I hope that someone can help me! I have just started making cakes at home. I have only gotten requests from family and a few friends. That said, is there a point up to which in NC that you do not have to be "legal"? I do not want to be doing anything wrong/illegal but cant see doing all of the legwork right now to get legal if I dont have to. Do you have to produce a certain volume or $$ amount before needing to get a certificate to be legal?

If I do need to be legal to make the few cakes that I do can someone please describe the process to me. Who do I need to contact? Does it cost any money? Is the process as difficult as I presume it will be?

Thank you in advance for any information/help you can be!

Can you only steal a few cars before it becomes illegal?

Mike

NO. You need to become legal if you are accepting $ for these cakes! It is not difficult to become licensed in NC>..........but I would do it if you are going to continue to do cakes for $. There are fines that you can be penalized for...doing it illegally, that is!

You need to contact the Department of Agriculture to start your process. The ones who are baking without being legal are making it harder for the ones who are.......I have a lot of them to deal with every day. I have to have people asking me why I have to charge sales tax when they can go to Sally Ann ( fictional character) and get it cheaper.......well...duh! Sally Ann is NOT LEGAL.......I am.

Not trying to sound so harsh....but LEGAL is the right thing to do, if you are going to do it for $$$........jmo.

From a liability standpoint, you are really taking a significant risk by not registering your home based bakery with the Dept of Ag. If someone had a severe allergic reaction and sued you, simply by not being licensed you could put your entire net worth on the line, because by operating illegally you are de facto negiligent.

North Carolina has virtually no rules regarding extra equipment etc. You can't have indoor pets, and thats about it. There are limitations on what you can make and sell from your home based bakery, but they aren't terribly severe.

The process is easy. Just contact the dept of agriculture and ask to speak with the person that schedules appts for the in home baking businesses. You have to apply for a sales and use number...if there was a fee for that it was under $100. I personally filed for llc (so i can be sued, but my personal funds can not be sued). That was another 100-200.

You can not have indoor pets and you can not make things that need to be refrigerated like whipped fillgs or pies.

You need a clean house, thermometers in frig and freezer. Seperate your baking things from your household things, no chemicals stored near any food. And get coated lightbulbs from lowes. I think they are called saft bulb or something. This is so if they explode the bulb fragments do not fall in the food.

Here are some sites for you to check out....

http://www.dornc.com/business/index.html

http://www.ncagr.gov/fooddrug/food/foodbiz.htm (click on homebased)

http://www.ncagr.gov/fooddrug/food/homebiz.htm
Good luck.

inspection-dept. of ag

business permit-city hall

notarized copy of application for business name-any public notary-form available as a pdf here-http://www.nccommerce.com/en/BusinessServices/StartYourBusiness/Forms/

register business name-registar of deeds-courthouse(?)

check with county tax assessor to see if you must file a Business Personal Property Tax form that lists items used to produce your product(this one truly pisses me off...but that is soooooooo another vent)...pans, spatulas, bowls, mixers, oven, refrigerator, freezer......not all counties assess this tax. I just happen to be in one that does.

Register with ncdor-http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/who.html

The point at which you decide to go from giving them away to selling them, is the point you should become legal, regardless of the income. At some point...like 3 years, if your earnings are less than a certain amount you are considered a hobbyist. I don't recall who determines this or what the amount is.

THANK YOU so much for your very helpful tips!

All4cake, if you dont mind me asking what county are you in?

Again, thank you and I will get started tomorrow on calling the right people.

Stanly
I'm not angry that they assess this tax...not unless I think about it too long...what got me angry was that I had asked the various departments from state to city...."Is there anything else I need to do?" They all told me "No, I can't think of a thing" this response came from the Registrar of Deeds office as well. Well, over a year after I've been in business, supposedly all legal, I get a letter from a company that was hired by this county to "track down businesses that were negligent in filing their Business Personal Property Tax". The rep was very pleasant and put up with my barrage of 4-letter words. She said that I was supposed to get this form when I filed my business name...hmmmph...they are one of the ones that told me, "Nope, that's it."

Anyway, I just thought it's badly managed tax dollars....they could've avoided all this had they distributed the form when filing the business name instead of paying a company OUTSIDE of the county in which these taxes are collected(let's just take your tax dollars and put them to work in another county).

I had to get that out. Sorry.