Here in the Bay Area, where government is King, I've never heard of this, though it is not uncommon for general contractors to have a business license to pull a permit. It sounds dodgy to me. I wonder whether State law would conflict. Think about all the business that can happen in a city. Does UPS have to have a license to drive in your town? Does the car dealer in a neighboring city have to have a license to run an ad in the local paper? Does the New York Times have to have a business license to mail their newspaper to your town? Does Amazon have to have a license to to sell on-line in your town? Does a marketing research company have to have a license to do a survey of people in your town?
The question of what a city or county can legally do comes up all the time in my work. What I have come to realize is that the rules that apply, in particular various building codes and zoning ordinances, have become so complex that the people entrusted to implement them can't keep them straight. What I've also realized is that if those people are dealing with lay people, they are not as careful about applying the rules with a strict correctness. If on the other hand, I/we show them we know how to read the ordinances, they are much less likely to be careless or ad lib or go out on a limb. We show them we understand things like "applicability" and "definitions." They live and die by their own rules.
If I were Stephen I'd dig into the city ordinance like any other code. I certainly would not acquiesce to a ridiculous rule without doing my homework and if I found anything in what the city was doing was beyond their authority, I would know I had the knowledge to put a stop to it and I would.
Donald Wardlaw AIA
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Donald Wardlaw AIA
More Than Construction, Inc.
Oakland CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2017 23:16
From: Stephen Dorsey
Subject: City business license for out of town architects
In what situations have you found that out of town architects need to file for a City business license?
I am a sole proprietor architect with no employees that works from my home office. I have a City business license from the City where my home office is located. The majority of my work is done at my home office. Occasionally I take site measurements or meet with a client in other Cities.
I have received letters from a neighboring City stating that I need to have their business license to conduct business in their City. Speaking with them they said taking site measurements would require the license. The City said they went online to look at out of town architect websites and sent letters to architects that had projects located in their City. I had no idea that any City required this. The local AIA office located in this City was not aware of this requirement.
I anticipate that I may spend 1 or 2 hours taking site measurements every other year of so for small tenant improvements. I just applied for the $110 license and the City sent me 10 years of back applications with significant late fees and 10 years of City business and occupation tax forms, and no business license.
My income is low enough to be exempt from their tax but most architect firms would not be. Tax based on "world wide gross income" could be sizable.
I do not know how to respond to the license requirement. I can send the tax forms back stating my exception. Has anyone else dealt with this?
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Stephen Dorsey AIA
Principal
Puyallup, WA
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