State guide
Michigan business requirements guide
Built from the approved Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan
Across the approved Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan 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.
- If inventory, equipment, vehicles, or other business personal property stays in-state, keep any local asset-tax or business-personal-property branch separate from marketplace collection.
- 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.
Michigan 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 can legally and contractually be used for short-term lodging before you list it.
- Close the Michigan lodging-tax lane before launch: Treasury treats public lodging as 6% Michigan use-tax territory, while your hosting platform's public Michigan page says it collects and remits that state use tax on your hosting platform reservations 30 nights and shorter.
- If the property is in Detroit, do not treat it like an ordinary home occupation. Clear the zoning, public-accommodations, certificate-of-occupancy, and licensing branch before listing.
- 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 Michigan: what changes
If you want to host on Airbnb in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Confirm the property can legally and contractually be used for short-term lodging before you list it.
- Close the Michigan lodging-tax lane before launch: Treasury treats public lodging as 6% Michigan use-tax territory, while Airbnb's public Michigan page says it collects and remits that state use tax on Airbnb reservations 30 nights and shorter.
- If the property is in Detroit, do not treat it like an ordinary home occupation. Clear the zoning, public-accommodations, certificate-of-occupancy, and licensing branch before listing.
- Complete Airbnb listing setup, identity verification, payout setup, tax-information setup, and insurance review only after the government-side path is ready.
- Treating Airbnb onboarding as if it closes the state and local permission-to-host branch.
- Assuming Airbnb's Michigan use-tax page means every local and county tax branch is solved.
- Assuming a real Detroit address works the same way as the statewide baseline.
- Treating paid overnight guests as a normal Detroit home-occupation use.
- Mixing direct bookings or off-platform fees into an Airbnb-only tax reading without reopening the state branch.
- Treating DTW traffic-control or curb-geometry pages as if they were host-authorization answers.
- Michigan does not collapse every host question into one statewide permit answer.
- For any place where the host will operate:
- check the city or county where the property sits,
- keep occupancy and home-occupation questions separate from Airbnb onboarding,
- check local parking, nuisance, and building-type restrictions,
- keep county accommodation taxes separate from the state use-tax branch,
- and avoid flattening a city-specific host lane into the statewide baseline.
- Typical local risk areas:
- short-term-rental permit or registration
- zoning and building-type limits
- occupancy and parking limits
- county accommodation or hotel taxes
- HOA, condo, lease, lender, and insurer restrictions
- If the property operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit BSEED business-licensing guidance says some, not all, business types need a city license and tells founders to establish the business and check zoning first.
- Detroit's zoning-permit page says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use open and operate.
- Detroit's home-occupation code says use of a dwelling to accommodate paid overnight guests is prohibited as a home occupation.
- The same code says public accommodations, including bed and breakfast inns outside R1 and R2, are handled under the separate public-accommodations zoning path.
- Detroit's zoning use table shows bed and breakfast inns are not in the ordinary R1 or R2 path and are handled as conditional public-accommodations uses in some other districts.
- Detroit's public-lodging code says it is unlawful to conduct or maintain a bed and breakfast inn, hotel, motel, public lodging house, rooming house, or hostel without first obtaining a license from the BSEED Business License Center.
- Practical reading:
- Detroit is not a generic home-business shortcut for an Airbnb host.
- A real Detroit listing should be treated as an address-specific public-accommodations, zoning, certificate-of-occupancy, and licensing question before launch.
- The safest beginner reading is to avoid a Detroit launch unless the property already clearly fits the zoning district and licensing lane.
- This guide assumes a U.S.-resident founder starting from scratch.
- The primary lane is Airbnb-first short-term lodging host.
- The expected fulfillment or operating model is property setup, listing launch, guest-facing rules, and host payout operations.
- The setup comparison centers on sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- This guide is not starting with party houses, event-space concepts, mixed-channel fee collection, unverified local permit assumptions, and airport-property certainty.
Platform-specific official links
Sole Proprietor and Trade Name Filings
Michigan does not use one generic statewide business license, so keep the local assumed-name and city branch explicit instead of guessing from another platform family.
Platform Setup
Airbnb says hosts can create a listing in a few steps and that getting started is free.
Airbnb says every host, new co-host, and booking guest must be identity verified.
Airbnb says hosts may be asked for legal name, date of birth, government ID, and other details, and payouts may be interrupted if information cannot be confirmed.
Airbnb routes hosts through Account settings > Payments > Payouts > Add payout method.
Airbnb says location verification is optional for most listings and has a narrow meaning.
Hosting Operations, Taxes, and Host Policy
Airbnb says it collects and remits taxes on behalf of hosts in jurisdictions where it has agreements with governments or is otherwise required by law. Use this as a platform-owned cross-check, not as a substitute for Michigan's own tax rules.
Public fee page supports both split-fee and single-fee structures, so do not flatten to one number.
Airbnb says payouts are typically released about 24 hours after check-in and can be delayed up to 45 days after check-in if a review occurs.
Airbnb says eligible U.S. hosts can receive faster payouts by debit or reloadable prepaid card.
Airbnb says it is legally required to collect tax information in certain U.S. cases and can suspend payouts or apply withholding if information is missing.
Public page says 1099-K reporting for calendar year 2025 generally starts above $20,000 and more than 200 transactions, but hosts can still receive other tax forms.
Hosts can set standard house rules and additional rules for the listing.
Airbnb tells hosts to check HOA, lease, landlord, lender, and insurance issues before hosting.
Public host-policy layer requires accuracy, honoring reservations and refunds, timely communication, and cleanliness.
Airbnb says hosts generally may not collect reservation-related fees outside the platform unless expressly authorized, but some tax collection exceptions remain.
Insurance Checkpoint
Airbnb says it includes guest identity verification, reservation screening, up to $3 million host damage protection, and up to $1 million host liability insurance.
Airbnb says host damage protection does not take the place of homeowners or renters insurance and recommends reviewing your own coverage.
Airbnb says to pay and communicate on Airbnb and to make sure you are covered.
DTW Airport-Property Branch
Use this as the official airport start point while the exact ordinary host answer remains open.
Treat this as a conservative property-control boundary source, not as proof that an ordinary Airbnb host falls into a DTW operator workflow.
Detroit Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says founders should establish the business and check zoning first.
City zoning page says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use open and operate.
Detroit's zoning code says use of a dwelling to accommodate paid overnight guests is prohibited as a home occupation. The same section says public accommodations, including bed and breakfast inns outside R1 and R2, are handled under the separate public-accommodations rules.
Detroit's use table shows bed and breakfast inns are not permitted in R1 or R2 and are conditional uses in some other residential and business districts. This is the main public reason a Detroit listing cannot be flattened into the statewide beginner lane.
Detroit's public-lodging code says it is unlawful to conduct or maintain any bed and breakfast inn, hotel, motel, public lodging house, rooming house, or hostel in the city without first obtaining a license from the BSEED Business License Center.
Amazon FBA in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Amazon FBA in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations in place before launch.
- Verify county and city permit, zoning, storage, and home-business rules, especially if you are in Detroit.
- Open and verify your Amazon seller account, choose the right selling plan, and activate the FBA branch.
- Launch only after your product, tax, sourcing, listing, fulfillment, and insurance setup are ready.
- Assuming Amazon sales-tax collection answers every Michigan resale and registration question
- Using a brand or storefront name without choosing the right Michigan county or state name filing
- Treating a home location as automatically allowed for storage or shipment prep
- Mixing personal and business money
- Launching into restricted categories too early
- Keeping weak supplier and compliance documentation
- Missing the Michigan LLC annual statement deadline
- Treating Amazon as the compliance department
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license.
- Detroit's BSEED licensing page says you should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections pass, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if the land use also needs a business license, the license can then be issued. The city says only then may the new use be opened and operated.
- Detroit's local tax branch is separate enough that you should review the city's income-tax and withholding pages directly before relying on a generic Michigan-only setup checklist.
- 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
Public Amazon guide lays out the five registration steps and the identity-verification flow.
Public page also notes separate referral fees and optional added-cost programs such as FBA.
Public page says the program is free but requires a pending or registered trademark and brand-marked product or packaging.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public page says Amazon picks, packs, ships, handles customer service, and processes returns.
Public FAQ says some categories require a Professional plan, some require approval, and some products cannot be sold because of legal, regulatory, or Amazon-policy restrictions.
Official Amazon-owned public onboarding article reflecting the current FBA launch workflow.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public Amazon-owned forum guidance says insurance is required within 30 days after exceeding USD 10,000 in gross proceeds in one month on Amazon.com, or if requested. Treat the live Seller Central agreement as controlling.
Detroit Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says to establish the business and check zoning first.
City zoning page says after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if a business license is also required, only then may the new use be opened and operated.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and re-check whether local business-income-tax or withholding filings apply to your fact pattern.
DoorDash in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open DoorDash in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get the federal and Michigan setup in place before launch, including the entity, EIN if needed, and the real self-employment baseline instead of guessing a seller-permit path.
- Decide whether you are launching in the simple statewide lane or inside Detroit or on airport-heavy DTW property, because that adds a real local follow-up branch.
- Open and verify your DoorDash Dasher account, complete identity verification, and confirm the age, transportation mode, and payout method that actually fit your plan.
- Launch only after payout, mileage and tax records, insurance reality, and any Detroit or airport-property follow-up branch are understood.
- Assuming a seller permit is the first filing for a Dasher
- Using a public business name without filing the right county, city, or state name document
- Mixing personal and business money
- Treating Fast Pay, DoorDash Crimson, or Tasks as fixed universal features
- Treating public DoorDash safety pages as a substitute for confirming insurance reality
- Flattening local city or airport-property follow-up into a generic statewide answer
- Michigan still pushes many address-based business questions down to local governments even when the ordinary solo Dasher lane stays cleaner than a storefront or retail pack.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check local business-license, zoning, home-business, or tax questions tied to the actual address,
- route a real Detroit operating address into the city appendix instead of treating it as the same thing as the statewide lane,
- keep those city questions separate from the ordinary statewide courier lane,
- clear certificate-of-occupancy, home-occupation, or Detroit income-tax facts directly when the residence is the real business base,
- keep airport-property access separate from city licensing,
- reopen the DTW branch before relying on airport-property staging, reserved-operator flows, or repeated airport-area work,
- and reopen the analysis if the work starts looking more like repeated airport-property work, warehousing, or visible commercial operations at the residence.
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit's current BSEED licensing pages say some, not all, business types need a city license, and they tell founders to establish the business and check zoning first.
- Detroit's zoning-permit path adds a concrete occupancy sequence because the city says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use open and operate.
- Detroit's home-occupation standards add a second useful boundary because the city says compliant home occupations do not need a permit or registration, which narrows the local branch away from assuming every ordinary home-base Dasher automatically needs a zoning filing.
- The published motor-vehicle-for-hire guide only shows pedal cabs, rickshaws, and quadricycles, which materially narrows the theory that an ordinary Dasher automatically fits a Detroit vehicle-for-hire license category.
- Detroit Treasury-clearance and income-tax pages keep a separate city-tax and clearance branch visible, so a real Detroit operating address should be reviewed directly instead of flattened into a statewide non-issue.
- Detroit's separate income-tax pages now make that tax branch a little clearer because the city still publishes resident and non-resident individual rates on one page while the separate business-income-tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and older city filing transition language.
- Repeated airport-property deliveries at DTW stay a separate follow-up branch. Use airport property-control, solicitation, and October 2025 staging-operator pages only as boundary sources, not as automatic proof of DoorDash courier access.
- Practical reading for this packet: the Detroit local branch is real enough that a residential Detroit operating address should not be treated as the same thing as the simple statewide baseline. Start with BSEED and zoning, then route the city-tax question through the resident or non-resident individual-income-tax branch first unless the city or the facts clearly push the founder into business-income-tax or Treasury-clearance follow-up.
- Safest operational reading: if the founder wants the lowest-friction beginner lane, use a fact pattern or operating base that does not depend on a residential Detroit closeout or on airport-property assumptions at DTW.
- 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 Dasher 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, airport-property certainty, regulated-delivery shortcuts, and storefront setup.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public signup page checked on April 29, 2026 says Dashers generally must be 18 or older, while the same page still lists higher-age exception states separately. Treat the live page as the same-day source before relying on screenshots.
Public page routes new Dashers to app videos, support, signup-status checks, and common setup issues.
DoorDash says prospective Dashers verify a valid government ID and complete a background-check branch using Social Security number details.
Current public pay page says Dashers can use Earn per Offer and, where available, Earn by Time, keep 100% of customer tips, receive weekly direct deposit, use Fast Pay for a $1.99 fee per transfer, or switch to DoorDash Crimson for no-fee instant payouts.
Current public page says approved Dashers can receive no-fee deposits after every dash, use a virtual card right away, and manage the account inside the Dasher app.
Public April 8, 2026 article says Crimson can provide a virtual card, external-bank linking, direct-deposit features, and account-routing details inside the app. Keep payout-brand drift explicit because public pages still overlap with Fast Pay and older wording.
Public March 18, 2024 article still says Dashers are self-employed, DoorDash does not withhold taxes from delivery payments, and 1099 delivery has run through Stripe when the threshold is met. Re-check live tax-help pages on the action date.
Fulfillment, Logistics, and Delivery Operations
Public page explains the flexible courier model and transport-mode options. Use it as the baseline ordinary restaurant-delivery lane instead of assuming grocery, alcohol, or Tasks are universal day-one features.
Public January 16, 2024 article describes the basic accept, pick up, and drop off workflow and keeps the beginner lane centered on ordinary restaurant delivery.
Public page says Shop & Deliver uses the Red Card and a different shop-pay-deliver workflow. Keep it as an expansion branch instead of the default beginner lane.
DoorDash says alcohol orders can require in-app ID scanning and responsible-handoff steps. Treat this as a later compliance branch rather than a default launch assumption.
Use this when a live account issue, tax-document issue, insurance question, or payout issue cannot be solved from public pages.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public safety page describes in-app safety tools, SafeDash, and a 24/7 Trust and Safety line.
Dedicated public help articles for auto insurance and occupational-accident coverage exist, but the exact public wording is not stable enough to treat it as a fully closed universal answer. Re-check the live help flow or in-app screens on the action date.
Detroit And Airport Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says founders should establish the business and check zoning first.
Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city license and points founders back to the licensing division.
Current guide only shows pedal cabs, rickshaws, and quadricycles, which materially narrows the ordinary Dasher city-license theory.
City zoning page says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use be opened and operated.
The city points operators to Chapter 50 for the official detailed zoning rules.
Current code says compliant home occupations do not need a permit or registration, but it still keeps residential-use, deliveries, parking, and outside-impact limits visible enough that the home-base branch cannot be guessed away.
The page uses broad “conduct business within the city” wording but also lists narrower city-facing trigger buckets, so the local branch remains real without being fully closed. Use it as a direct city-closeout branch instead of assuming it automatically disappears or automatically applies.
Detroit keeps separate income-tax and business-income-tax tracks visible, which is why the direct city-closeout lane should start by choosing the right city tax branch.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the city still publishes resident-individual and non-resident-individual rates and keeps employer-withholding information visible, which makes the ordinary Dasher city-tax branch look more like an individual-tax question than a hidden city-license theory.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the separate business-income-tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and the older city filing transition, which helps keep the ordinary Dasher branch from being flattened into a default city business-income-tax filing.
Use this as the official airport start point while the exact DoorDash courier-access answer remains open.
Official airport regulations say reserved or pre-arranged operators use staging, queuing, and Ground Transportation Center controls. Treat that as a conservative property-control boundary source, not as proof that ordinary DoorDash couriers may use the same airport workflow.
Official airport page is useful as a property-control and solicitation-boundary source for prearranged operators, but it is not a clean DoorDash courier-access answer.
Retained Follow-Up
eBay in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open eBay in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations or registration decision in place before launch, but keep marketplace-only tax relief, resale sourcing, and any future direct or off-platform sales as separate questions.
- Verify county, city, and Detroit permit, zoning, and local-tax rules if the business will operate there.
- 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.
- Assuming a marketplace-only no-filing answer automatically solves the supplier resale branch
- Using the wrong assumed-name filing path for the entity type
- Treating Detroit like a generic city footnote instead of a real licensing, zoning, and local-tax branch
- Adding direct sales without re-checking the Michigan return posture
- Treating Detroit local-tax or withholding questions as solved by the statewide Michigan setup
- Pricing inventory without a fresh copy of the live eBay fee model
- Keeping weak invoices or supplier records
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license.
- Detroit's BSEED licensing page says you should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections pass, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if the land use also needs a business license, the license can then be issued. The city says only then may the new use be opened and operated.
- Detroit's local tax branch is separate enough that you should review the city's income-tax and withholding pages directly before relying on a generic Michigan-only setup checklist.
- 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
The reviewed local repo evidence did not preserve one settled public onboarding guide for this wave, so use the current eBay-owned public domains as the action-date starting point.
No source-backed local-repo fee snapshot was preserved for this wave, so the live eBay fee model remains an explicit re-check item instead of a guessed fact.
Keep legal name, address, bank, and tax details aligned with real-world documents because the exact live verification and payout steps were not preserved in local repo evidence for this pass.
No mandatory public eBay brand-enrollment program was identified in the reviewed local repo evidence used for this packet.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Use the beginner-safe seller-managed shipping baseline for the first launch instead of importing Amazon inbound or Shopify storefront assumptions.
The reviewed local repo evidence did not preserve one reusable eBay restricted-items baseline, so regulated, branded, hazardous, luxury, age-restricted, and child-use products still need live policy verification.
Build one or two accurate listings first, keep handling time and returns terms realistic, and use tracked shipping whenever possible.
Insurance Checkpoint
No public eBay-wide insurance threshold or mandatory coverage amount was preserved in the reviewed local repo evidence for this packet, so keep the live seller terms and outside contracts as required action-date checks.
Detroit Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says to establish the business and check zoning first.
City zoning page says after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if a business license is also required, only then may the new use be opened and operated.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and re-check whether local business-income-tax or withholding filings apply to your fact pattern.
Etsy in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Etsy in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations in place before launching.
- Verify local county or city permit, zoning, and home-business rules.
- Open and verify your Etsy account or storefront.
- Launch only after your product, fulfillment, tax, and compliance setup is ready.
- Buying inventory or launching before checking legal and platform restrictions
- Using a brand name without filing the right Michigan county assumed-name document or LARA Certificate of Assumed Name
- Mixing personal and business money
- Skipping tax registration because "the platform handles tax"
- Launching with regulated products too early
- Keeping weak supplier or compliance documentation
- Missing state maintenance filings
- Treating the platform as the compliance department
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license.
- Detroit's BSEED licensing page says you should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections pass, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if the land use also needs a business license, the license can then be issued. The city says only then may the new use be opened and operated.
- Detroit's local tax branch is separate enough that you should review the city's income-tax and withholding pages directly before relying on a generic Michigan-only setup checklist.
- 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 sellers start at Etsy.com/sell, use a desktop browser to set up the shop, and complete required two-factor authentication. Etsy also says it does not require a business license, but sellers must follow applicable law.
New shops enroll in Etsy Payments as part of opening the shop. Etsy says sellers must be in an eligible country to open a new shop.
Etsy says sellers choose whether they are using Etsy Payments as an individual or a business for legal and tax purposes.
Etsy says it partners with Persona; the name on the ID must match the name on the bank account you shared.
Etsy says U.S. sellers verify through Plaid or manual test deposits. The page says sellers signing up must verify before opening the shop, and existing sellers can be suspended if they do not verify a changed bank account in time.
Etsy says missed legal deadlines can block payouts and place the shop into Etsy-initiated vacation mode until the required information is confirmed.
Main public fee source. Re-check the live set-up-fee display during onboarding because Etsy says the amount varies by location.
Etsy says the fee varies by country and is in addition to the transaction fee.
Optional monthly subscription; not required for a normal U.S. shop launch.
Etsy does not have an Amazon-style brand registry requirement for sellers. The reviewed public record supports Etsy's Reporting Portal and IP policy as the relevant optional enforcement tools instead.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Etsy says sellers must register as a seller before creating a listing and that the item must fit Etsy's handmade, vintage, or craft-supply categories.
Etsy says missing storefront basics like a shop icon can affect visibility in search.
Etsy says sellers outside the EU must set a return policy whenever they edit or create a physical-item listing, even if the policy says no returns or exchanges are accepted.
Items must be made, designed, handpicked, or sourced by the seller and still comply with the Prohibited Items Policy.
Public help says drop shipping is not allowed except for narrow craft-supply situations and production partners must be disclosed for original designs.
Public help keeps the seller responsible for shipping performance even when third-party services are used.
Optional label tool; can affect shipping workflow and some performance programs.
Reserve timing and percentages vary by account; treat the existence of reserves as real but the exact reserve terms as account-specific.
Etsy says qualifying orders up to $250 may be covered, but the program is not insurance and sellers still need accurate processing, shipping, and listing practices.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public Etsy help says qualifying orders up to $250 may be refunded by Etsy instead of the seller. The help page also says updates begin on May 7, 2026, and public Etsy materials do not identify a universal seller liability-insurance threshold for standard shops.
Carrier coverage and claim paths vary. This is shipment-level protection, not business liability coverage.
Detroit Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says to establish the business and check zoning first.
City zoning page says after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if a business license is also required, only then may the new use be opened and operated.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and re-check whether local business-income-tax or withholding filings apply to your fact pattern.
Facebook Marketplace in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Facebook Marketplace in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Decide whether you are really doing local meetup or direct sale, shipped checkout through Meta if eligible, or later off-Facebook direct sales, because the Michigan tax answer changes across those paths.
- Handle your Michigan naming and tax branch before launch, especially the marketplace-only vs direct-sale vs Form 3372 resale split.
- Check local permit, zoning, occupancy, and city-tax rules, especially if you will operate in Detroit.
- Confirm that your real Facebook account can actually use Marketplace, and only build around shipping or business-mode tools if your account truly has them.
- Treating a local pickup Facebook sale as if it were automatically a marketplace-facilitator tax sale.
- Assuming Form 3372 is safe before you actually have the right resale facts in place.
- Adding off-Facebook or direct local sales without re-running the Michigan registration analysis.
- Assuming Marketplace shipping, business-mode, or payout tools are universally available.
- Using your display name as a substitute for Michigan legal-name or assumed-name compliance.
- Storing meaningful inventory or allowing repeated pickups from a Detroit address without clearing the local zoning, occupancy, and license branch.
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license.
- Detroit's business-licensing page says you should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections pass, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued and, if the land use also needs a business license, the license can then be issued. The city says only then may the new use be opened and operated.
- Detroit Treasury says treasury clearance is required for Detroit-based businesses that need a business license and for businesses that conduct business within the city or directly with the city.
- Detroit's business-tax FAQ makes city income-tax and withholding follow-up real enough that you should review the city pages directly before relying on a generic Michigan-only checklist.
- 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 meetup or pickup first; shipping and checkout only if account-eligible.
- 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
Sole Proprietor and Assumed-Name Filings
Michigan says sole proprietorships using an assumed name register with the county clerk rather than a central state trade-name registry.
Use the LARA form path, not the county clerk path used by sole proprietors.
Public form says the assumed name expires on December 31 of the fifth calendar year following the filing year.
Platform Setup
Public help says Marketplace is for adults with active accounts, must use the main profile, and businesses may be blocked.
Public help shows the basic create-listing flow.
Public help says selling with shipping and buying or creating prepaid labels is not available to all users and that the article is for individual sellers.
Public help says this feature is only available to select sellers right now.
Public help lists acceptable proof of identity, address, and SSN or ITIN documentation.
Public policy page also states the U.S. seller-protection limit up to $2,000 and the $20 chargeback-fee posture.
Public help says shipping sales may trigger 1099-K through PayPal and 1099-MISC for certain Meta reimbursements.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public help says shipping and checkout are not available to all users and that the article is about individual sellers with shipping and checkout.
Public help treats ordinary Marketplace sales by an individual seller as a transaction between buyer and seller.
Public help says Marketplace users are generally pushed toward cash or person-to-person payment methods for ordinary local transactions.
Public help says this feature is available only on the Facebook app for iPhone and Android and that cancellation rate should stay below 10%.
Public help says local-pickup Marketplace purchases are not eligible for Facebook returns or refunds.
Public help says Marketplace listings must comply with Commerce Policies and Community Standards.
Insurance Checkpoint
No public universal liability-insurance threshold was identified in the reviewed Meta pages as of April 29, 2026.
Detroit Branch
Detroit says not all businesses need a license, but founders should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
Public FAQ says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and that most licenses are bi-annual.
Detroit says only after required inspections pass and, where needed, the business license is issued, may the new use be opened and operated.
Detroit says treasury clearance is required for Detroit-based businesses that need a business license and for businesses that conduct business within the city or directly with the city.
Public FAQ confirms a separate Detroit business-income-tax and withholding branch that should be checked directly when the business operates in the city.
Instacart in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Instacart in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get the federal and Michigan setup in place before launch, including the entity, EIN if needed, and the real self-employment baseline instead of guessing a seller-permit path.
- Decide whether you are launching in the simple statewide lane or inside Detroit or on airport-heavy DTW property, because that adds a real local follow-up branch.
- Open and verify your Instacart shopper account, complete identity verification, and confirm the age, transportation mode, and payout method that actually fit your plan.
- Launch only after payout, mileage and tax records, insurance reality, and any Detroit or airport-property follow-up branch are understood.
- Assuming a seller permit is the first filing for a shopper
- Using a public business name without filing the right county, city, or state name document
- Mixing personal and business money
- Treating payout options or specialty-batch rules as fixed universal features
- Treating public Instacart safety pages as a substitute for confirming insurance reality
- Flattening local city or airport-property follow-up into a generic statewide answer
- Michigan still pushes many address-based business questions down to local governments even when the ordinary solo shopper lane stays cleaner than a storefront or retail pack.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check local business-license, zoning, home-business, or tax questions tied to the actual address,
- route a real Detroit operating address into the city appendix instead of treating it as the same thing as the statewide lane,
- keep those city questions separate from the ordinary statewide shopper lane,
- clear certificate-of-occupancy, home-occupation, or Detroit income-tax facts directly when the residence is the real business base,
- keep airport-property access separate from city licensing,
- reopen the DTW branch before relying on airport-property staging, reserved-operator flows, or repeated airport-area work,
- and reopen the analysis if the work starts looking more like repeated airport-property work, warehousing, or visible commercial operations at the residence.
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit's current BSEED licensing pages say some, not all, business types need a city license, and they tell founders to establish the business and check zoning first.
- Detroit's zoning-permit path adds a concrete occupancy sequence because the city says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use open and operate.
- Detroit's home-occupation standards add a second useful boundary because the city says compliant home occupations do not need a permit or registration, which narrows the local branch away from assuming every ordinary home-base shopper automatically needs a zoning filing.
- The published motor-vehicle-for-hire guide only shows pedal cabs, rickshaws, and quadricycles, which materially narrows the theory that an ordinary shopper automatically fits a Detroit vehicle-for-hire license category.
- Detroit Treasury-clearance and income-tax pages keep a separate city-tax and clearance branch visible, so a real Detroit operating address should be reviewed directly instead of flattened into a statewide non-issue.
- Detroit's separate income-tax pages now make that tax branch a little clearer because the city still publishes resident and non-resident individual rates on one page while the separate business-income-tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and older city filing transition language.
- Repeated airport-property deliveries at DTW stay a separate follow-up branch. Use airport property-control, solicitation, and October 2025 staging-operator pages only as boundary sources, not as automatic proof of Instacart shopper access.
- Practical reading for this packet: the Detroit local branch is real enough that a residential Detroit operating address should not be treated as the same thing as the simple statewide baseline. Start with BSEED and zoning, then route the city-tax question through the resident or non-resident individual-income-tax branch first unless the city or the facts clearly push the founder into business-income-tax or Treasury-clearance follow-up.
- Safest operational reading: if the founder wants the lowest-friction beginner lane, use a fact pattern or operating base that does not depend on a residential Detroit closeout or on airport-property assumptions at DTW.
- 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 batch 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, storefront setup, and airport-property certainty.
Platform-specific official links
Platform Setup
Public page reviewed on April 29, 2026 says some shoppers can start shopping in as soon as 1 hour in certain areas.
Public February 4, 2025 article says shoppers must be 18+, hold a valid driver's license and Social Security number, pass criminal and motor-vehicle-record background checks, and complete photo or identity verification.
Public terms say shopper services are subject to an independent contractor agreement unless the app is used in the course of employment.
Public page reviewed on April 29, 2026 describes batch pay, promotions, and tips, says shoppers keep 100% of customer tips, and says heavy pay on qualifying batches is at least $2.
Public page says weekly direct deposit pays for the prior Monday-Sunday week between Wednesday and Friday. Re-check the live app for any faster-payout fee or timing language before relying on it.
Public page reviewed on April 29, 2026 says eligible shoppers can get fast, free auto-payouts after every batch and that ATM fees apply after 8 transactions in a month.
Public page explains batch access by location, store proximity, and account standing and says some stores require a physical payment card while alcohol, prescription, bulky-item, and certain heavy-item work can require certifications or opt-ins.
Public page says when, where, and what work you take is up to you.
Public page says shopper support includes help while shopping and tools for active shopping. Treat exact menus and escalation paths as live-app facts.
Fulfillment, Logistics, and Batch Operations
Public page says batches can include shop and deliver, shop-only, and deliver-only work. Use the ordinary full-service shopper lane as the cleanest day-one baseline.
Public page says new shoppers get the highest Cart Star priority for their first 10 batches and are not penalized for not accepting a batch. Keep local-market exceptions action-date checked in the live app.
Public terms keep the independent-contractor baseline explicit. Re-check the live help flow or in-app tax-document screens on the action date before approval.
Public help page links to separate auto and non-auto claim forms. Use it as the cleaner support and incident-routing checkpoint than generic blog summaries.
Exact tax-document retrieval steps remain login-gated. Confirm the live path in the real shopper account and do not guess from stale screenshots.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public page says shoppers can access emergency assistance, incident reporting, and resources about shopper injury protection.
Public article explains ongoing identity checks, account-security controls, and deactivation review. Use it as the platform-owned safety baseline rather than as a substitute for personal insurance review.
Public investor-filings hub is the safest public reminder that car-based shoppers should keep their own insurance reality and delivery-use disclosure explicit; the public shopper pages do not close every state-specific policy answer.
Detroit And Airport Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says founders should establish the business and check zoning first.
Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city license and points founders back to the licensing division.
Current guide only shows pedal cabs, rickshaws, and quadricycles, which materially narrows the ordinary shopper city-license theory.
City zoning page says that after required inspections a certificate of occupancy is issued and, if a business license is also required, only then may the use be opened and operated.
The city points operators to Chapter 50 for the official detailed zoning rules.
Current code says compliant home occupations do not need a permit or registration, but it still keeps residential-use, deliveries, parking, and outside-impact limits visible enough that the home-base branch cannot be guessed away.
The page uses broad “conduct business within the city” wording but also lists narrower city-facing trigger buckets, so the local branch remains real without being fully closed. Use it as a direct city-closeout branch instead of assuming it automatically disappears or automatically applies.
Detroit keeps separate income-tax and business-income-tax tracks visible, which is why the direct city-closeout lane should start by choosing the right city tax branch.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the city still publishes resident-individual and non-resident-individual rates and keeps employer-withholding information visible, which makes the ordinary shopper city-tax branch look more like an individual-tax question than a hidden city-license theory.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the separate business-income-tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and the older city filing transition, which helps keep the ordinary shopper branch from being flattened into a default city business-income-tax filing.
Use this as the official airport start point while the exact Instacart shopper-access answer remains open.
Official airport regulations say reserved or pre-arranged operators use staging, queuing, and Ground Transportation Center controls. Treat that as a conservative property-control boundary source, not as proof that ordinary Instacart shoppers may use the same airport workflow.
Official airport page is useful as a property-control and solicitation-boundary source for prearranged operators, but it is not a clean Instacart shopper-access answer.
Retained Follow-Up
Shopify in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Shopify in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations in place before direct taxable sales, and keep the public-name branch straight if the storefront name differs from the legal name.
- Verify local permit, zoning, occupancy, storage, and city-tax rules if the business operates from a Detroit or other local address.
- Create the Shopify store, complete business details, billing, payments, taxes, shipping, policy pages, checkout, and domain setup.
- Launch only after the product, tax, fulfillment, and compliance setup is ready for a direct storefront rather than a marketplace shortcut.
- treating marketplace-facilitator relief as if it answers Michigan direct-store tax registration,
- skipping the county assumed-name branch when the storefront name differs from the founder's or LLC's legal name,
- launching before the MTO, sales-tax-license, and Form 3372 resale path are actually sorted,
- assuming Detroit BSEED, zoning, occupancy, or city-income-tax questions vanish because the store is online,
- assuming Shopify Payments approval or tax defaults are automatic,
- pricing without plan, payment-processing, shipping, refund, and tax-collection costs.
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed,
- ask whether home occupation rules apply,
- ask whether storage or shipment prep changes the zoning answer,
- ask whether signage or customer pickup triggers another permit question,
- ask whether parking, carrier activity, or nonresident helpers change the local answer,
- ask whether occupancy, fire, or building approvals are required,
- keep written answers with the address and date when possible.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- city-income-tax registration if the business is based in Detroit
- If the business operates in Detroit, keep BSEED licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city income-tax / withholding checks visible.
- Detroit can add local licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city-income-tax checks that should not be flattened into statewide Michigan guidance.
- 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 help checklist for account, business details, taxes, shipping, and store setup.
Use the live pricing page on the action date because plan prices and promotions can change.
Keep country, product, document, bank, and verification eligibility visible instead of assuming every store qualifies automatically.
Standard checkout branding is broader than the deeper Plus-only customization branch; every store gets a myshopify.com domain and Shopify adds SSL automatically when the domain is connected through Shopify.
Use the U.S. requirements page for business type, bank-account, verification, and two-step-authentication checks.
Standard checkout branding is broader than the deeper Plus-only customization branch.
Every store gets a myshopify.com domain and Shopify adds SSL automatically when the domain is connected through Shopify.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Use this as the launch-prep checklist for business details, taxes, shipping, and store setup.
Shopify says tax remains the merchant's responsibility and the store can use manual settings or Shopify Tax where available.
Merchants still need to configure rates, locations, zones, and fulfillment rather than relying on defaults.
Use these public pages to screen product, business-type, and policy risk before launch.
Insurance Checkpoint
No public Shopify-wide insurance minimum or sales threshold was identified in the reviewed public sources for this first-draft packet.
Detroit Branch
Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license and that zoning should be checked first.
City zoning page says inspections can lead to a certificate of occupancy before the use is opened.
TikTok Shop in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open TikTok Shop in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup and a low-risk product lane: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal setup done and decide whether your Michigan facts stay truly marketplace-only or whether you also need Michigan registration or resale treatment.
- Verify local permit, zoning, and home-business rules. If you are in Detroit, treat licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city-income-tax review as real work.
- Open the TikTok Shop seller account using the correct seller type, then complete W9, payout, warehouse, and first-listing setup.
- Launch only after your product, sourcing, tax, local, and shipping setup are ready.
- Assuming marketplace-only automatically means resale-certificate-ready.
- Choosing the wrong TikTok seller type for the real tax and entity setup.
- Pricing inventory without re-checking live fee and refund rules.
- Treating Detroit as generic Michigan instead of its own local branch.
- Listing products before verifying they fit both law and TikTok policy.
- Waiting too long to organize invoices, supplier records, and tax-branch notes for later proof.
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed,
- ask whether home occupation rules apply,
- ask whether storage or shipment prep changes the zoning answer,
- ask whether signage or customer pickup triggers another permit question,
- ask whether parking, carrier activity, or nonresident helpers change the local answer,
- ask whether occupancy, fire, or building approvals are required,
- keep written answers with the address and date when possible
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- city-income-tax registration if the business is based in Detroit
- If the business operates in Detroit, keep BSEED licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city income-tax / withholding checks visible.
- Detroit says not all businesses need a city business license, but it also tells founders to establish the business and check zoning first.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy will be issued, and if the proposed land use requires a business license, only then may the use be opened and operated.
- 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 guide reviewed on April 28, 2026 says sellers provide ID, address validation, SSN or ITIN, bank information, and a W9. It also says sellers display a business address, with partial display for certified residential addresses.
Public guide dated April 7, 2026 says a sole proprietor without an EIN should register as an Individual seller.
Public guide says business-entity registration can require EIN, UBO, and primary-representative information.
Public pages say TikTok charges platform fees and is deemed to be a marketplace facilitator in most U.S. jurisdictions where required.
Public page says setup includes verification, W9, and warehouse setup with a valid USPS-verified address; products become visible only after W9 completion and internal compliance review.
Public pages say only the shop owner can update payout-bank details and that reserve levels and payout timing are performance-based.
Public page describes annual verification and information-update duties for covered sellers.
Public fee pages are useful but do not produce one stable evergreen U.S. fee answer on April 28, 2026. Re-check live category fees before pricing inventory.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public guidance says TikTok Shop offers Seller Shipping, TikTok Shipping, and FBT.
Public guide says new U.S. sellers default to TikTok Shipping and can later update warehouse addresses in Seller Center.
Public policy says listings must be clear, truthful, and compliant with law and platform rules.
Current public policy page dated April 7, 2026 says prohibited products cannot be sold and the policy applies to all U.S. sellers.
Public policy dated March 10, 2026 says some categories need category-level, product-level, or invite-only qualification.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public page reviewed on April 28, 2026 says CGL is not currently mandatory, may become mandatory later with advance notice, and the Insurance Center is available only to select sellers.
Shipment insurance is separate from general liability coverage.
Detroit Branch
Detroit says not all businesses need a license, but founders should establish the business and check zoning first.
Detroit says that after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if the use requires a business license, only then may the use be opened and operated.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and linked business-income-tax materials for fact-specific city filing analysis.
Uber in Michigan: what changes
If you want to drive with Uber in Michigan, the current safest launch order is:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal setup and your real public-name branch in place before relying on the app.
- Check whether your actual home base creates a Detroit local branch and keep that separate from airport rules.
- Complete Uber signup, documents, screening, vehicle, insurance, and payout setup.
- Use ordinary rides first and treat DTW, premium lanes, and formal commercial lanes as separate branches.
- treating this like a storefront or seller-license launch instead of a platform-work launch,
- buying or switching vehicles before checking the live market-eligibility screen,
- assuming a county or LLC name filing is the same thing as Uber onboarding,
- mixing Detroit local business questions with DTW airport-access questions,
- relying on airport income before the check-in, hold-lot, and pickup flow is understood,
- assuming public Uber payout or fee posture gives a fixed earnings model.
- Michigan keeps many address-based operating questions local even though the statewide act blocks local TNC-specific taxes, fees, and licenses tied to prearranged rides.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check city income-tax, zoning, treasury-clearance, or business-license questions that are tied to the actual address,
- check whether the city's current licensing materials are describing the actual activity category or only a narrower vehicle-for-hire category that does not clearly reach ordinary rideshare facts,
- keep the treasury-clearance and city-income-tax branches visible even if the city-license theory narrows,
- keep those city questions separate from the ordinary statewide TNC driver lane,
- keep airport access separate from city licensing,
- and reopen the analysis if the work starts looking more like fleet, livery, or repeated home-based pickup operations.
- If the business base is in Detroit, add one more local review layer.
- Detroit's BSEED guidance says not all businesses need a city license, routes operators through business-type and zoning checks, and currently lists motor vehicles for hire as rickshaw or peddle cab.
- The current official Motor Vehicle for Hire guide then reinforces that narrowing by only listing Pedal Cab/Rickshaw as the live license type with bond or insurance, Treasury, and Police clearance requirements.
- Detroit's official zoning page points operators to Chapter 50, and the current zoning code says home occupations that meet the listed standards do not need a permit or registration.
- That same zoning code then says parking or storage of commercial vehicles on residentially zoned land is prohibited for home occupations, while Detroit's definitions classify vehicles used to transport passengers for hire as commercial vehicles.
- Detroit's separate licensing FAQ repeats the same "some, not all" license boundary, which helps show that the city-license question is category-based rather than automatic.
- Detroit Treasury separately uses broader wording about Detroit-based businesses that need a license or conduct business in the city, and the same page also lists clearer trigger buckets like needing a business license, being a city vendor or prospective vendor, seeking Detroit Based Certification, working as a contractual city employee, or being a casino worker, while also offering both individual and business clearance applications and naming Sole Proprietor/Single Member LLC inside the business track.
- Detroit's current income-tax hub also keeps Income Tax and Business Income Tax as distinct city follow-up paths, and the April 29, 2026 recheck sharpens that split because the city still publishes individual resident and non-resident rates while the separate business-income-tax page is centered on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and the old city filing transition.
- The practical reading for this pack is that the local branch is real but still not source-closed for the ordinary solo Uber home-base lane, because the packet now has a concrete zoning question about commercial-vehicle parking or storage at a residential home base and a separate Treasury question about whether the broader city-business wording reaches this narrower fact pattern without the clearer listed trigger facts.
- The safest operational reading for this pack is that a residential Detroit home base with a passengers-for-hire vehicle should be routed into direct city closeout rather than treated as part of the simple statewide baseline.
- Inside that direct city-closeout lane, the current official tax record is at least cleaner than before: resident and non-resident individual income tax is the default city-tax branch, while the separate Business Income Tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and employer withholding rather than the ordinary solo-driver baseline.
- Keep DTW airport operations separate from the city branch even when both questions point back to the Detroit metro area.
- 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
Trip Operations, Worker-Status, and State Boundary
The reviewed official record did not identify a separate statewide seller-registration or ordinary solo-driver permit branch for the baseline Uber passenger-driver lane.
Keep the company registration branch separate from the ordinary beginner-driver setup.
Public statute says the application includes name, address, age, operator's license number, driving history, registration information, and automobile liability insurance information before the driver may accept requests.
Michigan requires written terms-of-service warnings about personal-policy exclusions and loan or lease risks.
Public statute says local units may not impose a TNC-related tax, fee, or license on the company, driver, or personal vehicle when it relates to prearranged rides.
Official insurance record keeps the logged-on 50/100/25 floor plus no-fault coverages and the $1,000,000 engaged-trip floor explicit.
Public statute keeps the no-hours, no-territory, no-exclusivity, and written-agreement conditions explicit.
Public statute keeps the signage or emblem rule visible for vehicles in TNC service or available for requests.
Platform Setup
Stable public Uber baseline for age, experience, and required documents, but live market and action-date re-checks still matter.
Public help explains upload steps, rejection reasons, and review posture.
Public help keeps the background-check process explicit.
Public page gives the broad U.S. baseline, but the live market-eligibility screen still controls.
Seed payout baseline; account-specific fast-payout options still need action-date confirmation.
Public Uber page explains the current broad coverage framework, but state-law and personal-policy fit still need closeout.
Insurance Checkpoint
Michigan's official statute keeps the logged-on 50/100/25 plus no-fault layer and the $1,000,000 engaged-trip requirement explicit.
Platform page remains useful for broad operational posture, but it does not replace the state statute or employer-side workers' compensation and payroll analysis.
Detroit And Airport Seed Branch
Detroit says not all businesses need a city license, routes operators through a business-type and zoning check, and currently lists motor vehicles for hire as rickshaw or peddle cab, which narrows the ordinary solo-driver license theory without fully closing the local branch.
Detroit's current licensing FAQ separately repeats that some, not all, business types need a business license and points founders back to the licensing division, which helps confirm the category-based local branch.
The current official guide only shows Pedal Cab/Rickshaw under motor vehicles for hire and requires bond or insurance, Treasury, and Police clearances plus Detroit Police vehicle inspection, which materially narrows the ordinary rideshare-license theory.
Keep this branch visible until the draft closes whether any part of it applies to an ordinary home-base Uber driver.
The city's current zoning landing page points operators to Chapter 50 on Municode as the official zoning ordinance source for detailed use standards.
Action-date review on April 29, 2026 confirmed the current zoning code says home occupations that comply with the listed standards do not need a permit or registration, but it also prohibits parking or storage of commercial vehicles on residentially zoned land for home occupations, which means a residential Detroit rideshare home base should be routed into direct city closeout instead of being treated as a clean ordinary statewide baseline.
Action-date review on April 29, 2026 confirmed Detroit's zoning definitions classify vehicles used to transport passengers for hire as commercial vehicles, which sharpens the residential parking or storage question for an ordinary Uber home-base packet.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the page uses broad conduct business within the city wording, asks narrower trigger questions about business licenses, city-vendor status, Detroit Based Certification, contractual city employment, and casino work, and also offers both individual and business clearance applications while naming Sole Proprietor/Single Member LLC in the business track, which makes the branch more concrete but still does not fully close whether an ordinary solo-driver home base must obtain clearance absent those clearer city-facing facts.
Detroit's current income-tax hub keeps separate Income Tax and Business Income Tax tracks visible, which is why the direct city-closeout lane should start by choosing the right city tax path instead of flattening all tax questions into one branch.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the city still publishes resident-individual and non-resident-individual rates and keeps employer-withholding information visible, which makes the ordinary solo-driver city-tax branch look more like an individual-tax question than a hidden city-license theory.
Action-date recheck on April 29, 2026 confirmed the separate business-income-tax page is focused on corporations, partnerships, trusts, estates, and the old 2015/2016 city filing transition, which makes the direct Detroit city-closeout lane look more like an individual-income-tax-first branch for an ordinary solo-driver packet unless the city instructs otherwise.
Use this as the official airport start point for terminal, parking, and ground-transportation references.
Action-date review on April 29, 2026 confirmed the current Uber page says drivers wait in the FIFO Rideshare Hold Lot accessed via Goddard Road and 94 Service Dr, do not wait in the Ground Transportation Center, check in at the booth with the electronic waybill after accepting a request, load from a parking space in the Ground Transportation Center, and use departures for dropoffs.
Official airport page says passengers can only meet drivers in the designated rideshare area inside the McNamara Parking Garage on Level 4 or the Big Blue Deck on Level 1.
Official airport regulations say reserved or pre-arranged operators must pick up in a Ground Transportation Center, check in at the booth in the vehicle staging lot, and use the McNamara Level 4 staging lot plus defined queuing areas, which materially strengthens the driver-flow side of the packet and independently reinforces the booth and staging structure shown on the live Uber page.
Official airport page says only customers with advanced reservations may use unauthorized ground transportation services and that soliciting is prohibited, which helps keep airport-provider authorization separate from the ordinary passenger pickup geometry.
Retained Follow-Up
Walmart Marketplace in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open Walmart Marketplace in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations or registration decision in place before launch, but keep marketplace-only tax relief, resale sourcing, and any future direct or off-platform sales as separate questions.
- Verify county, city, and Detroit permit, zoning, and local-tax rules if the business will operate there.
- Apply to Walmart Marketplace, complete the full public 5-step onboarding flow, and choose your fulfillment path.
- Launch only after your product, tax, shipping, and compliance setup are ready.
- Assuming marketplace tax collection answers every Michigan tax question
- Using resale documents without matching the actual Michigan fact pattern
- Treating Walmart Marketplace like a direct-store channel
- Buying used or refurbished inventory assuming Walmart allows it by default
- Pricing before confirming the actual Walmart referral-fee category
- Ignoring Detroit local-license, zoning, occupancy, or local-tax rules for a home-based setup
- Launching with weak supplier documentation
- Missing entity-maintenance dates
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- If the business operates in Detroit, add one more review layer.
- Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license.
- Detroit's BSEED licensing page says you should establish the business first and check zoning before applying.
- Detroit's zoning page says that after required inspections pass, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if the land use also needs a business license, the license can then be issued. The city says only then may the new use be opened and operated.
- Detroit's local tax branch is separate enough that you should review the city's income-tax and withholding pages directly before relying on a generic Michigan-only setup checklist.
- 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 public 5-step onboarding flow.
Public page lists business tax ID or business license, supporting documents, ecommerce history, GTINs, compliant catalog, and WFS or another B2C U.S. warehouse path.
Public page lists category-based referral fees and WFS fee examples verified on April 28, 2026.
Public page says an active USPTO trademark is required for each brand.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public guide covers state business registration number, document upload, and conditional identity verification.
Public guide covers business verification, payouts, store setup, WFS, seller-fulfilled shipping, and catalog setup.
Public guide says WFS handles storage, pick, pack, shipping, customer support, and returns.
Public guide covers discounted labels, seller protections, and carrier options.
Public policy hub links to prohibited-products, returns, tax, pricing, tracking, and suspension rules.
Public page says products not in new condition are prohibited unless the seller is invited to the Resold program.
Public page says covered items must comply with applicable law and have valid GCC documentation where required.
Insurance Checkpoint
Public policy says sellers must submit a COI if they exceed $100,000 in GMV in any 12-month period or if Walmart notifies them directly.
Detroit Branch
City page says some, not all, business types need a Detroit business license and says to establish the business and check zoning first.
City zoning page says after required inspections a Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and if a business license is also required, only then may the new use be opened and operated.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and re-check whether local business-income-tax or withholding filings apply to your fact pattern.
Walmart Tax, Payments, and Performance Notes
Public guide says Walmart collects and remits marketplace tax where required on facilitated marketplace sales; use the controlling state marketplace-facilitator rule in this packet for the state-specific collection answer.
Public page says U.S. sellers can use Marketplace Wallet, Hyperwallet, Payoneer, or PingPong; payouts are generally biweekly 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.
Public page verified on April 28, 2026 lists performance metrics and says failure can lead to suppression, suspension, or termination.
Public page says Walmart can automatically unpublish egregiously overpriced offers.
WooCommerce in Michigan: what changes
If you want to open WooCommerce in Michigan, you usually need to do five things in order:
- Choose your setup: sole proprietorship vs single-member LLC.
- Get your federal and Michigan registrations in place before direct taxable sales, and keep the public-name branch straight if the storefront name differs from the legal name.
- Verify local permit, zoning, occupancy, storage, and city-tax rules if the business operates from a Detroit or other local address.
- Choose the hosting path, install WooCommerce, and complete payments, taxes, shipping, policy pages, checkout, and domain setup.
- Launch only after the product, tax, fulfillment, and compliance setup is ready for a direct storefront rather than a marketplace shortcut.
- treating a direct WooCommerce store like a marketplace-facilitator shortcut,
- assuming Detroit licensing, zoning, occupancy, or city-income-tax questions are too local to matter,
- using resale paperwork before the underlying direct-sales registration branch is actually clear,
- assuming hosting, SSL, payment-gateway verification, or extension limits are already handled because the core plugin is free,
- turning on automated tax, labels, live rates, or Local Pickup before the extension and local branches are actually ready,
- launching before the chosen payment processor, domain, and test checkout have all cleared,
- assuming a 3PL or home-shipping workaround solves the compliance problem by itself,
- mixing personal and business money or failing to keep order, refund, tax, and supplier records aligned,
- leaving WordPress, WooCommerce, themes, or extensions unmanaged after launch.
- Michigan pushes many naming, permit, zoning, and occupancy questions down to counties and municipalities.
- For any place where the business will operate:
- check the Michigan business start pages,
- contact the county clerk if you need an assumed-name filing,
- contact the city, village, or township office,
- ask zoning or building staff whether storing inventory, receiving shipments, or running business operations at the address is allowed,
- ask whether home occupation rules apply,
- ask whether storage or shipment prep changes the zoning answer,
- ask whether signage or customer pickup triggers another permit question,
- ask whether parking, carrier activity, or nonresident helpers change the local answer,
- ask whether occupancy, fire, or building approvals are required,
- keep written answers with the address and date when possible.
- Typical local risk areas:
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
- signage
- parking and carrier activity
- business occupancy or building approvals
- city-income-tax registration if the business is based in Detroit
- If the business operates in Detroit, keep BSEED licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city income-tax / withholding checks visible.
- Detroit can add local licensing, zoning, occupancy, and city-income-tax checks that should not be flattened into statewide Michigan guidance.
- 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.
Public page says there are no platform fees and no revenue share.
Public WordPress.com packaging changed on April 2, 2026; support pages reviewed on April 6, 2026 still distinguish between Business and Commerce Woo paths in ways that matter.
Fulfillment, Logistics, or Store Operations
Public docs say general settings include business address, sell and ship regions, tax calculations, and currency.
Public guide says WooPayments is optional, requires a supported country, and integrates payouts in the WordPress admin.
Public fee tables are detailed and time-sensitive. Do not flatten them into one universal number.
Public docs say most countries pay out to bank accounts, while U.S. merchants can also add a debit card.
Public docs explain software configuration, not the legal duty to register or collect.
Public docs say automated tax comes from the WooCommerce Tax extension path and overrides parts of normal manual-tax behavior.
Core starts with Flat Rate, Free Shipping, and Local Pickup. Core shipping does not include live checkout rates.
Public docs say WooCommerce Shipping can print labels and set return addresses, but live checkout rates require separate extensions.
Public docs show the fulfillment system is extensible and 3rd-party tools can extend statuses and workflows.
Public docs say the Analytics section supports filtering, segmentation, CSV export, and dashboard reporting.
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, payment-processor, and 3PL contracts can still add their own insurance requirements.
Detroit Branch
Detroit says some, not all, business types need a city business license and that zoning should be checked first.
City zoning page says inspections can lead to a certificate of occupancy before the use is opened.
Use the city's current income-tax hub and re-check whether local business-income-tax or withholding filings apply to your fact pattern.
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 Michigan 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 Michigan
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 Michigan packs.
Statewide Start
Statewide business portal that points founders to startup resources, permits, tax, and workforce links.
Official LARA roadmap used here as the main Michigan startup guide.
Treasury page for online new-business registration and tax-obligation guidance.
Entity Choice and Formation
Official LARA guide used here for Michigan business-type and startup orientation.
Public page says the name must be distinguishable and that a different operating name uses CSCL/CD-541.
Public form shows the current filing fee and the resident-agent / registered-office structure.
No separate Michigan LLC initial report or publication requirement was identified in the official sources reviewed on April 27, 2026.
Public LARA page gives due-date rules and confirms the annual-statement requirement.
Sole Proprietor and Local Name Filings
Official Michigan guidance says sole proprietors and co-partners file assumed names with the county clerk, while corporations and LLCs file with the state.
Official LARA brochure says assumed names of sole proprietorships are filed with the county clerk and points founders to county resources.
Federal and State Tax Setup
Use the direct IRS path only.
Keep the federal income-tax and records branch explicit even if the platform-collected guest-tax lane narrows later.
Treasury says use tax applies to hotel and motel accommodations and that returns and payments are due monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on Treasury's assigned filing frequency, with an annual return due by February 28.
Treasury says use tax is due on rooms or lodging furnished by hotelkeepers, motel operators, and other persons furnishing accommodations available to the public on a commercial basis, but no tax is due if the room is rented to the same tenant for a continuous period of more than 1 month.
Treasury's general FAQ says you must register and pay use tax if you rent hotel and motel rooms or other accommodations. Treat this as the default direct-host rule unless the marketplace-facilitator bulletin changes the result.
Treasury's bulletin resolves the pure marketplace lane much more tightly than the general FAQ. It says a marketplace facilitator is not the taxpayer for taxable accommodations if the accommodations provider is already registered for sales or use tax, but if an unregistered accommodations provider makes only facilitated sales through the marketplace, the marketplace facilitator must collect and remit the tax. The same bulletin also says a marketplace seller that only makes facilitated sales and not direct sales should not register for sales or use tax and has no filing obligation.
Airbnb's public Michigan page says guests booking Michigan listings pay Use Tax: 6% of the listing price including any cleaning fee for reservations 30 nights and shorter. The same page separately lists county taxes for at least Genesee County and Kent County, so the state use-tax answer does not erase county follow-up.
Airbnb says it automatically collects and remits certain taxes on behalf of hosts, but hosts may still need to manually collect and remit other taxes. The article also says hosts can check whether a listing is inside Airbnb's automatic tax-collection lane in the listing tax settings.
Entity Tax Maintenance
Public IRS page covers default federal classification and election paths.
No separate public Michigan LLC franchise-tax filing was identified in the official source set reviewed on April 27, 2026.
Federal Reporting
As of April 29, 2026, domestic entities are exempt from BOI reporting under the public interim-final-rule guidance.
Public FinCEN status page keeps the current domestic-entity exemption visible and is a good second-source check when the Q&A language changes.
Employees, Payroll, and Insurance
Michigan uses the same Treasury registration flow for sales, use, and withholding tax setup.
Public UIA employer hub is the current start point for employer unemployment accounts and filings.
Public page gives the 1 full-time worker for 13 weeks or 3 workers at one time coverage thresholds and explains who counts as an employee.
Public LEO page says the act took effect February 21, 2025 and links the required poster and FAQ.
Public FAQ gives current accrual, use, carryover, notice, and small-business timing rules.
Public page confirms exclusion forms exist, but this combo did not verify every exact owner-exemption form identifier.
Local follow-up Local checks that can still change the answer
- Michigan 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.
- short-term-rental permit or registration
- zoning and building-type limits
- occupancy and parking limits
- county accommodation or hotel taxes
- HOA, condo, lease, lender, and insurer restrictions
- county assumed-name filing
- home occupation restrictions
- zoning for storage and shipment prep
Detroit: family-specific local split
- Detroit is not one universal local branch for Michigan; the exact city answer changes by family and sometimes by platform.
- Detroit storefront lanes can reopen city tax-account, business-license, home-occupation, zoning, storage, or use-permit questions depending on the address and setup.
- Detroit 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.
- Detroit 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.
- Detroit 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 Detroit.
Representative flagship routes
Frequently asked questions
- Does Michigan 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 Michigan 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.