David Crabill
@david
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It’s illegal to run a lemonade stand in most parts of the country, without the proper permit and equipment. As far as selling non-perishable foods, like cupcakes, the cottage food law in your state would specify whether that’s possible. Regardless, zoning laws typically prevent people from advertising their businesses in a neighborhood, so they wouldn’t be able to setup a stand in front of their house. If you care about being completely legal, you should contact your health or ag dept.
Despite the laws being fairly strict, many people open these types of stands, and although some get shut down by the police, there are usually not serious consequences. The consequences might be more severe if your stand was open on a regular basis.
I should add that you’ll definitely need to file income taxes at the end of the year.
I don’t know, but it’s quite possible that you need to collect some kind of sales tax. You need to check with your parish and see if there are exemptions from collecting tax on some types of food sales. State sales tax is often exempted for food that is consumed off the premises, but the details of those exemptions can get complicated. Have you read this yet? http://forrager.com/faq/#sales-tax
It’s quite possible that that’s all accurate info, and it’s also possible that they are making guesses. Ultimately, you need to get whatever they determine you need to get. I think you could start by bringing a copy of the law and making sure they are completely familiar with it. You could also contact nearby counties to see how they are handling the law, and if their process differs, try to understand why your county is different or if it should be.
Although the law allows sales from home, your city’s zoning laws can prevent them, even if you have no visible presence in front of your home. In fact, your health dept could prevent all cottage food sales if they wanted to, as Miami-Dade has done. There’s nothing in the law that prevents local govts from intervening, unfortunately.
The tax receipts sound pretty typical, and probably something all businesses need to get.
Thanks so much for the update! It appears that the bill was amended before it got passed. The final version increases the sales limit to $10,000 per product and does not allow small businesses to resell cottage food products. It allows CFOs to become LLCs and it removes unnecessary language about what “direct sales” means. The final version: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2015a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/B3EE9F4C4E515E6287257DA4000310C7?open&file=085_enr.pdf
No, you will need to use a commercial kitchen to produce that. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
No, I don’t think you can do that from home. You would need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
You can only sell to customers in CO, but you can’t ship to anyone. However, you can sell online, with local fulfillment. Many CFOs run successful businesses with this local approach, without needing farmers markets. However, it may take more marketing effort and outreach on your part.
Yes, you can sell dry tea with a cottage food permit.
Yes, this should be allowed for a home food processing operation, which I was not well-informed about back in February.
I don’t think any drink would be allowed under the cottage food law, and I’m not really familiar enough with starters to comment on them. My guess is that those wouldn’t be allowed either, but you should talk with the ag dept to make sure.
