State guide
Illinois business requirements guide
Built from the approved Illinois platform-and-state research packs. Use the family comparison and platform overlay before you act.
State guide map
4 operating families7 shared source groups4 flagship examples
One statewide answer first, then the matching lane, then the local branch that can still change what you do.
Best reading order
- Read the Illinois statewide baseline first so the filing and tax order stays anchored to one state answer.
- Use the family comparison before you spend money, then open the matching platform overlay only when that lane changes the answer.
- Treat city, county, home-based, and product-specific rules as a separate final pass instead of flattening them into the statewide answer.
Why trust this page
This Illinois page is synthesized from approved combo guides across storefront, marketplace-seller, platform-work, and hosting lanes. Use the official links on the page to verify local requirements before you act.
- The Accountant (State-family rollout reviewer assigned)
- Accountable state-surface reviewer
- Launch-state guides, official source directory state bundles, and scenario inheritance.
State baseline What stays true in Illinois
Across the approved Illinois research packs, the shared baseline is to choose your setup lane first, finish the federal and state registrations that actually apply, verify local permission-to-operate questions separately, and only then complete the platform-specific launch work. The family comparison below matters because storefront, marketplace, platform-work, and hosting lanes do not share the same tax, insurance, or operations branch.
Best practical order
- Choose whether the Illinois launch belongs in storefront, marketplace-seller, platform-work, or hosting first.
- Choose the legal setup and public-facing name before paying for filing or onboarding help.
- Get the EIN if your lane or banking setup needs it.
- Open the business bank account and separate personal money early.
- Register for the Illinois tax accounts that actually apply to your lane.
- Verify county, city, zoning, airport, or short-term-rental branches separately.
- Finish the platform-specific onboarding, payments, tax settings, or operating checks.
- Launch only after the official links and the ongoing compliance calendar are both mapped.
Compare by family How the answer changes by family
Use this comparison before you spend money. The approved research packs show that storefront, marketplace, platform-work, and hosting lanes do not share the same tax, insurance, local-rule, or operations branch.
Storefront lanes keep more of the state setup, tax settings, payments, shipping, and policy work on you. Use the state baseline first, then treat storefront launch tasks as a separate readiness branch instead of a replacement for filings or local checks.
- Do not treat a direct storefront like a marketplace-only tax shortcut; the direct-sale lane usually keeps more registration and tax-setting work on you.
- Store payments, checkout, tax settings, shipping settings, domains, and policy pages are launch tasks, not substitutes for state registration.
- Public-name filing, local storage, home-based, zoning, and carrier-traffic rules can still matter when you operate or ship from home.
- Inventory, fulfillment, and return workflows stay your responsibility even when a third-party service or warehouse helps later.
- Run a real test checkout before going live so the state baseline and storefront setup stay aligned.
Marketplace-seller lanes still start with the state baseline, but marketplace collection, fulfillment, shipping, payout, and resale branches vary by platform. Separate account approval and operations from the state registration and local-rule questions.
- Do not assume marketplace tax collection answers every state-registration, resale, or direct-sales question.
- Keep fulfillment separate: some marketplace lanes use seller-managed shipping, while others offer platform-fulfillment options or warehouse programs.
- Inventory-for-resale setups may still need resale-certificate or supplier follow-up where the approved research says it applies.
- Marketplace approval, product restrictions, payment holds, and reserve rules are platform-specific and happen after the state baseline is clear.
- Local storage, home-based, zoning, or permit questions can still survive even when customer discovery happens through a marketplace.
Platform-work lanes usually run through self-employment, worker-status, payout, insurance, vehicle, and local operating branches instead of a storefront or resale branch. Keep platform onboarding separate from the government and local questions.
- Do not assume storefront or seller-permit logic applies by default; many platform-work lanes turn on worker-status, self-employment tax, or insurance questions instead.
- Platform onboarding is separate from government registration, local permission-to-operate, and airport or city operating branches.
- Vehicle, transport mode, airport, parking, and home-base rules can matter depending on the platform and municipality.
- Mileage, payouts, and tax records need their own routine before you go live.
- If you hire help, add vehicles, or expand beyond solo work, payroll and workers’ compensation thresholds can change the answer.
Illinois hosting keeps the short-term-rental, lodging-tax, direct-booking, and local-permission branch visible. Use the state baseline first, then open the hosting overlay before you pay for listing, furnishing, or permit help.
- Confirm the property is actually allowed for short-term hosting under your deed, lease, HOA, lender, insurer, and local city rules.
- Get your Illinois hotel-tax registration in place before you host short stays of less than 30 days.
- Resolve the local branch before listing. In Chicago, that means a real shared housing unit registration path, not a generic “home business” shortcut.
- Direct bookings can change tax, permit, payout, and insurance responsibilities.
- Emergency contact, turnover, house-rule, and guest-operations planning belong in launch readiness, not as an afterthought.
Platform overlay
Airbnb in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Airbnb in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Confirm the property is actually allowed for short-term hosting under your deed, lease, HOA, lender, insurer, and local city rules.
- Get your Illinois hotel-tax registration in place before you host short stays of less than 30 days.
- Resolve the local branch before listing. In Chicago, that means a real shared housing unit registration path, not a generic “home business” shortcut.
- Open and verify your Airbnb host account, set payout and tax information, and launch only after the tax, local, house-rule, and insurance setup is ready.
- Furnishing a unit before checking lease, HOA, lender, or condo restrictions
- Assuming Airbnb tax collection means no Illinois registration is needed
- Listing in Chicago before city registration is approved
- Treating a non-primary-residence Chicago unit as an ordinary starter lane
- Mixing personal and business money
- Ignoring insurance exclusions for short-term rental activity
- Illinois pushes many short-term-rental questions down to municipalities.
- For any place where the property will operate:
- check the municipality where the property sits,
- check any county lodging or tourism tax rule,
- check whether the property is in Chicago,
- ask zoning or building staff if the property use is anything other than an ordinary one-listing host operation,
- and check the HOA, condo, lender, and lease branches separately.
- Typical local risk areas:
- shared housing or vacation-rental registration
- hotel or accommodations tax
- occupancy and parking limits
- building-type restrictions
- local contact-person rules
- HOA and lease restrictions
- If the property operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago requires shared housing unit registration before listing or booking.
- The reviewed city fee schedule shows a current annual shared housing unit registration fee of $250.
- Chicago requires the registration number to appear in every listing.
- The reviewed city code says the registration includes zoning review, a restricted-residential-zone review, a prohibited-building review, and tax-department review.
- The reviewed city code says the host name in the registration application must be the name of a natural person.
- The reviewed city code says failure to claim a Cook County homeowner exemption creates a rebuttable presumption that the unit is not the person's primary residence.
- In a single-family home, the ordinary shared-housing path is primary residence only unless an exception or commissioner's adjustment applies.
- In a building containing 2 to 4 dwelling units, the ordinary path is the host's primary residence and the only dwelling unit in the building used as shared housing or vacation rental.
- In a building containing 5 or more dwelling units, the combined shared-housing and vacation-rental count is capped at 6 units or one-quarter of the total units, whichever is less.
- The reviewed city code says a shared housing unit does not include a coach house lawfully established after May 1, 2021.
- If you want to operate outside the ordinary Chicago starter lane, the reviewed city code provides a commissioner's adjustment path with a current review fee of $360.
- If you register, or must register, more than one Chicago shared housing unit, the reviewed city code says you are in the shared housing unit operator branch, which requires a separate operator license. The reviewed fee schedule shows a current shared housing unit operator license fee of $500.
- Chicago hotel-accommodations tax and surcharge rules also apply at the city level. The reviewed city code shows a 4.5% hotel accommodations tax plus a 4% surcharge on vacation rentals and shared housing units.
- Illinois also reports the MPEA Hotel Tax with the state RHM-1 return for Chicago operators.
- Important caution:
- The exact bookkeeping and payment-routing mechanics for a pure Airbnb-only Chicago host remain a retained follow-up item because Illinois official hotel-tax pages, Chicago city-code tax rules, and Airbnb's platform-collected-tax pages do not fully close the host-side reconciliation steps line by line in public.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is short-term rental host.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is host onboarding and short-term rental operations.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with inventory resale assumptions, seller-permit assumptions unless state rules explicitly require them, FBA or storefront setup.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public onboarding entry point.
Public Airbnb guide to creating and publishing a listing.
Public page says users must be at least 18 to create an account and use services.
Public page explains the verification information Airbnb may request.
Public home-host fee posture.
Public payout-method and release-timing guidance.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public page says eligible payouts can arrive within 30 minutes after release.
Hosts can set property and guest-behavior rules here.
Public page on outside-fee and off-platform-payment limits.
Public host-policy baseline for commitment, communication, and cleanliness.
Public page covers current U.S. information-reporting document types and thresholds.
Insurance Checkpoint
Reviewed page says AirCover includes $3 million host damage protection and $1 million host liability insurance.
Airbnb says coverage is subject to terms, exclusions, and different structure for hosts with 6 or more active listings.
Chicago Branch
Reviewed code says registration includes zoning, restricted-residential-zone, prohibited-building, and tax review.
Current fee schedule for the city branch.
Official city-clerk guide to restricted residential zones and house-sharing restrictions.
Reviewed page says identity verification is required before using Chicago Business Direct.
Reviewed code shows the 4.5% hotel accommodations tax plus 4% surcharge on shared housing units and vacation rentals.
Amazon FBA in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Amazon FBA in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Illinois registrations in place before launch.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you are in Chicago.
- Open and verify your Amazon seller account, then enroll in FBA if that is your fulfillment path.
- Launch only after your product, tax, sourcing, and inventory-prep setup is ready.
- Buying inventory before checking category and FBA restrictions
- Using a brand name or DBA without the right county or Secretary of State filing
- Mixing personal and business money
- Assuming “Amazon handles tax” means all Illinois tax-registration questions disappear
- Using CRT-61 resale assumptions without verifying what IDOR expects for your exact marketplace-only fact pattern
- Launching from a Chicago home without checking the city’s home-occupation restrictions
- Keeping weak supplier documentation
- Missing the Illinois LLC anniversary-month annual report
- Illinois pushes many permit and business-location questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business portal,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago’s municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago’s home-occupation rules require the business use to remain accessory to the residence and to comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a licensed home occupation, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, and limits bulk deliveries to no more than one per day in addition to mail and common parcel carriers.
- Chicago caps the permanently occupied home-occupation area at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
- Chicago Business Direct is the city’s portal for license applications, renewals, tax filings, and payments.
- This city branch is conditional, not automatic statewide. The public city sources reviewed do not identify one blanket Chicago license or tax answer for every non-home Amazon/FBA setup, so confirm the exact local path with BACP before operating from a commercial site or signing a local lease.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is FBA.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Amazon’s public guide says you do not need to be an LLC to register and lists the main verification materials.
Public pricing page says plan changes can be made after registration.
Amazon’s public page says Brand Registry is free but requires the trademark and brand-marked product or packaging path to qualify.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public FBA overview explains the Amazon-run fulfillment model and basic onboarding path.
Amazon’s public FAQ says some categories are open, some require approval, and some cannot be sold by third-party sellers.
Amazon’s public beginner guide uses Send to Amazon as the current shipment-creation workflow and emphasizes prep and labeling.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public Amazon forum materials say insurance may be required within 30 days after exceeding USD 10,000 in gross proceeds in one month, or earlier if requested. Re-check the live Seller Central agreement on the action date.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated business licenses and prohibits warehousing as a home occupation. The code also limits deliveries and occupied space.
City portal for license applications, renewals, tax returns, and tax payments.
Public city sources reviewed did not identify one open-access Amazon/FBA or home-occupation forms library. Use Chicago Business Direct or contact BACP to confirm the exact local path.
DoorDash in Illinois: what changes
If you want to start delivering with DoorDash in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your banking, tax recordkeeping, and any Illinois registrations that actually apply in place before launch.
- Verify whether Chicago, home-based operations, or ORD / MDW airport deliveries create a separate local branch for your exact facts.
- Open and verify your DoorDash Dasher account.
- Launch only after your documents, payout setup, insurance check, and mileage or tax workflow are ready.
- Assuming a retail seller permit is the first Illinois filing for a Dasher
- Flattening DoorDash's public age wording into one universal rule
- Treating Chicago or airport work as the same as ordinary neighborhood delivery
- Treating public safety pages as a substitute for talking to your own insurer
- Mixing personal and business money because payouts feel automatic
- Assuming Shop & Deliver, alcohol, or DoorDash Tasks is required to start
- Forgetting that a real home office, dispatch site, or employee site can change the Chicago answer
- Illinois pushes many permit and zoning questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city office if you plan to run a real office from home,
- ask zoning offices if the activity involves dispatch, extra vehicles, storage, or employee traffic at the residence,
- and treat airport work as a separate branch.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed names
- home occupation restrictions
- dispatch activity
- storage at a residence
- airport access rules
- multiple vehicles or workers operating from one address
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago is not the same branch as ordinary statewide entity setup.
- The public home-occupation code says a home occupation does not include a person who performs administrative, clerical, or research work at home for an entity whose principal place of business is elsewhere.
- The same code also says a regulated home-occupation license cannot be used for dispatch-for-compensation of motor vehicles or for warehousing.
- That means an ordinary solo Dasher parking at home and doing light admin work does not read like a default home-occupation license case, but a residence that becomes a dispatch, storage, or employee site needs a fresh city check.
- As of April 26, 2026, this pack did not identify a default public Chicago courier license branch comparable to the rideshare chauffeur branch used in the Uber pack.
- ORD and MDW are also not closed by a clean public DoorDash-specific courier rule in this pack. Treat airport deliveries as a separate operational follow-up branch instead of assuming they work like ordinary neighborhood restaurant runs.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is platform-based delivery courier.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is courier onboarding and delivery operations.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with inventory resale assumptions, seller-permit assumptions unless state rules explicitly require them, FBA or storefront setup.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says Chicago Dashers can use a car, bike, e-bike, scooter, or motorcycle and shows an 18+ age gate. Age wording can drift by market, so re-check the live page on the action date.
Public page says support resources exist in the Dasher app and through the "Already started signing up?" flow.
DoorDash says prospective Dashers verify a valid government ID and complete a background check using their SSN.
Public pay page says Dashers can choose Earn per Offer and, in some areas, Earn by Time, and keep 100% of customer tips.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says approved Dashers can receive no-fee deposits after every dash. Payout-brand language elsewhere still drifts.
Public fee schedule reviewed on April 26, 2026 shows a $1.99 instant-transfer fee and no monthly account fee in that schedule, but this is a Crimson document rather than a universal statement about every DoorDash payout flow.
Public March 18, 2024 article says Dashers are self-employed and references 1099-NEC delivery through Stripe for the reviewed tax year. Re-check live tax-help materials on the action date instead of freezing this workflow as universal.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public pages explain the flexible delivery model and market-by-market opportunity pages.
Public page is a stable operations entry point even though some deeper support content lives inside the Dasher app.
Public page says Shop & Deliver uses the Red Card and follows a different workflow than ordinary restaurant delivery.
Public article says alcohol orders can require in-app ID scanning and responsible-handoff steps.
Use when a live account issue cannot be solved from the public informational pages.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public safety page reviewed on April 26, 2026 describes in-app safety tools, SafeDash, a 24/7 Trust and Safety line, and an occupational-accident-policy branch.
Dedicated public help articles for auto insurance and occupational-accident coverage exist, but the exact wording was not stable enough in browsing on April 26, 2026 to treat it as a closed universal answer. Re-check live help or in-app insurance screens before launch.
Chicago Branch
Official city entry point for business-license and tax-service navigation. This pack does not treat it as a proven default filing for every Dasher.
Public page says every person using Chicago Business Direct must create one personal user profile. Treat this as a conditional city-portal branch, not a default day-one Dasher step.
Public code excludes ordinary administrative or clerical work done at home for an entity whose principal place of business is elsewhere, but says dispatch-for-compensation and warehousing are not licensable as home occupations.
Public page says curbside waiting is prohibited and that unattended vehicles may be ticketed and towed. It is a passenger page, not a DoorDash-specific courier operations guide.
CDA says vehicles driven on the AOA need a vehicle permit, company registration, and tenant or signatory support, with "$5,000,000" vehicle-liability coverage on the reviewed page. This is not an ordinary Dasher curbside rule, which is why the pack keeps airport delivery workflow as retained follow-up instead of guessing from airside rules.
Public page says curbside waiting is prohibited and that unattended vehicles may be ticketed and towed. It is a passenger page, not a DoorDash-specific courier operations guide.
Official page shows airport transportation pickup lanes, including rideshare areas, but it is not a dedicated courier-delivery operations page. Keep airport delivery access as retained follow-up instead of guessing from this layout alone.
CDA says vehicles driven on the AOA/SIDA need registration and a vehicle permit, with "$5,000,000" vehicle-liability coverage on the reviewed page. This is a special airport-access rule, not proof that ordinary DoorDash deliveries are authorized in the same way.
eBay in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open eBay in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Illinois registrations or registration decision in place before launch, but keep marketplace-only collection, resale sourcing, and any future direct or off-platform sales as separate questions.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you are in Chicago.
- Open and verify your eBay seller account, complete the live checks eBay requires, and build a small first set of listings.
- Launch only after your product, tax, shipping, and compliance setup are ready.
- Treating an eBay-only marketplace launch like a Shopify-style direct-sales branch
- Assuming marketplace collection answers Illinois registration or resale questions automatically
- Using a brand name or DBA without the right county or Secretary of State filing
- Mixing personal and business money
- Launching with regulated products too early
- Keeping weak sourcing, authenticity, or condition records
- Launching from a Chicago home without checking the city's home-occupation restrictions
- Pricing without re-checking the live eBay fee model first
- Illinois pushes many business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business portal,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's home-occupation rules require the business use to remain accessory, incidental, and secondary to the residential use of the dwelling unit and to comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a home occupation, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries to no more than one per day in addition to mail and common parcel carriers, and caps permanently occupied space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
- Chicago's fee schedule lists Regulated Business License at $1,000 and Limited Business License at $500 as of January 1, 2026, but the correct branch depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
- Use Chicago Business Direct and the city's zoning resources before assuming a Chicago address is ready.
- Because this pack is eBay marketplace-first, the Chicago license or zoning branch is separate from the Illinois marketplace-facilitator collection rule.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is seller-managed shipping.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Use the official domain to reach the live seller-signup flow. This pass did not preserve the exact current public path.
This is an official eBay-owned domain preserved in local repo evidence. Use it to find live help, policy, and operations pages on the action date.
This pass did not preserve a verified public eBay fee table or store-subscription grid, so re-check live before pricing or upgrading.
This pass did not verify an Amazon Brand Registry-style or Etsy-style mandatory program for eBay. Focus on authenticity and invoice records.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Local repo evidence identifies seller-managed shipping as the default eBay fulfillment model for this program, but the exact public help-page paths were not preserved.
This pass did not preserve exact public eBay restriction-page paths. Verify live policy pages before listing risky items.
Exact public help-page paths for labels, shipping tools, or return setup were not preserved in local repo evidence. Re-check live before operational decisions.
Exact public help-page paths for payouts, return settings, and seller-protection wording were not preserved in local repo evidence used for this pass.
Insurance Checkpoint
No public eBay-wide seller insurance threshold was identified in local repo evidence as of April 26, 2026. The exact public policy page path was unverified in this pass.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated business licenses, prohibits warehousing, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries, and caps permanently occupied space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for license applications, renewals, tax returns, and tax payments.
Use the city's zoning resources before assuming a residence, studio, or warehouse is ready for the intended use.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Etsy in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Etsy in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Illinois registrations in place before launch.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you are in Chicago.
- Open and verify your Etsy seller account, then finish Etsy Payments, listing, processing, shipping, and policy setup.
- Launch only after your product, tax, and customer-service setup is ready.
- Listing mass-produced goods as handmade
- Using a brand name or DBA without the right county or Secretary of State filing
- Mixing personal and business money
- Assuming "Etsy handles tax" means all Illinois tax-registration questions disappear
- Using CRT-61 resale assumptions without verifying what IDOR expects for your exact marketplace-only fact pattern
- Launching from a Chicago home without checking the city's home-occupation restrictions
- Keeping weak design, sourcing, or production-partner documentation
- Missing the Illinois LLC anniversary-month annual report
- Illinois pushes many permit and business-location questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business portal,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's home-occupation rules require the business use to remain accessory to the residence and to comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a licensed home occupation, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, and limits bulk deliveries to no more than one per day in addition to mail and common parcel carriers.
- Chicago caps the permanently occupied home-occupation area at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
- Chicago Business Direct is the city's portal for license applications, renewals, tax filings, and payments.
- This city branch is conditional, not automatic statewide. The public city sources reviewed do not identify one blanket Chicago license or tax answer for every non-home Etsy setup, so confirm the exact local path with BACP before operating from a commercial site, studio, or warehouse.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is seller-managed shipping.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Etsy says shop setup must begin in a desktop web browser, requires billing and payout setup, and only works where Etsy Payments is available.
Etsy says Persona compares a government ID to a selfie, and repeated failures can prevent onboarding.
Public fee summary also states listings expire after 4 months and highlights advertising, shipping-label, and payment-processing fees.
Etsy's legal payments policy says processing fees vary by bank-account location and that a 2.5% currency-conversion fee applies when Etsy must settle proceeds into a different payment-account currency.
Etsy says all sellers are automatically enrolled. Public pages still mix more than $10,000 and at least $10,000 wording around the mandatory-participation edge, so keep that equality case date-sensitive.
Etsy says some sellers will be asked to confirm additional seller info, and missing the displayed deadline can block funds and place the shop on pause via Etsy-initiated vacation mode.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Etsy says items must be made, designed, handpicked, or sourced by the seller and must also follow the prohibited-items and creativity rules.
Explains made, designed, handpicked, and sourced categories, production partners, AI-created designs, and vintage / craft-supply rules.
Etsy says drop shipping is not allowed except for limited craft-and-party-supplies cases, and reselling is limited to qualifying craft supplies, vintage items, and covered gift-basket scenarios.
Etsy's public listing help walks through processing profiles, shipping choices, and required listing details.
Public help covers shop policies, address issues, tracking, and order completion.
Etsy says sellers are measured on message response rate, on-time shipping, average review rating, and case rate.
Etsy says it automatically calculates, collects, and remits U.S. sales tax where required and lists Illinois as of 01/01/2020.
Insurance Checkpoint
As of April 26, 2026, Etsy's help says updates start May 7, 2026, while the reviewed legal policy page is effective until May 6, 2026. Current public materials say qualifying orders up to $250 may be covered, but Etsy also says the program is not insurance and recommends shipping insurance outside program coverage.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated business licenses, prohibits warehousing, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries, and caps permanently occupied space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
City portal for license applications, renewals, tax returns, and tax payments.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Facebook Marketplace in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Facebook Marketplace in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Decide whether your first sales are local pickup or direct payment sales or onsite checkout with shipping, because those branches do not have the same Illinois tax answer.
- If you will take payment yourself on Illinois sales, register with IDOR before the first taxable sale and do not assume the marketplace-only no-ST-1 branch applies.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules. If you will operate in Chicago, treat that branch as real work, not a footnote.
- Build a small Facebook Marketplace launch using your main Facebook profile, low-risk physical products, and a very simple first fulfillment model.
- Assuming "Marketplace" automatically means no Illinois registration
- Using an additional Facebook profile instead of the required main profile
- Treating local cash or person-to-person deals as if they had Meta protection
- Using a resale certificate before the registration posture is actually clean
- Mixing personal and business money
- Launching with restricted or recalled products
- Ignoring Chicago home-occupation limits
- Thinking Meta seller protection is the same thing as insurance
- Illinois pushes many permit and zoning questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Illinois DCEO start-up guides,
- contact the county clerk if a local name issue exists,
- contact the city or village office,
- ask local zoning or building staff if the business will operate from home or store inventory
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- delivery or carrier traffic at a residence
- fire-code limits
- customer pickup traffic
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's home-occupation rules require the business use to remain accessory, incidental, and secondary to the dwelling unit's residential use and to comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a home occupation.
- Chicago also prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries to no more than 1 per day in addition to ordinary parcel carriers, caps permanently occupied business space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of total floor area, and limits work within the dwelling unit to not more than 1 non-resident internal employee.
- Chicago's fee schedule lists Limited Business License at $500 and Regulated Business License at $1,000 as of January 1, 2026, plus a non-refundable $25 online application fee credited toward the license fee.
- Chicago Business Direct is the city's portal for business-license and tax-account activity.
- The correct local branch still depends on whether the business is home-based, commercial, or otherwise outside the standard home-occupation lane. Use Chicago Business Direct and the city's Small Business Center support path before assuming a Chicago address is ready.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is local sale or seller-managed shipping.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: main-profile access, adult-account rule, and businesses-may-be-blocked warning.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: Item for sale listing flow.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: local selling versus shipping depending on location.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: shipping and checkout are not available to all users.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: identity, address, and tax-information requirements for shipped checkout.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: references Form 1099-K, Form 1099-MISC, and a feature-gated payout stack.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026.
No separate public Marketplace brand program identified in this pass; use policy and sourcing records instead.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: Marketplace supports local selling and selling with shipping.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: in-person safety, verification, and payment caution.
Guarded baseline reuse: local deals are between the buyer and seller.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: Meta-generated label path.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: public proof that an own-label branch exists.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: local pickup returns are not available from Facebook.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: card issuer decides outcomes.
Guarded baseline reuse, re-checked on April 26, 2026: physical-products-only posture plus policy stack.
Insurance Checkpoint
This pack did not identify a public universal seller liability-insurance requirement for ordinary Facebook Marketplace sellers as of April 26, 2026.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated licenses, prohibits warehousing, limits space, limits non-resident employees, and restricts deliveries.
Code says home occupation is one of the activities requiring a regulated business license.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for business-license and tax-account activity. Login-gated for account actions.
Public contact path for business-license questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Instacart in Illinois: what changes
If you want to start shopping with Instacart in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your banking, tax recordkeeping, and any Illinois registrations that actually apply in place before launch.
- Verify whether Chicago home-based operations, alcohol-delivery activity, or repeated airport-property access create a separate local branch for your exact facts.
- Open and verify your Instacart shopper account.
- Launch only after your identity documents, payout setup, insurance check, and mileage or tax workflow are ready.
- Assuming a retail seller permit is the first Illinois filing for an Instacart shopper
- Ignoring the separate Chicago home-occupation and airport-property questions because the work feels casual
- Treating shopper injury protection as a substitute for talking to your own auto insurer
- Mixing personal and business money because payouts feel automatic
- Taking alcohol, prescription, or very heavy batches before understanding the extra requirements
- Forgetting that some stores need an active physical payment card
- Illinois pushes some business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the county clerk
- contact the city office
- ask zoning or building offices if the business will operate from home
- keep airport-property access separate from ordinary neighborhood shopping
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filings
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage
- unusual vehicle traffic
- airport-property access
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago home-occupation rules are conditional, not automatic.
- The public code excludes ordinary administrative work at home for an entity whose principal place of business is elsewhere, but it bars dispatch-for-compensation and warehousing as home occupations.
- Chicago also preserves a local alcohol and airport-property branch that is not solved by ordinary statewide Instacart onboarding.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is platform-based grocery shopper or delivery contractor.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is shopper onboarding and delivery operations.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with inventory resale assumptions, seller-permit assumptions unless state rules explicitly require them, FBA or storefront setup.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says some shoppers can start shopping in as soon as 1 hour in certain areas.
Instacart says prospective shoppers must be 18+, hold a valid driver's license and SSN, pass criminal and motor-vehicle-record background checks, and complete photo and identity verification.
Public terms say shopper services are subject to an Independent Contractor Agreement, unless the app is being used in the course of employment.
Public page explains batch pay + promotions + tips, says heavy pay on qualifying batches is at least $2, and says shoppers keep 100% of tips.
Public page says eligible U.S. shoppers can apply and receive no-cost automatic payouts after every batch through this account path.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public page explains batch access by location, store proximity, and account status.
Public page says batches can include full service, shop-only, and deliver-only work.
Public page says some stores require an active physical payment card and that alcohol, prescription, bulky-item, and certain heavy-item batches require certifications or opt-ins.
Public page says when, where, and what work you take is up to you, and points shoppers to support resources.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public page says shopper injury protection is available free of charge to all U.S. full-service shoppers.
Investor materials support that shoppers are expected to carry their own insurance; public shopper pages do not close the full Illinois auto-policy answer.
Chicago Branch
Official city entry point for business-license and tax-service navigation.
Public code excludes ordinary administrative work done at home for an outside principal place of business, but says dispatch-for-compensation and warehousing are not licensable as home occupations.
State law allows a retailer to use a third-party contractor for alcohol delivery, but Chicago is not automatically preempted in the same way as other municipalities.
Passenger page, not an Instacart-specific grocery-delivery workflow. Keep as retained follow-up.
Passenger page, not an Instacart-specific grocery-delivery workflow. Keep as retained follow-up.
Shopify in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Shopify in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Illinois registrations in place before taking direct taxable sales, especially your EIN and Illinois REG-1 branch.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you will operate from home in Chicago.
- Open and verify your Shopify store, payments, tax, shipping, domain, and checkout settings.
- Launch only after your product, fulfillment, policy, and compliance setup are ready.
- Launching the storefront before handling Illinois registration
- Assuming Shopify tax settings replace tax registration
- Assuming a Shop-channel or marketplace rule automatically covers the regular online-store checkout
- Skipping the county or Chicago local branch
- Using a brand name before checking Illinois naming and trademark risk
- Mixing personal and business money
- Turning on a 3PL without re-checking tax sourcing and inventory consequences
- Skipping policy pages, shipping setup, or test orders
- Illinois pushes many business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business portal,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's home-occupation rules require the business use to remain accessory, incidental, and secondary to the residential use of the dwelling unit and to comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a home occupation, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries to no more than one per day in addition to mail and common parcel carriers, and caps permanently occupied space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
- Chicago's fee schedule lists Regulated Business License at $1,000 and Limited Business License at $500 as of January 1, 2026, but the correct branch depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
- Use Chicago Business Direct and the city's zoning resources before assuming a Chicago address is ready.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is DTC ecommerce store.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is self-fulfillment or 3PL.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public guide covers store creation, initial setup, and early configuration tasks.
Public guidance says Shopify can require identity details, business details, banking details, and SSN or ITIN verification even when the store uses an EIN.
Re-check live before relying because pricing, promos, and billing presentation can change.
Public guidance says standard checkout branding is available on Basic and up, but apps or customizations on the information, shipping, and payment pages plus the Checkout Branding API are Shopify Plus only.
Public Shopify docs reviewed for this pack did not identify a separate seller brand-registry enrollment program. A custom domain is the practical early brand-control step.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public setup guide covers packages, payment methods, taxes, and policies.
Shopify says stores should register with the relevant tax agencies before turning on tax collection.
Public guidance covers refund, privacy, terms of service, shipping, and other policies linked in checkout.
Public eligibility guidance is a useful first filter for business types or product lanes that can trigger payment restrictions.
Public shipping guide covers rates, shipping profiles, locations, and routing.
Use this branch if you are not self-fulfilling orders. Keep inventory location and tax consequences separate from normal storefront setup.
Insurance Checkpoint
The public Shopify pages reviewed for this pack did not identify a public seller-liability insurance threshold as of April 26, 2026. Re-check live terms and any 3PL, carrier, or landlord contracts if you scale.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated business licenses, prohibits warehousing, prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries, and caps permanently occupied space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for license applications, renewals, tax returns, and tax payments.
Use the city's zoning resources before assuming a residence, studio, or warehouse is ready for the intended use.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
TikTok Shop in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open TikTok Shop in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC, and match that choice to the correct TikTok Shop seller type.
- Decide whether your launch is truly TikTok Shop-only marketplace selling or whether you also have a direct or off-platform sales branch that changes the Illinois tax answer.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you will operate from home in Chicago.
- Open and verify your TikTok Shop seller account, complete tax, payout, shipping, and listing setup, and start with a very small first catalog.
- Launch only after your product, policy, tax, logistics, and compliance setup are ready.
- Treating TikTok Shop like a Shopify direct-store launch
- Picking the wrong TikTok Shop seller type for the real-world tax and bank setup
- Assuming the marketplace-only answer automatically solves the resale question
- Using a business name without checking whether the county or Secretary-of-State assumed-name branch applies
- Ignoring Chicago home-occupation, storage, and delivery limits
- Pricing off stale TikTok Shop fee pages
- Listing restricted or prohibited products too early
- Illinois pushes many business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business guides,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's municipal code makes home occupation a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's code says a regulated business license for a home occupation may cover more than one home occupation within the licensed dwelling unit if the application identifies the occupations.
- Chicago's code says the home occupation must remain accessory, incidental, and secondary to the dwelling unit's residential use and must comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a home occupation.
- Chicago also prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries to no more than one per day in addition to ordinary mail and parcel carriers, and caps permanently occupied business space at more than 300 square feet or 25 percent of total floor area, whichever number is larger.
- Chicago also limits work within the dwelling unit to not more than one non-resident employee.
- Chicago's fee schedule lists Limited Business License at $500 and Regulated Business License at $1,000 as of January 1, 2026, plus a non-refundable $25 online application fee credited toward the license fee.
- The correct Chicago license branch still depends on whether the business is home-based, commercial, or otherwise outside the standard home-occupation lane. Use Chicago Business Direct and the city's Small Business Center support path before assuming a Chicago address is ready.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is seller-managed shipping or marketplace fulfillment where available.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public page dated April 23, 2026 says TikTok is a marketplace and is deemed to be a marketplace facilitator in most U.S. jurisdictions.
Main seller entry point. JavaScript-driven, but the public academy guides confirm it is the signup starting point.
Covers sign-up, business verification, tax details, warehouse logistics, adding products, and linking an official TikTok account.
Public page dated April 7, 2026.
Public guide says a sole proprietor without an EIN should select Individual Seller.
Covers legal business name, EIN, beneficial-owner info, ID, and residential-address certification.
Public page says qualifying new sellers can receive a 30-day 3% referral-fee promotion after first sale, then standard category rates apply.
Public page still describes category-based rates and refund-fee rules. Re-check live because the article title and timing are older.
Public chart is explicitly effective October 31, 2024, which is why exact live category-fee interpretation remains retained follow-up.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Says W9 tax info must be completed to receive payments and that products remain invisible until W9 completion and internal review.
Says new U.S. sellers default to TikTok Shipping and Seller Shipping requires the shipping-fees template before product upload.
Bank-account linking is mandatory; the account holder name must match onboarding identity exactly.
Publicly confirms Seller Shipping, TikTok Shipping, and Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT).
Requires accurate categories, brand info, and any needed category approvals.
Covers categories that cannot be sold at all on TikTok Shop.
Says approval is not guaranteed and additional documents may be required.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public page dated April 14, 2026 says CGL is not currently mandatory, may become mandatory later, and the Insurance Center is available only to select sellers.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated licenses, prohibits warehousing, limits space, limits non-resident employees, and restricts deliveries.
Code says home occupation is one of the activities requiring a regulated business license under Chapter 4-6.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for business-license and tax-account activity. Login-gated for account actions.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Uber in Illinois: what changes
If you want to start driving with Uber in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your banking, tax recordkeeping, and any federal or Illinois registrations that actually apply.
- Verify Chicago, home-based, and airport rules before you operate from home or drive ORD or MDW.
- Open and verify your Uber driver account.
- Go live only after your documents, city-license, vehicle, insurance, payout, and background-check branches are complete.
- Assuming storefront or reseller rules apply to Uber by default
- Buying a car before checking live Chicago-specific Uber eligibility rules
- Treating airport trips as the same as normal city trips
- Mixing personal and business money
- Ignoring mileage and tax records because payouts feel automatic
- Assuming Uber's insurance eliminates the need to talk to your own insurer
- Forgetting that off-app rides can change Illinois and Chicago tax and permit answers
- Illinois pushes many permit and zoning questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city office if you plan to run a real office from home,
- ask zoning offices if the activity involves dispatch, extra vehicles, or employee traffic at the residence,
- and treat airport work as a separate branch.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed names
- chauffeur and vehicle rules
- home occupation restrictions
- airport access rules
- multiple vehicles at a residence
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago is not the same branch as ordinary statewide entity setup. The city code requires a valid transportation network chauffeur-type license before a driver may operate a transportation network vehicle in the city.
- Chicago separately requires drivers to be at least 21, requires annual vehicle inspection, requires distinctive signage and emblems, and requires a driver identification card to be possessed electronically or on paper while operating.
- The public city TNP registry system is partly login-gated and references IRIS, MPEA, and GTT account mechanics. The public record is strong enough to show that this branch is real, but the exact split between what the driver personally files and what Uber or the provider workflow handles should stay as retained follow-up.
- Chicago home-occupation rules are only a conditional branch. The home-occupation definition excludes ordinary administrative or clerical work done at home for an entity whose principal place of business is elsewhere, but the code does not license dispatch-for-compensation, motor-vehicle repair, or warehousing as home occupations.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is platform-based independent driver.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is driver onboarding and trip operations.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with inventory resale assumptions, seller-permit assumptions unless state rules explicitly require them, FBA or storefront setup.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Chicago market page reviewed on April 26, 2026. Says drivers using Uber are independent contractors and links to the driver-requirements flow.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says new passenger drivers who had not activated prior to August 12, 2024 must be 23+, and must have the required U.S. driving experience, in-state license, and eligible 4-door vehicle.
Public help page reviewed on April 26, 2026 shows the document-upload branch for driver's license, insurance, registration, and account approval.
Uber says the service fee varies trip to trip and week to week.
Brand-registry or seller-IP programs do not apply to ordinary Uber rideshare driving.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says Uber uses a third-party background-check provider, requires consent, SSN, and a valid U.S. driver's license, and says checks are free and involve no credit check.
Public page says Uber reruns background checks annually, or more often in some cities.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 gives the broad national shape, but city-specific model-year and option rules still need a live local check.
Public page says Chicago law requires annual inspection and says all Chicago drivers must pass inspection before taking their first trip.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 explains weekly statements, payout tracking, and tips.
Public page says cash-out is available through the app or wallet.uber.com.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says Tax Summary and 1099s are available by January 31, 2026 and describes the current public opt-in posture for sub-threshold drivers.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public statute reviewed on April 26, 2026 gives the Illinois insurance floors for app-on and accepted-trip periods and requires written disclosure to drivers.
Uber says drivers must maintain personal auto insurance and that Uber maintains additional coverage while logged in.
Chicago Branch
Public code says no driver may operate a transportation network vehicle without a valid chauffeur-type license and says applicants must be at least 21.
Public code requires annual inspection and says inspection documentation must be kept in the vehicle while providing service.
Public code requires distinctive signage and emblem, including possible extra airport signs or emblems. Pair with 9-115-170 Driver - Identification card, which requires an identification card on paper or electronically while operating.
Public landing page shows the branch is real, references IRIS, and says MPEA and GTT requirements are separate. Exact division between driver and provider actions is retained follow-up.
Public page says every person using Chicago Business Direct must create one personal user profile.
Public code excludes ordinary administrative or clerical work in the home for an entity whose principal place of business is elsewhere, but bars dispatch-for-compensation, vehicle repair, and warehousing as home occupations.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says Chicago airport pickups require review of the airport guide, decals, TNP dashboard documentation, app-on behavior, and use of the designated Alpha or Delta waiting lots.
Public page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says drivers must complete the airport quiz, keep the app on, carry the required decals and TNP license, and use the designated waiting area and pickup location.
Walmart Marketplace in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open Walmart Marketplace in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Resolve the Illinois marketplace-only vs registration vs resale branch before assuming Walmart's marketplace tax handling answers every Illinois question.
- Verify local county or city permit, zoning, and home-business rules. If you will operate in Chicago, treat that branch as real work, not a footnote.
- Apply to Walmart, complete the full public 5-step onboarding flow, and choose your fulfillment path.
- Launch only after your product, pricing, fulfillment, tax, and compliance setup are ready.
- Assuming Walmart's marketplace-facilitator tax collection automatically closes the separate Illinois registration, resale, or supplier-documentation branch
- Buying inventory tax-free before the Illinois MyTax Illinois or resale-documentation branch is actually resolved for your facts
- Using a Chicago home, condo, or apartment address for storage and repeated carrier traffic before clearing the home-occupation and license-fee branch
- Treating pre-owned goods, children's products, or approval-heavy categories like a normal beginner lane on Walmart
- Pricing products before checking the live referral-fee row, shipping cost, return cost, and WFS economics for the actual item
- Launching with weak supplier invoices, authenticity records, or GCC support for products that can trigger Walmart documentation requests
- Mixing personal and business spending or failing to keep clean Illinois, supplier, payout, and return records from day one
- Illinois pushes many business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business portal,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask local zoning or building offices if the business will operate from home or store inventory.
- Typical local risk areas:
- DBA filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage
- truck or carrier activity at a residence
- fire-code limits
- business-license or local tax-account branches
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago treats home occupation as a regulated business-license category.
- Chicago's code says the home occupation must remain accessory, incidental, and secondary to the dwelling unit's residential use and must comply with the zoning ordinance.
- Chicago prohibits warehousing as a home occupation.
- Chicago also prohibits tractor-trailer deliveries, limits bulk deliveries to no more than 1 per day in addition to ordinary mail and parcel carriers, caps permanently occupied business space at the larger of 300 square feet or 25 percent of total floor area, and limits work within the dwelling unit to not more than 1 non-resident employee.
- Chicago's fee schedule lists Limited Business License at $500 and Regulated Business License at $1,000 as of January 1, 2026, plus a non-refundable $25 online application fee credited toward the license fee.
- Chicago Business Direct is the city's portal for business-license and tax-account activity.
- The correct local branch still depends on whether the business is home-based, commercial, or otherwise outside the standard home-occupation lane. Use Chicago Business Direct and the city's Small Business Center support path before assuming a Chicago address is ready.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is marketplace seller.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is seller-managed shipping or Walmart Fulfillment Services.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public page summarizes the 5-step onboarding flow and was re-checked on April 26, 2026.
Public page lists business tax ID or business license number, supporting documents, ecommerce history, GTINs, compliant catalog, and WFS or another B2C U.S. warehouse path.
Public page lists category-based referral fees and says fees are deducted only when a sale happens.
Public page says sellers choose one payout method and can use either Walmart Marketplace Wallet or a third-party payout solution provider.
Public page says an active USPTO trademark registration is required for each brand.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public page covers verification, payout setup, market details, fulfillment, and catalog setup.
Public page says WFS covers storage, fast shipping, seamless returns, and customer service.
Public page gives live fulfillment and storage pricing examples and says the estimator should be used for the actual item.
Public page says products not in new condition are prohibited unless the seller is invited to the Resold program.
Public page says covered products must comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws and have valid GCC documentation when requested.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public page re-checked on April 26, 2026 says a seller must submit a COI if it exceeds $100,000 in GMV in any 12-month period or if Walmart notifies the seller directly.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated licenses, prohibits warehousing, limits space, limits non-resident employees, and restricts deliveries.
Code says home occupation is one of the activities requiring a regulated business license under Chapter 4-6.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for business-license and tax-account activity. Login-gated for account actions.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Walmart Tax, Payments, and Performance Notes
Public page re-checked on April 26, 2026 says Walmart collects and remits marketplace sales tax in Illinois effective January 1, 2020.
Public page says sellers can use Marketplace Wallet or a third-party provider, provider options vary by country, and new sellers face a payment hold.
Public page says sellers need a valid U.S. return address and cannot use a P.O. box, Hawaii, Alaska, or listed territories.
Public page verified on April 26, 2026 lists cancellation, on-time-delivery, valid-tracking, and related standards and says failure can lead to suppression, suspension, or termination.
Public policy says Walmart can unpublish egregiously overpriced offers.
WooCommerce in Illinois: what changes
If you want to open WooCommerce in Illinois, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Illinois registrations in place before taking direct taxable sales, especially your EIN and Illinois REG-1 branch.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, and home-business rules, especially if you will operate from home or allow pickup in Chicago.
- Build and verify your WooCommerce stack: hosting, payments, tax settings, shipping, checkout, policies, and domain.
- Launch only after your product, fulfillment, compliance, and local-operating branches are actually ready.
- Launching the store before completing Illinois registration
- Treating WooCommerce like a marketplace-facilitator channel
- Buying inventory before resolving CRT-61 sequencing
- Assuming free core means the whole store is inexpensive
- Turning on Local Pickup before resolving local zoning or home-business rules
- Assuming label-printing tools also solve live checkout rates
- Mixing personal and business money
- Ignoring WordPress, WooCommerce, and extension updates
- Treating payment processors or 3PLs as the compliance department
- Illinois pushes many business-permit questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the state business guide,
- contact the county clerk,
- contact the city, town, or village office,
- ask zoning or planning offices if the business will operate from home, store inventory, or allow customer pickup.
- Typical local risk areas:
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for inventory storage
- carrier or truck activity at a residence
- customer pickup traffic
- fire-code and occupancy limits
- If the business operates in Chicago, add one more review layer.
- Chicago's code treats home occupation as a regulated business license under Chapter 4-6.
- Chicago's license-fee schedule says that, as of January 1, 2026, a Regulated Business License is $1,000, a Limited Business License is $500, and an online application carries a non-refundable $25 fee that is credited toward the license fee.
- Chicago's home-occupation code says the business may not permanently occupy more than 300 square feet or 25 percent of the dwelling unit's floor area, whichever is larger.
- The same code says no more than two patrons, clients, or non-resident external employees may be present at one time, no more than ten may be present during any 24-hour period, and no more than one non-resident internal employee may work in the dwelling.
- The same code also says the home occupation may not accept more than one bulk delivery per day, in addition to U.S. Mail, FedEx, UPS, and messenger services, and warehousing is not a licensable home occupation.
- Use Chicago Business Direct, the city zoning map, and the BACP Small Business Center contact path before assuming a home, studio, or warehouse address is ready for the intended use.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is DTC ecommerce store.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is self-fulfillment or 3PL.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with food, supplements, cosmetics, medical claims, batteries-heavy hazmat, alcohol, children's products.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public setup guidance centers onboarding around products, payments, shipping, taxes, marketing, and store personalization.
Current public page says there is no platform fee and no revenue share.
Public support page reviewed on April 26, 2026 says plugin installation is available on Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans.
Public support page says some plugins will show Not supported or Disabled.
Public docs describe the built-in General, Tax, Shipping, Payments, Accounts & Privacy, Emails, and Advanced settings areas.
Public docs cover guest checkout, account creation, privacy-policy notices, and data-retention settings.
Public guide says WooPayments is optional, supported-country limited, and can be installed from the payments settings or plugin screen.
Woo says WooPayments creates a Stripe Express account and does not use an existing regular Stripe account.
Public fee tables are detailed and time-sensitive. Do not flatten them into one universal number.
Public page says WooPayments requires a WordPress.com account connection and can require bank, business, and tax-ID details.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public docs explain software configuration, not the legal duty to register or collect.
Current docs say automated taxes can disable or override parts of core tax settings, require tax-exclusive price entry, and calculate using the customer shipping address.
Core shipping methods are Flat Rate, Free Shipping, and Local Pickup.
Public docs say labels do not themselves provide live checkout rates and that a WordPress.com connection is required.
Public docs say label purchases use the connected WordPress.com account and payment method.
Public docs show native fulfillment tracking but also note that third-party plugins can extend the workflow.
Public docs say Woo analytics supports filters, segments, CSV exports, and dashboards.
Insurance Checkpoint
No public universal WooCommerce or WooPayments liability-insurance threshold was identified in the reviewed official Woo source set on April 26, 2026. Carrier, landlord, processor, and 3PL contracts can still add their own insurance requirements.
Chicago Branch
Chicago treats home occupations as regulated licenses, prohibits warehousing, caps permanently occupied space, caps non-resident labor and patron presence, and limits bulk deliveries.
The code lists home occupation as an activity requiring a regulated business license under Chapter 4-6.
Confirm the exact branch in Chicago Business Direct because the correct category depends on whether the business is home-based or operating from another site.
City portal for business-license applications, renewals, tax returns, and tax payments. Login-gated for account actions.
Use the city's zoning tools before assuming a residence, studio, or warehouse is ready for the intended use.
Public contact path for business-license and general questions at (312) 744-6249 and tax questions at (312) 747-4747.
Change your path
Need a different route into this answer?
Use these links if you want another platform, another launch state, or the official source directory before you keep reading.
Choose another platform for Illinois Jump back to the platform hub if the family or platform overlay here is not your lane. Browse another launch state Switch to another launch-state baseline without losing the state-first flow. Open official sources Jump straight to the official source directory if you want agency links first.
Official links Shared official links for Illinois
Start with these shared state and federal groups before you layer on the platform-specific overlay. They are the stable baseline reused across the approved Illinois packs.
Statewide Start
State hub linking business registrations, permits, and service pages.
Useful state entry point for first-time founders.
State-supported planning and advising resource.
Entity Choice and Formation
Public Illinois guide compares sole proprietorships, LLCs, and other structures.
Official forms hub for LLC formation, assumed names, annual reports, and related filings.
Public form shows the principal place of business, Illinois registered agent, registered office, purpose, and manager-authority fields.
This form does not create the LLC.
Public Illinois sources reviewed did not identify an initial report or publication requirement for ordinary LLC formation. Calendar the annual report and complete internal setup.
Public guide says missed filings can create loss-of-good-standing and administrative-dissolution risk.
Sole Proprietor and Local Name Filings
The reviewed application says corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and nonprofits file elsewhere, not with the clerk.
Local filing contact point if your hosting property is in Chicago.
Federal and State Tax Setup
Standard federal EIN path.
Paper fallback for EIN applications.
IDOR says to register before you make purchases, sales, or hire an employee.
Illinois says sole proprietorships use Register a New Business (Form REG-1) on MyTax Illinois.
IDOR says a single-member LLC with no FEIN must complete the paper version of REG-1.
IDOR says an Illinois retailer's inventory and headquarters are generally in Illinois and that the retailer collects and remits state and local retailers' occupation tax at the origin rate.
Effective January 1, 2025, some sales sourced outside Illinois moved into destination-based ROT treatment and new tax-site registration can be required.
Marketplace sales collected by the facilitator stay off the seller's ST-1, while direct non-marketplace sales remain the seller's duty.
Illinois says shipping and delivery charges can be taxable when the seller does not offer the purchaser an option to receive the property except by paying those charges.
Illinois says the seller must verify that the purchaser's retailer or reseller account ID is valid and active.
Entity Tax Maintenance
Illinois generally follows the federal classification unless another election changes it.
Main recurring Illinois entity maintenance filing identified for this pack.
Use with the PDF form and instruction page; online eligibility limits apply.
Federal Reporting
FinCEN says domestic U.S.-created entities are exempt after the March 26, 2025 interim final rule.
Employees, Payroll, and Insurance
IDES says newly created employing units must register within 30 days of start-up.
IDOR says you must register with it to withhold Illinois Income Tax.
IDES says all employers must report new employees within 20 days.
IWCC says if you have one employee, even a part-time employee, you must obtain workers' compensation insurance.
IDOL says workers can earn up to 40 hours of paid leave from work each year.
IDOL says employees and employers in Chicago are covered by the city's local ordinance instead of PLAWA.
Public IWCC sources discuss owner exemptions but did not identify a single statewide CE-200-style exemption form.
Local follow-up Local checks that can still change the answer
- Illinois still pushes some permission-to-operate questions down to counties, municipalities, zoning offices, airports, or short-term-rental regulators depending on the lane.
- Keep public-name filing, home-based, zoning, storage, parking, traffic, airport, HOA, lease, condo, deed, and short-term-rental questions separate from the state-level baseline.
- Use the family comparison and platform overlay before you spend money, because the tax, insurance, and operations branch changes by lane.
- shared housing or vacation-rental registration
- hotel or accommodations tax
- occupancy and parking limits
- building-type restrictions
- local contact-person rules
- HOA and lease restrictions
- assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
Chicago: family-specific local split
- Chicago is not one universal local branch for Illinois; the exact city answer changes by family and sometimes by platform.
- Chicago storefront lanes can reopen city tax-account, business-license, home-occupation, zoning, storage, or use-permit questions depending on the address and setup.
- Chicago marketplace-seller lanes can reopen city tax, storage, inventory, home-business, or permit questions even when the platform handles customer discovery or some tax collection.
- Chicago platform-work lanes can reopen local TNC, delivery, worker-status, vehicle, airport, parking, or city-tax questions that do not apply to seller or host lanes.
- Chicago hosting can reopen short-term-rental permit, occupancy, local lodging-tax, direct-booking, primary-residence, or host-eligibility questions.
- Open the family comparison first, then open the platform overlay before you spend money on permits, inventory, vehicles, furnishings, or listings tied to Chicago.
Representative flagship routes
Frequently asked questions
- Does Illinois use the same setup path for every platform?
No. The state baseline stays useful, but storefront, marketplace, platform-work, and hosting lanes can split the next step in different ways.
- What should I verify after the Illinois baseline?
Check the platform overlay that matches your lane, then keep city, county, home-based, and product-specific rules as a separate local review step.
- When should I open the platform-specific guide instead of staying on this page?
Open the deeper platform guide when the family comparison shows that taxes, insurance, operations, or local branches depend on the platform lane you picked.