Re: local licenses

["Race, Paul D" <racepa -at- WHQPOS4B -dot- DAYTONOH -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM>]

Timothy Schablin asks:

>I've read that if your in an area NOT zoned for a business, you can
>legally still conduct business if you get a P.O. box at the post office.

>Is this true?

>Here's my case. I live in an apartment and cannot do business from my
>apartment per city code. Can I if I get a P.O. box?

Paul Race responds (mostly in ignorance, I admit):
Tim, it depends 90% on your local zoning regulations.

For instance, in Ohio, it's legal to provide daycare for up to 6 children
full-time no matter what the local zoning regs say, but in my county, it's
illegal to give saxophone lessons unless you first get written permission
from everyone in a half-mile radius.

Unless you are having people come in to your appartment, how will ANYONE
else know you are conducting a "business from your home?"   With the rise of
telecommuting, LOTS of people will be working at home, and the only
observable difference between them and a stay-at-home mom or dad will be the
size of the phone bill.

Having a computer in the spare bedroom instead of a bed isn't illegal.
 Neither is typing on it until all hours of the day or night.  Nor is
cashing checks from people who pay you to write things for them.

If these people have to see you "at work," so you generate a lot of traffic,
then there's something to be concerned about that a P.O. box won't help
anyway.

The only reason to get a separate P.O. box is if you expect a lot of mail.
 If most of what you get is in the form of faxes and E-mail, a P.O. box
won't even help you there.

In Ohio, the state never compares its records of who's running a business
(for sales tax purposes) with the county's zoning records.  Why should they?
 I filed for a sales tax account with the state with the idea of starting my
own business and NEVER ONCE heard from zoning.  The only reason I'd be
likely to hear from zoning would be if I had large packages being delivered
by trucks all the time or people in and out all the time or something like
that which prompted the neighbors to write in.

So the short answer is, if you repost your question telling people which
town/county/state you live in, you may hear from someone who knows.

Follow-ups to tim or paul -dot- d -dot- race -at- daytonoh -dot- attgis -dot- com, please, so we don't
keep an off-topic thread going here.  :-)