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Maybe I skipped a day in my English Literature classes when they explained this one, but I was always under the impression that "poetic license" was just a turn of phrase, not an actual license. Turns out I was wrong: according to an article I just read on Writers Weekly, entitled "She's Got a License to Write," it seems you really DO need a license to write.
In the article, former San Diegan Liz Swain explains how she received a letter in her P.O. box informing her that since she had a home-based business, she was required to pay back taxes for the business license she had failed to procure. For writing. In her home.
My initial reaction was to shout at my computer, "Is this for real?!" I mean, who on earth has ever heard of a freelancer being charged to freelance? Isn't this why we all avoid writing for those pay-per-click websites like Suite101 and Helium? I can't honestly believe that the city of San Diego thinks writers, who make so little at what they do to begin with, are going to shell out cash for a business license when their business doesn't require much more than a pen and a few scraps of paper.
Furthermore, since when do government agencies like the city of San Diego claim to license writers to practice their craft? If you want proof of my abilities, you should read my work, not hit up the Better Business Bureau. Or, if need be, you could ask me if I have a degree in writing (which I do; it's an Honours BA in Creative Writing and English Literature, a program from which I graduated With Distinction, to be exact). I hardly think that having a small business license is appropriate for someone whose "products" are visual, creative, ephemeral in nature, rather than the types of off-gassing physical byproducts most businesses require licenses to operate.
To me, it's simply absurd that one would even consider taxing writers in this underhanded way. And if the excuse is that the city is hard-up for cash, well, maybe they should consider going after the types of businesses—home-based or otherwise—that are polluting the planet and ruining people's lives, rather than trying to squeeze more pennies out of the writers that help bring attention to all the world's triumphs and tribulations. Don't you think?
