Hello Everyone,
I am please to tell you that the Florida House of Representatives have created the Florida Cottage Food Act as a bill. This bill will be heard on Tuesday and then it goes to the next committee, than the senate and finally the Govenor. I attached the actual bill for you to read. The actual bill is on page 15 item 415. I reviewed a copy of this bill last week but was not able to say anything. Today Teddi Creamer called me to tell me the location of the bill and said it is now public. You can follow the action being taken on this bill on the house of representatives website. http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/default.aspx Go to Committees than to Business and Consumer Affairs, on the right hand side go to proposed committe bills (PBC) there you will find the bill that I attached. On this page is where you can watch as the bill progresses.
We all need to email the State Senate to let them know how important it is that they pass this bill, once they pass it than it will go to the govenor.
Thank you to everyone that has helped and supported me to get this action going. I am so happy I emailed the Speaker of the House because he was the one to help us make this happen.
Hang in there everyone, Florida will soon be the next state with The Cottage Food Act.
Barbara
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Ruth, The attachment that I included in my post shows you exactly how the label is to be printed and what it should say. You put this label on the cake box, cake board, in the contract, on their receipt however you can apply it.
Barbara
If you are doing business as a sole proprietor “Christopher Bailey” – no fictitious name so no state filing needed. If you are doing business as a sole proprietor “Cakes by Christopher Bailey” – that is a fictitious name and you would need to follow the fictitious name procedures with the state. If you form a limited liability company “Cakes by Christopher Bailey LLC” and you do business under that exact name – then you would be using a legal business name – no fictitious name so no state filing needed, just the LLC filing. An LLC provides some legal protection so you may want to consult an attorney before deciding your form of business. If you choose an LLC and you are the only member, then you would report your business income on Schedule C on your personal tax return (single member LLCs are disregarded by IRS so no separate return is needed for the LLC). If the LLC has 2 or more members, a tax return for the LLC will be required. With a multi-member LLC, you have a choice of entity type for tax filing purposes – consult a CPA if you form one. My personal choice would be single member LLC.
If you are doing business as a sole proprietor “Christopher Bailey” – no fictitious name so no state filing needed. If you are doing business as a sole proprietor “Cakes by Christopher Bailey” – that is a fictitious name and you would need to follow the fictitious name procedures with the state. If you form a limited liability company “Cakes by Christopher Bailey LLC” and you do business under that exact name – then you would be using a legal business name – no fictitious name so no state filing needed, just the LLC filing. An LLC provides some legal protection so you may want to consult an attorney before deciding your form of business. If you choose an LLC and you are the only member, then you would report your business income on Schedule C on your personal tax return (single member LLCs are disregarded by IRS so no separate return is needed for the LLC). If the LLC has 2 or more members, a tax return for the LLC will be required. With a multi-member LLC, you have a choice of entity type for tax filing purposes – consult a CPA if you form one. My personal choice would be single member LLC.
The Cottage Food Act allows a home baker to sell certain baked and other goods directly to the customer/consumer without meeting food licensing or construction/building guidelines - no license/permit is required by the Dept of Agriculture to sell cottage foods (as defined by them). The $15K limit is imposed under this exception. If you sell more than $15K or otherwise don't meet the cottage food guidelines, then you would not be able to sell goods baked in your home and you would be subject to the food permitting, safety, licensing, inspection & building construction requirements for regular bakeries - with a full-fledged & permitted bakery you would not have an income limit.
The only local licensing requirement of which I'm aware would be an business occupational license for your county (and possibly city if you are also in the city limits). An occupational license may not be required for home businesses in every county (my county does not) - your first question to the city or county should be whether an occupational license is required for a home business, and if so, they would then be able to tell you if there were additional licensing requirements for certain types of businesses.
As more counties & cities become familiar with the Cottage Food law, they may have impose additional licensing requirements but until that happens, I think the occupational license is all that's out there for now for most, if not all, counties/cities.
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