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Your business's primary place of business is your home (referring specifically to the parent comment, not businesses in general). That you can also carry out th

Your business's primary place of business is your home (referring specifically to the parent comment, not businesses in general). That you can also carry out the business where ever you physically are does not change that basic fact from a legal or tax perspective. Zoning compliance is not required for a home office (assuming white collar type work). Many, but not all jurisdictions require business licenses, even for home offices. This does not trigger inspections, because a business license isn't about the workplace, it's about the business itself. EDIT/FOLLOWUP: Your "place of business" does not need to be your mailing address, because you can use a PO Box. It also doesn't need to be your address for legal service (i.e., for service of lawsuits), since most companies use a registered agent for that. At the most basic level, for a solo entrepreneur, your place of business is simply the one common location to which you have a legal right from which you do at least some of your business. In the absence of an owned or leased/subleased office or other workplace, it defaults to your residence.

NewJazz 3y ago
What if I never do business in my home, but instead operate out of libraries, coffee shops, or client's locations? Picture a carpet cleaning van parked on the street, for example.
- friendzis 3y ago
  Where you do business and where you carry out business operations are quite often very different locations.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  If you're a sole practitioner (what this article is about) - by definition - your business is you. And you are most often in your home. It's not that complicated. You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. I don't blame you. We all want to have cake and eat it, too.
  - NewJazz 3y ago
    you are most often in your home Yet another baseless assumption. You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house Or one may wish to continue making money to feed themselves even though they cannot afford housing. Have you ever had to apply for apartments on self employment income?
  - mattgreenrocks 3y ago
    > You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. What's the alternative here? Pay a couple hundred a year for a forwarding address that is sufficiently real enough for Stripe to accept? Asking out of personal interest. I'm working on the solopreneur route and looking at what's available for myself. Would prefer to keep it away from my personal address.
    - hazmazlaz 3y ago
      Yes, this is the answer. Pay for a virtual address/agent, it's just part of the cost of doing business.
  - drpossum 3y ago
    This isn't about angry customers knowing where you live. This is about angry government since it's for regulatory purposes.
- olliej 3y ago
  The address here would presumably be the one where you can be physically served a lawsuit. My concern is that if I had an online business that I worked on at home, I still wouldn’t want my home address to be given out by my payment processor.
  - whaleofatw2022 3y ago
    This is what I was thinking. Trying to do Service on a lawsuit/etc is a huge PITA.
- ghaff 3y ago
  When I bought my house many many years ago, I think I got something in the sale agreement about being able to operate a business out of my house provided it was just a mail-order business without associated traffic. (The seller was continuing to live next door.) So I'm not sure about zoning in most places--especially today--but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some restrictions on business-related commercial traffic.
  - rideontime 3y ago
    In what jurisdiction does the former owner of a property have any say regarding what the new owner does with the property?
    - hiatus 3y ago
      Any that allows covenants that run with the land. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/covenant_that_runs_with_the_land https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/covenant_that_runs_with_the_...
      - ghaff 3y ago
        I'm am not a property lawyer but I assume that's the case here. I assume were I to sell my property, the buyer couldn't unilaterally forbid my (now different) neighbor from using my driveway and, if they were to sell, the new neighbor couldn't forbid me from walking down to the river. Fortunately, people are pretty reasonable around where I live.
        hiatus 3y ago
        In my case I own land where certain parts cannot be logged beyond removing hazards. The deed for the land included the restriction, though my lawyer was at a loss as to who would seek to enforce it.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        I assume that this is also how conservation covenants work. A new owner doesn't get to say "just kidding" and develop land that was turned into a property allowing public use with use restrictions.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- gamblor956 3y ago
  Generally in the U.S., this has been a settled question for over a century. If you really have questions, there is guidance about this to govern pretty much every jurisdiction in the continental U.S. For a solo entrepreneurship business in the U.S., your home is your place of business if you do not have another fixed place of business.
  - NewJazz 3y ago
    Consider the question unsettled. Or at the very least unsettling.
DinaCoder99 3y ago
Pragmatically, there's a lot of great reasons to not use your personal address as a business address. I still have unemployment claims and financing offers chasing me for a company I started five years ago and closed four years ago.
- rideontime 3y ago
  > unemployment claims Can you elaborate?
- Animats 3y ago
  For some reason, this doesn't seem to be a problem for me. For over twenty years, I've had a registered fictitious business name, a D&B number, and a registered US trademark tied to my home address. I don't even get junk mail for that.
anticorporate 3y ago
> Zoning compliance is not required for a home office (assuming white collar type work). Actually, it is in my jurisdiction. I have to have a Home Occupation Permit for any type of business whatsoever registered at my home. This is why my address on file is my registered agent, in a different city in my state that does not have this absurd requirement.

NewJazz 3y ago

What if I never do business in my home, but instead operate out of libraries, coffee shops, or client's locations? Picture a carpet cleaning van parked on the street, for example.

friendzis 3y ago
Where you do business and where you carry out business operations are quite often very different locations.
onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
If you're a sole practitioner (what this article is about) - by definition - your business is you. And you are most often in your home. It's not that complicated. You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. I don't blame you. We all want to have cake and eat it, too.
- NewJazz 3y ago
  you are most often in your home Yet another baseless assumption. You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house Or one may wish to continue making money to feed themselves even though they cannot afford housing. Have you ever had to apply for apartments on self employment income?
- mattgreenrocks 3y ago
  > You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. What's the alternative here? Pay a couple hundred a year for a forwarding address that is sufficiently real enough for Stripe to accept? Asking out of personal interest. I'm working on the solopreneur route and looking at what's available for myself. Would prefer to keep it away from my personal address.
  - hazmazlaz 3y ago
    Yes, this is the answer. Pay for a virtual address/agent, it's just part of the cost of doing business.
- drpossum 3y ago
  This isn't about angry customers knowing where you live. This is about angry government since it's for regulatory purposes.
olliej 3y ago
The address here would presumably be the one where you can be physically served a lawsuit. My concern is that if I had an online business that I worked on at home, I still wouldn’t want my home address to be given out by my payment processor.
- whaleofatw2022 3y ago
  This is what I was thinking. Trying to do Service on a lawsuit/etc is a huge PITA.
ghaff 3y ago
When I bought my house many many years ago, I think I got something in the sale agreement about being able to operate a business out of my house provided it was just a mail-order business without associated traffic. (The seller was continuing to live next door.) So I'm not sure about zoning in most places--especially today--but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some restrictions on business-related commercial traffic.
- rideontime 3y ago
  In what jurisdiction does the former owner of a property have any say regarding what the new owner does with the property?
  - hiatus 3y ago
    Any that allows covenants that run with the land. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/covenant_that_runs_with_the_land https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/covenant_that_runs_with_the_...
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I'm am not a property lawyer but I assume that's the case here. I assume were I to sell my property, the buyer couldn't unilaterally forbid my (now different) neighbor from using my driveway and, if they were to sell, the new neighbor couldn't forbid me from walking down to the river. Fortunately, people are pretty reasonable around where I live.
      - hiatus 3y ago
        In my case I own land where certain parts cannot be logged beyond removing hazards. The deed for the land included the restriction, though my lawyer was at a loss as to who would seek to enforce it.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I assume that this is also how conservation covenants work. A new owner doesn't get to say "just kidding" and develop land that was turned into a property allowing public use with use restrictions.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
gamblor956 3y ago
Generally in the U.S., this has been a settled question for over a century. If you really have questions, there is guidance about this to govern pretty much every jurisdiction in the continental U.S. For a solo entrepreneurship business in the U.S., your home is your place of business if you do not have another fixed place of business.
- NewJazz 3y ago
  Consider the question unsettled. Or at the very least unsettling.

DinaCoder99 3y ago

Pragmatically, there's a lot of great reasons to not use your personal address as a business address. I still have unemployment claims and financing offers chasing me for a company I started five years ago and closed four years ago.

rideontime 3y ago
> unemployment claims Can you elaborate?
Animats 3y ago
For some reason, this doesn't seem to be a problem for me. For over twenty years, I've had a registered fictitious business name, a D&B number, and a registered US trademark tied to my home address. I don't even get junk mail for that.

anticorporate 3y ago

> Zoning compliance is not required for a home office (assuming white collar type work). Actually, it is in my jurisdiction. I have to have a Home Occupation Permit for any type of business whatsoever registered at my home. This is why my address on file is my registered agent, in a different city in my state that does not have this absurd requirement.