandy Park by Burien? Sounds like something they would pull. (I always thought that NP was what The Highlands up by Shoreline would be when they grew up!) I used to live in Des Moines, Wa when I started, and, being so new, rarely visited that area, although I sold my first rebuild there!!(OK, not a rebuild, just a restoration with what I had to work with) A 1946 Aldredge console with the dreaded aluminum plate! What a cool day that was while still being an apprentice! Back then $950 bucks was a very good day!! It actually was a pretty good piano for what it was...That was my home learning piano that I had for years and years growing up while studying with Steve Brady. It took me 18 months to get through it!, but I was a student, eh. I figured if I could tune that, and get it to some sort of stability, I could tune anything. My next one was a 1919 Chickering Quarter grand! Guess what...nice sale and LOTS of learning!!! :>) Guess what I don't rebuild any more??? :>) What a beast that was, but turned out fairly nice and the new owner loved it. Hope you're doing well out there! ps; I always charged the sales tax and paid the governor FWIW Paul From: "David Stocker" <firtreepiano at hotmail.com> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Date: 07/15/2010 01:27 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Probelm with Business License. Please help! Paul, Technically, it depends on the laws in each city. Most have laws requiring licenses, but it is rarely enforced. Washington state requires us to collect sales taxes according to each locality, and report same. Based on that reporting, one small city sent me a nasty note threatening me with a huge fine per day if I did not get a license. Seems I no longer do business in that city ;) Others seem quite content to take the money without complaining. There are people in the Department of Revenue who are there to help you figure this out. My Dad worked for the DOR here for 29 years. Through him I learned that the bureaucrat doesn't necessarily like or agree with the law, but they are forced to adhere to it. I have found with most bureaucrats if I make nice and ask them how I can do things the right way, they will go out of their way to find a way to help. This goes for the zoning issue as well. Of course, some government folks have forgotten how to be human beings, in which case they will destroy you just for the notch on their belt. David Stocker, RPT Tumwater, WA From: Paul T Williams Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 10:22 To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Probelm with Business License. Please help! David, I was always curious that if we are licensed in the city in which we live as well as the state, do we also have to have a license for all the surrounding cities in which we work? (It doesn't matter now, since I'm a CAUT), but I didn't ever know if I was bending some sort of law living in Clinton, WA, but doing business all around Puget Sound. Best, Paul From: "David Stocker" <firtreepiano at hotmail.com> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Date: 07/15/2010 11:54 AM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Probelm with Business License. Please help! A huge problem for us is that the laws and codes are written by people who are educated into thinking commercial can only mean retail stores or industrial businesses. Our kind of business does not exist in their perception of the universe. The city I grew up in and started my business in made it literally impossible for me to remain, thereby losing my taxes. The county here classifies me the same as a piano teacher; which means if I have no sign, no employees and do nothing outside, they don't care. In Washington state there is no licensing of businesses by the county, only by the state and cities. A business license is not the same as an occupation permit. You might ask about the procedure for re-zoning your property. Sometimes it is not as onerous as you might think, and you may be presenting your cause to a committee of citizens rather than bureaucrats. David Stocker, RPT Tumwater, WA From: Hy Cohen Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 02:47 To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Probelm with Business License. Please help! Hi everyone, I just moved here to California a couple of weeks ago, and am working on getting my business plan assembled so I can soon start my piano tech business. As part of that process, I gave a call over to my county to find out how much a business license would be (I live outside the city limits). They told me $415. But then they asked where I would be operating my business, so I explained to them that it would be a home-based business where I will perform a majority of my services at my clients’ location and that once in a while I would take a part home to work on using manual hand tools which are pretty quiet, and that my business would not generate any additional traffic, etc. She then asked me for my address, so I gave it to her. Just as soon as I gave her my address she announced that I could not run my business where I live! She said the property is zoned as agriculture, and because I would occasionally bring something home with me to work on that it would be considered a commercial operation which would not be allowed under the property’s zoning. Any thoughts…besides moving or pretending I didn’t hear what the lady said? <grin> I’ve left messages for the city to find out if I lived there if I would run into the same problem, but they haven’t called back. In your experience, am I likely to run into this problem living in a city? We are planning to move into a city in the near future. But with this goofy problem, we might be moving sooner rather than later. <grin> Thanks for your advice! Warmly, Hy frowninverter at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100715/a454e2cd/attachment-0001.htm>
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