I tell anyone who will listen: stay as far away from NYC and NYS as you can when you're operating a business. The bureaucracy is insanely complex and both governments harbor a very strong anti-business sentiment.
NYS charged my previous, 2-person, zero employee agency a $14K fee for not having a Workers Comp policy, even though having one isn't necessary for member-managed businesses. We sent in paperwork demonstrating our case and they didn't care. They kept asking for more proof that we didn't have employees—even though they had no evidence that we did have them. A bit hard to prove a negative!
After several years of back and forth, we finally just said forget it, closed that entity, and started ignoring the monthly shakedown notices. Now I'm wary of even having clients in NYS.
[Edit: I've heard CA is similar, but don't have personal experience there.]
NYS charged my previous, 2-person, zero employee agency a $14K fee for not having a Workers Comp policy, even though having one isn't necessary for member-managed businesses. We sent in paperwork demonstrating our case and they didn't care. They kept asking for more proof that we didn't have employees—even though they had no evidence that we did have them. A bit hard to prove a negative!
After several years of back and forth, we finally just said forget it, closed that entity, and started ignoring the monthly shakedown notices. Now I'm wary of even having clients in NYS.
[Edit: I've heard CA is similar, but don't have personal experience there.]