Michelle Mckinney

End-of-year income tax is going to be based on gross sales, and probably as a self-employment tax. You just add up the total sales, remove your deductions, and your tax program should tell you what you owe. If you make enough money, you may have to submit estimated taxes quarterly.

Typically any sweet fruit jelly is allowed. It should have a significant amount of sugar in it… low sugar preserves would likely not be allowed. Pepper jellies would not be allowed.

Yes, if you have a commercial license from the health dept, you’d be relatively unrestricted.

I’d recommend a sole-proprietorship. Please see here: http://forrager.com/groups/california/forum/topic/can-you-expand-answer-on-llc/

This wouldn’t fall under the cottage food law. You’ll need to talk to the health dept.

There is no legal way to sell homemade cheesecakes in TN. Your mom needs a commercial license, which would also allow her to take online orders and do interstate sales. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Yes, you can do any direct sales to customers.

You mean food stamps? I really don’t know.

You can run it as a partnership, but each business has the $45,000 sales restriction, so that’d be $22,500 of sales (not profit) max per person.

The requirements don’t change much for Class B. You need to get an inspection so you can sell to stores and restaurants, and you can only do those indirect sales within your county, unless another county…[Read more]

I have talked with a government official in North Dakota, which is the only reason ND is green on the map. Even though they don’t have laws, they regularly allow small producers to run their food businesses from home. I’d say you’d be best off talking to your ag dept and seeing what they allow.

That’s correct — no homemade food may be sold on Etsy or anywhere else online.

You need a commercial license and can’t produce at home: http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

The letter of the law is that pets cannot ever be anywhere in the building where production is taking place, regardless of where the pets have access. I’ve not sure if your health dept would overlook that or not.

To make even $1 of profit, you need to follow the cottage food law described on this site. That will entail talking to the health dept, registering, submitting labels, etc.
http://forrager.com/law/california/

No, deep fried foods aren’t allowed at all, whether they’re fried on or off site.