Don't run cooking oil in your car in California... (Los Angeles: RV park, tax lien)

[Niners fan]

unless you have a Diesel Fuel Supplier's license so you can report how many gallons you are burning and pay tax on it.

and unless you have a license from the state Meat and Poultry Branch to take the grease from restaurants.

and unless you have liability insurance for at least $1 million in coverage.

and be sure to get permission from AQMD to burn the oil.

California never ceases to amaze me!

Vegetable oil fuels cars -- and tax bills - Los Angeles Times

[EscapeCalifornia]

From the article:

"Everyone I know wants to do the right thing by the law," he said. "But the state is not set up to even clearly provide information to folks."


Well welcome to being a small business owner. There's so many laws (often contradictory) that even people who WANT to comply eventually give up because there aren't enough hours in the day. Ironically, many of those laws were pushed for by the same kind of people who want to burn fryer oil in their cars to save the Earth.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Well welcome to being a small business owner. There's so many laws (often contradictory) that even people who WANT to comply eventually give up because there aren't enough hours in the day. Ironically, many of those laws were pushed for by the same kind of people who want to burn fryer oil in their cars to save the Earth.

I certainly agree. I finally dissolved my corporation when it turned out that I'd work all week and then spend big parts of my weekends doing paperwork to keep up with required record keeping and report filing. I went back to sole prop.

[Ultrarunner]

I think everyone should run a business at least one time...

Running a Business in the Bay Area is becoming ever more complex due to overlapping jurisdictions and statutes... and costly in terms of regulatory compliance issues...

In fairness, all of the State, Federal, City, County, and District Inspectors that I deal with are "Just doing their job" and as long as I have the attitude of "I want do the right thing" they are more than helpful... and of course have my checkbook ready to pay all the new fees promptly.

My business is required to have Emergency Standby Power and it is required to be tested regularly. My Onan Generator was installed in 1995 with a city permit that limited my fuel storage... oh, but I digress... anyway, the air quality management district now classifies my generator as not in compliance and lets me operate with a waiver the 25 hours it runs annually...

For this, I have to pay $500 and provide complete records and emission source information... The thing is my business backs up to a Safeway Store and Diesel Engines on Tractor Trailers or Refrigerator Trailers sometimes run night and day and yet my required Emergency Power unit with 300 hours is obsolete and the licensing fess continue to increase...

It really is all about the money... I wonder what would happen if I wanted to go green and burn used Kitchen Grease instead of Diesel?

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I think everyone should run a business at least one time...

Having your own business is really satisfying and gives a real sense of accomplishment. "Look at me, I'm making a living and I don't have any boss to tell me what to do, and I'm not relying on anybody else for my personal success!" Unfortunately you find out that between your suppliers and your customers you're not as free as you thought. It's still satisfying though.

I've been a consultant for most of the last 15 years or so, and had 3-4 hobby businesses in addition, but the paperwork has me down so much, and then need to scramble all the time. I'm planning on seeing if my favorite consulting customer will hire me on as a direct employee. If they say yes and the salary is reasonable I'm going to accept.

But I still plan on having one or more hobby businesses in the future. They're even a lot more fun when you don't have to do them 40 hours a week. BTW many self employed work 50, 60 hours a week, even more. Ask me.

Everybody should try a hobby business. Even if they don't succeed the experience is interesting and rewarding.

[lovefishn]

We have lawmakers here who sit and drink coffee while finding another way to tax imported coffee beans. Nothing better to do but find a way to tax everything that moves twice and at least once if it doesn't.

The inspectors will drive a man wanting to do a job himself broke from tearing it down, building it back up again and then finding out a different inspector approved the first job, will build it again, and then another inspector will come back and say the job should have never been done in the first place and the process will only start over again.

The lawmakers know they can get away with it because it's also the most beautiful place in the world and people are so busy trying to find ways to be able to afford it here that they have no time to fight higher taxes.

Have you heard what they are taking from the school kids here now that they failed at earning enough through the lottery to pay for the promised education? It's a total shame.

I was born in Hibbing MN, but grew up on the East side of San Jose. I saw the first computers come and go in Silicon Valley, many a criminals become mayors of big cities, I also grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains camping on the weekends and enjoyed every minute of it. It's getting over populated and yet many homeowners bought into the recent pops in the markets and ended up paying out the nose for property then going bankrupt, or owing the rest of their lives because they didn't plan things right, or just expected to make a fortune. I blame the lawmakers for not keeping a rein on interest rates and taxes. People pay a couple of million for a home that was sold for $25,000.00 originally 30 years ago around the entire Bay Area. Every time I saw a home in my nieghborhood sell for those prices, all I could think of were the new owners and wondered how they could be such suckers, and then watched them sell again at even twice the price many times over. My parents cleaned up when they sold their home for well over a million and they paid only $15,000.00 for it because it was the smallest house on the block 30 years ago.

If one is careful, they can however do quite well in real estate. There are areas in Northern California still that shows a lot of potential like here in Lake County, however, many people need to make sure the property will perk if they purchase thinking they can build. The newspapers are loaded with tax liened properties that people just fold on when they discover it won't purk.

I was one of the lucky few, I purchased a lot in Upper Lake Ca. in 2002 for about $50K and discovered it had a city sewer and water system built for a small RV park and then the county approved a new casino resort hotel located directly accross the street on highway 20. I think I did very well considering what it's most likely worth now that I improved the home and could resell without being effected by the prices homes are going at now and will walk away clean on this one. It's basically paid for but I'm thinking of getting the permits for a small RV park when the construction starts on the new hotel, casino, resort. The trick would be to do this without financing but I'm severely disabled. I do photography, graphics, web sites, e-commerce etc. I decided I had nothing better to do so I completed three majors at the local college and am now working on my master's and PHD in computer science. My other majors are astronomy and cultural anthropology.

We have some of the greatest little towns here and the wine tours are excellent trough the northern counties above and near Santa Rosa, Napa, Lake County is a must see! Upper Lake is definately one of the places to see, especially during the parades, wild west days, markets and more. We also have some of the richest undescovered ancient culture here that is proving to resemble a true Garden of Eden. Clovis points were discovered here in the 1960's. I understand there may be a couple of ancient temples recently discovered here too.

Good luck to anyone who has what it takes to be successfull here in California. It's a wonderful treasure the entire nation should see one day.

Best Wishes Everyone!

Phil Anderson