Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2012
As with all information from non-official websites please check your respnosiblities with your state & local authorities–I do my best to link directly to them here, but you should always go read the source yourself to be sure what you see here, or anywhere else, is accurate for you & your business.
Starting a business in NY? These will help you find out what you need to do it properly:
New York State’s Online Permit Assistance & Licensing Site (OPAL):
See the Click here to start link on that page for a questionairre of what types of issues your business may be involved with, and it will present you with your filing requirements and advisory sheets.
The hardest part of using this cool tool is the first step–picking your business type. The design for this section is really poor, and after a lot of clicking I settled on Craft/Hobby Vendor since I don’t have a public location and sell both handmade and supplies. You can use the search box to put in key words to see if there’s something that better suits you.
NYS Sales Tax
In NY you must register with the Dept of Revenue (before you start to sell) to collect sales tax for your on-line sales, for live events where you are a vendor, or for your brick & mortar store if you’ll sell tangible goods to the public:
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/sbc/starting_business.htm
Please note that sales tax is a tax on the buyer and is totally separate from any income tax you will owe at the end of the year for income made through your sales.
You should also contact your city/county offices to be sure you know what local business laws there might be in your area. City/county business offices are where you’ll register your “Doing Business As” name (DBA), which is a requirement in NYS for sellers who are not selling under their given/real name:
NY General Business Code Article 9-B, Section 130
While you can achieve selling without a DBA, it’s not allowed. And if you want to open a business bank account under your business name, a DBA is what you’ll need.
Also see the links on the right for more info on the IRS, Sales Tax and business registration and more.
3 Comments | Add your own
most excellent – thank you!!!!!!!
If you are starting your etsy shop are you required to get a business license or just the sales tax permit in ny?
It depends on what you’ll be making/selling. Sometimes there are local (city or county) regulations in addition to state requirements too. Did you try the OPAL questionnaire? (link above) It should help you figure out what you need to do.
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