Originally Posted by
David Merrill
I think the privacy issue is making this difficult. I am approaching this as the presumption the business is a downtown storefront. My experience matches it up to a Pharmacopia on Boulder and Tejon a few years ago. The owner got into an argument with a couple city tax assessors whether vitamins are food and it went downhill from there. He is out of business.
I find the whole banishment business with Motla68 wonderful, almost like I want to take credit for calculating the whole episode ahead of time. The fellow is doing some amazing breakthrough with redemption of lawful money on municipal charge coupons - Tickets - but I am referring to his inspiration regarding that old Sheriff Agreement that he put forward back when he first registered - Say Goodbye to Property Taxes?
Regardless of the exact scenario on this thread - the business itself - I am addressing what The Problem is according to the opening post. Not running a similar business, I have been missing something in my mental models; the fact that a Zero Return does not reflect accurate bookkeeping practices for other purposes. I would not recommend that one keep two sets of books - cooking the books!
So I am now integrating the untried practice (except with Motla68 but he seemed to think it a perpetual agreement even though the fee was calculated for only one year) of picking the menu items you want for your downtown storefront - fire and police protection; communications 911 service and maybe a couple others like Chamber of Commerce underwriting, Sheriff's Business Association etc. - and figuring up your personal Mill Tax, per capita from last year's CAFR. Then you collect and publish your receipt for that donation and renew it annually and substitute that receipt for protection traditionally covered by city sales taxes done by a percentage of profits - including protection from harassing City Tax Assessors!!
Interesting though - this website is a great probe.
Regards,
David Merrill.