I wanted to chime in on the issue of the burdens that an Individual may have in establishing a sole proprietorship within their local jurisdiction.
While some states are very permissive, others not so much. It is likely that people may look at the ARIN requirements and say, “Oh, I just need a city business license!” and obtain one without realizing the legal and tax implications of doing so. I’ve seen this first hand in my home state of Kentucky. A small business will rush to incorporate or an individual obtain a city level business licenses and then become overburdened with tax and regulatory fees throughout their first year, ultimately leading to the small business closing. A few examples of this from my own brief research, and of course this should be vetted: New Jersey: All businesses, including sole proprietorships must register with the state and obtain a Business Registration Certificate, and all assumed names (such as for a sole proprietorship) must be registered with the county clerk. Within 60 days of starting said business, the new venture must file with the New Jersey Division of Taxation. There is no small business exemption and non-compliance with any of these requirements (there are more) come with hefty fines. On top of this, the individual now has state/county/local/federal filing and tax implications, any of which is a minefield to navigate with strict enforcement and late fees. Each of these filings comes with a fee and processing times. There is no centralized filing system, so one may go to their local township, pick up a business license, satisfy ARIN, and then find themselves under a barrage of fines and enforcement actions. This is similar to what I’ve seen unguided small businesses go through in Kentucky. San Francisco, CA: An individual operating under a DBA may have to ensure their home address used for business purposes is zoned properly. Many in San Francisco live in apartments that would prohibit them from operating a business within it. On top of regulatory requirements similar to those of New Jersey, the zoning requirements would cause many in San Francisco to be a non-starter. Chicago IL: A business license can take up to 90 days, and costs $250 every two years. They even require background checks and fingerprinting! https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/license_applicationrequirementsinformation.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com This isn’t even a comprehensive list by any stretch of the imagination, but demonstrates some of the hurdles that many may face in trying to act as a business to secure numbering assets. My biggest fear is small networks coming in, reading a page on ARINs site, and getting in over their heads with legal issues thinking they were kosher with a municipal business license that then puts them on a list for regulatory enforcement. I ran into similar here in Paducah, Kentucky: Effective prohibitions on running a business in a home. This changed over time, and lack of enforcement can sometimes paint a picture of an easy to navigate process for Sole Proprietors. It’s normal for them to pick up a business license, think themselves as being compliant, and then realize they just opened themselves into a legal and regulatory minefield. Should an individual in Rural Kentucky have greater access to numbering resources than to an individual in San Francisco, CA because of the business registration requirements? That’s one of the questions we have to answer. I know of several that have not applied for numbering assets because of this. Which leads to a greater overall question: If they aren’t a business that can navigate the licensing landscale do they need these assets? That is another question we have to look at, but once thing I’ve seen a lot of is “getting a business license for a sole proprietorship is simple”, which may be true on the surface, but the long term effects of doing so are not. Preston Ursini > On Jul 15, 2025, at 4:17 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > Send ARIN-PPML mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of ARIN-PPML digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural Persons -- > Request for Feedback (William Herrin) > 2. Re: ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural Persons -- > Request for Feedback (Matthew Cowen) > 3. Re: ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural Persons -- > Request for Feedback (Martin Hannigan) > 4. Re: ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural Persons -- > Request for Feedback (William Herrin) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:28:31 -0700 > From: William Herrin <[email protected]> > To: Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> > Cc: ARIN-PPML List <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural > Persons -- Request for Feedback > Message-ID: > <CAP-guGXHbzBu2GBaY=xcsgmdzua7o4k1nt_fh5f8bl-xeyn...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 1:15?PM Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> wrote: >> Not really. This is a better place to look: >> >> https://entreprendre.service-public.fr/vosdroits/F32886 > > Hi Matthew, > > I must be missing something. Granted I'm working from an automated > English translation, but as near as I can tell it says, "you must > first choose between the creation of a sole proprietorship (EI) or a > company (choisir entre la cr?ation d'une entreprise individuelle (EI) > ou d'une soci?t?)." And then never says another thing about sole > proprietorships. > > Also that seems to be a page for France in general, not Martinique in > particular. > > Regards, > Bill Herrin > > > -- > William Herrin > [email protected] > https://bill.herrin.us/ > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 20:51:16 +0000 > From: Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> > To: William Herrin <[email protected]> > Cc: ARIN-PPML List <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural > Persons -- Request for Feedback > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi Bill, > > Martinique *is* France ;) > > As is Guadeloupe, Saint Martin (French Side), Saint Barts and French Guiana. > > There are a numnber of steps to consider, in all around 13. > > ? > My best/Cordialement, > > Matthew Cowen > > > I write a newsletter<https://matthewcowen.org/categories/newsletter/> about > the digital world. No pressure, only if you?re interested. > > On 15 Jul 2025, at 16:28, William Herrin <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 1:15?PM Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> wrote: > Not really. This is a better place to look: > > https://entreprendre.service-public.fr/vosdroits/F32886 > > Hi Matthew, > > I must be missing something. Granted I'm working from an automated > English translation, but as near as I can tell it says, "you must > first choose between the creation of a sole proprietorship (EI) or a > company (choisir entre la cr?ation d'une entreprise individuelle (EI) > ou d'une soci?t?)." And then never says another thing about sole > proprietorships. > > Also that seems to be a page for France in general, not Martinique in > particular. > > Regards, > Bill Herrin > > > -- > William Herrin > [email protected] > https://bill.herrin.us/ > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/attachments/20250715/01e3ead8/attachment-0001.htm> > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:51:59 -0400 > From: Martin Hannigan <[email protected]> > To: William Herrin <[email protected]> > Cc: Matthew Cowen <[email protected]>, ARIN-PPML List > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural > Persons -- Request for Feedback > Message-ID: > <CAMDXq5M6E=l5apy4m6i+y5gm0ufapdsrhjbi3qqjgz+iors...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 16:29 William Herrin <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 1:15?PM Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> Not really. This is a better place to look: >>> >>> https://entreprendre.service-public.fr/vosdroits/F32886 >> >> Hi Matthew, >> >> I must be missing something. Granted I'm working from an automated >> English translation, but as near as I can tell it says, "you must >> first choose between the creation of a sole proprietorship (EI) or a >> company (choisir entre la cr?ation d'une entreprise individuelle (EI) >> ou d'une soci?t?)." And then never says another thing about sole >> proprietorships. >> >> Also that seems to be a page for France in general, not Martinique in >> particular. > > > > Thats because it?s part of the French owned Lesser Antilles. It is France. > > HTH > > -M< > > > > > > >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/attachments/20250715/b965b72e/attachment-0001.htm> > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:17:11 -0700 > From: William Herrin <[email protected]> > To: Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> > Cc: ARIN-PPML List <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural > Persons -- Request for Feedback > Message-ID: > <CAP-guGX8d_SdVy_QrKppoFd5LUdBFJHTBozoCzOQjRhrSQ=k...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 1:51?PM Matthew Cowen <[email protected]> wrote: >> https://entreprendre.service-public.fr/vosdroits/F32886 > > Hi Matthew, > > I'm sorry, I see where that document talks about a dozen different > types of French companies that aren't sole proprietorships but not > where it talks about sole proprietorships. That whole first section is > literally the types of companies you can choose which -aren't- sole > proprietorships and the legal ramifications of each. The phrase, > "entreprise individuelle," never appears again after the first > paragraph. If you want me to consider the information, I need it to be > on-point. Not a general description of the types of businesses > possible in France. > > I note that > https://stripe.com/resources/more/how-to-create-a-sole-proprietorship-france#registration-costs > says that setting up a "microbusiness" sole proprietorship in France > is *FREE* while the prior information I found on Martinique in > particular says it costs 22 Euros so if you have more authoritative > information than what I found it would be helpful for it to also be > Martinique-specific. > > >> Martinique *is* France ;) > > I get that Martinique's relationship with France is comparable to > Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States. Puerto Rico has no > shortage of local laws and regulations which differ from mainland > practices. A commerce.gov web page would not serve to clarify sole > proprietorships in Puerto Rico. > > Regards, > Bill Herrin > > > -- > William Herrin > [email protected] > https://bill.herrin.us/ > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > ARIN-PPML mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml > > > ------------------------------ > > End of ARIN-PPML Digest, Vol 241, Issue 30 > ******************************************
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