I would not recommend getting a business license if you are NOT a business. Look forward to a lot of headaches. Many states also require you to obtain a state license. On top of that you may need to obtain a Sales Tax license, then collect & report sales & taxes to the city and state. In my case I also had to apply for a fictitious name, and pay .1% of my gross sales to the city. And now because you are a business, you get calls and junk mail from credit card processing places and insurance companies, and companies that want to sell you training material for your employees. Don't forget the fire inspection! Once I ignored, because I didn't quite understand, a request for a list of my business assets (computers, furniture, tools, etc) and ended up paying more than $50 but less than $100 because they estimated it for me, when in reality it would have been zero. And they don't change their minds. I asked why last year it was $0.00 and this year they estimated $1000, where did that come from and they said they didn't know. They even hounded me when I moved out of state because I didn't properly "close" my business in writing. But hey, the IRS audits are fun!

I don't agree to that cut and dry logic. If I collect stamps and have 1000 and sell one cause it's a duplicate and make $1 profit off of it, with that logic it's a business. And if I run a business and lose money, it's now a hobby?

I had a neighbor, who I met once, that constantly called in to the city for reasons I'll never know, with "delivery trucks at all hours of the day and night". I actually suspected another neighbor, but when the city decided that these reports were harassment, they actually told me who it was and I was shocked. As far as I knew this guy was a tax accountant, working from home (the irony) and my house wasn't even in his view, let alone my front driveway.

I agree to that, was just saying sometimes there's a reason to get upset at nosy neighbors. They can feel what they like about a situation, but when they fabricate things to cause trouble they just made themselves the worse of the two parties.

(Discussing, not arguing). I do get that if you constantly write stuff off for years and years that the IRS would consider it a hobby, really you're doing it for fun. I tried to argue (with the city) that I collect pinball machines, and sometimes sell them and buy others. They said I had to report everything. So if I bought it for $1000 and sold it for $1000 I have to pay on $1000? "That's correct." I then asked how this was different from someone collector cars, the response? "Oh, that's different!"

Very, very clear......

If you are referring to my post about my neighbor's complaint to the city, no, wasn't NAVL. Wasn't anyone. Was my neighbor lying.