I am resending this for the third time in an attempt to get this viewed....... The subject of "Business City Licenses" is one that those that do not want to run a legitimate business may wish to pretend this is for everyone else and does not apply to them because they are "SPECIAL". (Much like driving laws should only apply to "everyone else", but I should be able to ignore the law when it suits me! ) Many Guild members simply want to act as if aquiring a City Business License is to hard of a thing to get. A license for a trade is not the same as a city business license and this is where some try this approach to argue their case which is two completely different things. I had one guild member telling me his IRS tax accountant told him he did not need a city license and I questioned since when did someone working with Federal tax laws become the authority on local city codes compliances? The City License identifies us as a "legitimate business" that operates in our communities. Most cities, you cannot get your business city license without showing you are current with you county business property taxes first! YES.... PIANOS IN YOUR GARAGE THAT YOU WANT TO SELL are "inventory" as well as your "business equipment & supplies" that you wrote off on your taxable income these past years are also subject to BUSINESS PROPERTY TAX. This means the schools and communities that we work out of, we are paying COUNTY BUSINESS PROPERTY TAXES as well as "personal" property taxes. This also means, we are charging sales tax just like the piano stores we are running competition against for this piano we wish to sell! Even if you do not sell products you still have some sort of business property unless you do everything barehanded! Our Guild spends lots of time talking about our professional image with our clients in the communities but, act like it is "Rocket Science" when it comes to operating within the codes and laws of our communities! The importance of becoming team players within our cities about our business, (1) it identifies us as a small business partially operation out of our homes but especially working in and about our city. This may help in some communities where they have yet to open up zoning restrictions to allow homebased businesses to operate as such in residential areas. (2) We are also identifying what type of home based business we are operating. This is most important for emergency response knowledge. If we are refinishing out of our home/garage, or have inventory unlike a "nonbusiness" type home, we provide the emergency response (Fire or Ambulance) teams with a Heads Up to what the contents maybe involved in this case of an emergency. (3) If a business is operating out of a home that the parking and traffic has increase because the teach or sell it is only fair to the neighbors that we are up front with who or what we are. Just to play stupid to how it impacts the neighborhood is unfair to our neighbors. This part of paying Business County Taxes is not all bad on the flip side! If we are paying our schools and communities "twice" in personal and business taxes, we should also expect that these public funds should only be spent with contracts awarded to businesses that are legitimate and operating under laws and codes as well! This means as tax paying citizens we have a right corporately to expect fair contrcting practices to only legitamate businesses! My brother, city manager of Lee's Summit MO.and I have had many conversations pertaining this issue. When Lee's Summit, MO opened up new guidelines for their city allowing more "homebased type " businesses to operate in their residential neighborhoods, they used the piano teacher as the example. (Oh yes, and the piano teacher should also have a city business license and yet the teachers are only providing services and generally not sales). I have several City licenses for the cities I operate within! They are proudly displayed upon my office wall. I question my Public School Adminstrators about fair business practices in awarding contracts to my school district. It really is a win situation for those who want to operate within the laws of our communities. Perhaps we could share this as good business practice/advice to raise the bar on our own members and not shy away from actually operating as a business! Jerry (Gerald Arbeau) Piano Tech/Rebuilder www.ArbeauPiano.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100721/3050d1a1/attachment.htm>
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