7/31/09

Latest update from Waco, "We have reported over 100 home-based studios of online sellers to their COUNTY TAX ASSESSORS."

We're in a recession, with government agencies laying off people and cutting hours, and this woman is filing false reports!?!

In Sherburne County, you don't pay business property taxes unless you are a commercial business, which I sure am not. There are certain requirements to qualify as commercial, and I don't see hiring people to clean my half dozen beads a day, or putting a big sign up on the end of the driveway advertising that I am a beadmaker (which about 3 people would see, since we're off a dead end road which ends in a cul-de-sac), and my studio sure doesn't take 25% of my home (good heavens, hubby would have something to say about that!), I don't have items for sale that can be seen from the street (same reason, oh, did I mention my house is set on the backside of 45 acres) nor do I have customers coming to my home (sorry, I like my privacy, which is why I LOVE the Internet, and besides, I don't feel like having to rescue people from my dogs), I don't have any equipment that would be noisy and disturb the neighbors (the roosters crowing at 5 a.m. might, but since they're not part of my beadmaking, we'll let them pass, or we will until fall when they're going into the freezer) and a half dozen other things.

OK, done with the rant. It just shows that she is willing to do anything to damage people who are successful in the area where she failed: making our own lovely beads (and from the tags on her blog, candlemakers, knitters and crocheters, jewelers, purse makers, quilters, and soapmakers.) and doing so honestly!

Well, I filed a report on her last night with the FBI's Internet Crime Division. With a hundred victims, somebody from the government is going to start noticing pretty soon.