Home office 2257 ... The reality
 

There is more to worry about than just the Feds .....

2257 requires you list your place of business. If you use your home as your legal place of business you need a business license. Your neighborhood may not be zoned for home business use, if you rent you could be violating your lease. Are you running a porn business near a school or playground.

Remember, you have stated to the Feds this is your business address .... now you have to deal with local and state regulations.

You are also a few keystrokes away from a local reporter or prosecutor doing a google for "your state, 2257, custodian of records" BOOM there you are. I would bet small operators are more likely to be outed by local publicity hunters than federal investigators .....

Just takes one local "porn in our neighborhood" news story to start a trend.

Yeah true. If you are a primary producer who produces "teen" niche content out of your house without a DBA, then you're kinda.. well.. dumb anyway :) hehe

Rent an office. Every town has an office building with a sign on the window :)

Correct, then spend twenty hours per week sitting in it .... really sucks.

OK.. Hear ya L-Pink ...

But.. don't you think how totally absurd it is to require a "business license" for the privilege of sitting in your own home in front of a computer screen??? Never came across that bullshit - ever.

If that's not a totally screwed and unfriendly environment - nada is.

Reminds me of some stupid "regulation" in Florida where there was a need to park a car with the plates showing. Shit - if they wanted that, why not have front and rear plates on a vehicle and stop talking shit?



PS Dunno what you call em in the US, but "plates" are these things with numbers on a car :winkwink:

Agree 100%

It is amazing you can't use your Attorney for your custodian of records.

Its to prevent people from abusing their neighbors, can you imagine having a neighbor run a 24hr shipping company from his house. Then at all hours of the night trucks would be driving through the neighborhood. It sucks but its mainly so inconsiderate people don't annoy the shit out of everyone else.

:thumbsup

that's why even with the home office i have ..I'll always keep a 2nd main office. plus i like to work outside the home a few days a week.

Many municipalities/counties have something seperate from a business license for folks who do unintrusive office-type work out of their homes. In my area it is called a "home occupation license". It is like a small business license but with much less paperwork and hassle (and no additional business taxes or zoning limitations). To qualify as a "home occupation" instead of a small business you have to meet certain qualifications that most adult webmasters should be able to meet, especially if you use a MBE/UPS store to handle your deliveries. Things like no more than 3 client/customer visits per week, no more than 3 courier deliveries per week, no manufacturing on site, etc. It's worth looking into because the orignal point is a good one - you need to comply with your local laws.

Home business are usually ok and allowed unless they cause more traffic to the neighborhood. So something like that wouldn't be allowed. However a normal webmaster doing normal webmaster stuff isn't going to generate extra traffic in their neighborhood so it's likely, it would be fairly easy to get a biz license unless your propriety was deed restricted.

well.. the first thing all of you should do is put a robots.txt file dissallowing the indexing of your 2257.html page, or whatever you call your records page. That way someone will not find your address by googling, or anything else for that matter.

Thank-you ......:thumbsup

Also, correct me if I am wrong on this, but I was under the impression that as part of the 2257 requirements, you must list the address where you are available for inspection during the day (business hours). For some people who run a web site and also have another, separate job, this means that during business hours, you are not at home.

What to do about that one?

When I was last in Florida, they did not have a license for a home computer business. But that was more then 2 years ago.

put a phone # on your records page, i would recommend an 800# that goes directly to voicemail(from kall8.com) and put your hours that you are available on the page. From what I understand, on one of the recent 2257 investigations, they called the night before and told him they were comming the next morning.

I agree, it is ironic that you'd need necessary papers to show what you're doing at your own house

They can't dictate your business hours.. only that you have to post your hours of operation.

9am-9:02am 1st sunday of every month.

this is a cruel reality. If your appartment where you work is situated in the house near the school... but this is your appartment. i don't understand.

you dont have to worry about zoning for running a adult website. Zoning gets involved when you have customers coming to your front door.Then the church school thing kicks in.

I started another thread about this, but I think 2257 will create even more porn, since smaller companys will now have to work at least 20 hours a week on stuff to stay compliant. IF you where only working 1-5 hours a week thats a huge differerance in the amount of time that you will now be spending creating new stuff.

Gets even trickier when you run an amateur site from home.

I agree. this week Im going to find a small office space local, and start switching everything over to it's address. I'm not comfortable with posting my home address everywhere on the net like I have had to do. Specially with my newborn dauther and my wife who has nothing to do with this industry. New office will be simple, Internet access, one desk for my laptop, 2 little file cabinets, 1 for records, other for anything else. And a coffee machine.

I started working this industry so I could stay home with my daughter, so it kind of defeats the purpose to get an office. My youngest is starting Head Start this year now, so I could work outside the home, but I can't afford an office, so I'm SOL. But like I've said before, I'd take my chances with a jury over some whackjob stalker any day. At least a jury is required to hear your side of the case, and even if I did lose, I'm sure it's better for my kids that Mommy is in prison then dead.

Sure.. understand.

Tho who the hell would run a shipping company from their home? OK - There is the idiots :winkwink:

Forgot the fleshlight ????

Got you Tony - thought it was kinda insane.

A better example might be a small contractor that parks a couple trucks or vans on the street.

move to canada..problem solved:)

THats what I have cost me $275 a month and it has whats need for the records and not much more. Its maybe 5 blocks from my house.

$275 isn't bad at all, but I just had a roommate bail on me, so I don't think I can afford another rent, power, and net bill when I got more house then I can afford ATM since I thought I had a roommate to split it with, lol.

Not to scare you but they could take your kids because you are running a porn business where children live. I say work harder and find a cheap office, so all your adult business stuff has a address and its not where children are. Even if your not at the office 20 hrs a week its there and thats where the business is.

I've had experience dealing with DCF before because my ex-husband had some drug issues, so, the last time, I made sure my kids had a relative to go to in case it took some time to get everything done, and I straight up told them what I did, and they made sure that the children were not exposed to anything adult in nature and closed my case.

If I were to work more to afford an office, they wouldn't get the care they deserve. My little ones are 3 and almost 5, so I can't just shut my bedroom door from 9 to 5 and leave them to fend for themselves. And while my son is older, 12yo, he is at an age that he is constantly testing boundaries, and I need to be there to enforce the ones I set. So I care for them all day, sneak a few minutes here and there to check the boards or email, and I work at night when everyone is in bed. I get about 4 hours of sleep a night..if I'm lucky, lol. If I worked more, either I'd be working when they are running around and they WOULD be exposed to inappropriate materials, or they'd be neglected because I was in my room with the door shut. So I'm trying to work smarter, get better organized, and manage my time better.

But even so, my rent and utilities just doubled with no warning. I'm struggling a little right now, and if I can't comfortably pay my expenses at home, I'd be nuts to take on additional expenses, especially when I would have to take my kids to the office to work there, anyway. Single mom, and all.

However, with even the little one starting school soon, I'm getting an extra 7 hours to work, so I anticipate my budget issues being short-lived.

In any case, I appreciate your concern and advice.:winkwink:

Nah I was told by a bunch of big people in the industry you dont need a fed tax id, or business license. .... :winkwink:

btw what about vacation? Can you guys leave the 2257 address for 2-3 weeks?

2 -3 weeks??? This is not Europe we are talking about :winkwink:

Clause 33(f) "All records will be made available during normal office hours. Failure to provide documentation within a 48 period is subject to a term of imprisonment of not more than five years."




Do not take the above as any form of legal advice

Scary points you made L-Pink...

No vacation? How could this come through?