Business liscense ??

Hello all my name is Joel and thank you to the Web Master for creating this site, I have been searching for a PW Forum. I really couldnt find the proper place to post this ? so I thought i would just put it here.

To make this as short as possible I am relocating to Westren MD in the sping and will be starting a Sole Propritorship PW business there. I have made several calls about a business liscence and in conversation with one of the Goverment office I was asked if I will be using chemicals, I said yes occasionally. Well that brought the whole process to a screaming halt and I was informed that i would have to get a home improvment liscense and take a test prior to getting liscensed, all to the tune of around $800.

Has anybody else ran into this. I called back the same office a couple of days later and said no to the chemical question just to see what would happen, no chemicals no test no home improvement liscense.


Any thoughts or feed back would be appreciated.

Joel, I don't know if you know these guys, www.thecleanernetwork.com he lives in TN and might be able to give you a better answer. also there are lots of guys from Tn on that BBS... try it for that answer..

Thanks Ron, I won't be working in TN I will be in Maryland and I made a few more calls today and got a whole new set of answers. Found out that in MD if you are just supplying a service as a sole propritorship then you don't even need a business liscense, just a tax ID# because you have to charge 5% tax on any commercial work you do.

hey Joel, c'mon down to Tx, all you need is $10 for a DBA, a P/W and all the knowledge gained from these boards!

gav

I enjoyed my time living in Texas...some of the nicest most laid back people I've run across.

Here in Delaware we pw's must apply for a General Service License, cost of 75.00 per year then for most of the towns, they call them cities but they have like one stop light, you have to purchase a town or city license as well, ranging from 50 - 175 dollars each. Forces the price of powerwashing up for legitimate businesses. Low ballers go in after the town office closes or on the weekend for beer money but if they are caught without state license and town license they will force them to stop work and they face stiff penalties. Make sure to research all licenses you may need to provide services in your area. Seems kinda silly to force someone to buy a 175.00 license for a 200.00 job when other work in that area may not be feasible at that point in time but thats Delaware and we are facing 160,000,000.00 budget shortfall for next year. Don't ya just love State Government.

I guess that's what happens when you don't charge sales tax.

Yeah Mike guess youre right. We never had a problem until our new Governer took office. Wasteful spending 50,000 to change the state slogan, millions of dollars spent in advertisement for her no smoking in public places law. Millions of dollars in lost revenue because of her non smoking law. All adds up to big problems for the second to smallest state in the union.