1) Resale Certificate from your State Board of Equalization. Contact them and ask about filing fees, where you can file and if the forms are available on the Internet. Here in California there is no fee for this.

2) DBA - Doing Business As from your County Clerk's Office. You need this if you are not going to use your legal name as tha name of your business. There is usually a small filing fee and many jurisdictions have a publishing rule so people can file complaints about the choice of your name (never had it happen but it can). I live in Los Angeles County California and the fee was $23.00 for the first name and $4.00 for each additional name at the same filing. There is also a requirement to have the information published in a court approved local paper. If you have this then look around because prices vary widely. We ended up going with a small local journal which charged us a total of $64.00 for the filing of the paperwork and the publication.

3) Business License from your city or county depending on jurisdiction. Each city has its own requirements about issuing business licenses so you need to contact them. I paid $**.00 for mine and had to apply for a "Home Based Business Permit" as well. Basically the permit is a zoning override allowing me to do business in a residential neighborhood. If you don't own your residence, you will most likely need your landlord's approval as well. The permit didn't cost us anything.

Of the three the business license was the most expensive and we have to renew it every year. The DBA has to be renewed every five years under California State Law. But these are the only three things I needed to start my online retail business which is very similar to a standard gift outlet. You don't even need to apply for an EIN until you actually have employees, you would just claim the business on your 1040 return using Schedule C. Your state will give you instructions on remitting sales tax on either a quarterly or annual basis.

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