Do I Need A Business License to Write In Pennsylvania?

(Ask the Career Indie Author answers questions about the business side of writing, although I’m not above giving advice on the writing side as well. Some posts are answers I’ve given in forums with the question rewritten to protect the questioner’s privacy. Address any questions to my last name at this website’s name.)

Bill, I live in PA, so I’d like to know if you need to register with the state as a business. If you write under a pen name, do you need to register that as well?

First off, understand that I’m not an expert, and you should also confirm my advice before proceeding. Also, regulations can differ from county to county and municipality to municipality.

That said, if you are writing books out of your home, and that’s all you’re doing, you do not need to register with the state as a business. Whether you write under your own name or a pen name.

I live in Derry Township, and there are no regulations (that I know of) requiring me to register with them. And so long as I don’t annoy the neighbors by holding public events that draw massive crowds, like booksignings, lectures, speeches, conventions, convocations, papal installations, and inaugurations, I expect that to continue.

However, Peschel Press is registered with the state for another reason. We attend festivals where we sell books to the public. Because of that, twice a year we need to pay the state the sales taxes earned for those sales.

(Note: We don’t charge the customer a sales tax, but that doesn’t change our obligation to pass along the sales tax).

Nor do we pass along the sales tax when we do book signings at stores and sell books wholesale to bookstores. As the retailer, the bookstores handles that.
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Also, Peschel Press is not incorporated nor an LLC. We’re a “sole-proprietorship” (actually, my wife and I co-own Peschel Press, but let’s not worry about partnerships). Our income is reported to the feds and the state as personal income, although we do take business deductions. We’re incredibly conservative about that and keep diligent records.
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So if you sell books to the public, and you’re a Pennsylvania resident, you’ll need to go to the state’s e-Tides portal at https://www.etides.state.pa.us/Home/Index and register. They’ll send you a certificate to display in case the revenuers show up at a show (they haven’t, but I keep it with me just in case).
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Sales taxes are remitted every six months, so twice a year, you show up at the portal, log in, click on “Sales, Use, and Hotel Occupancy Tax”, fill out a 12-line form, and pay up (direct via credit card, or what we do, by check. We print out their coupon showing how it should be routed and mail it in.)

As a writer, you’ve added deadlines to death and taxes as the three inevitable things in life. It’s up to you to keep up to date with the laws of your municipality.