Is there anywhere that you can you fish on Long Island without a license?

Wholesale fish license in New York State?

• I was wondering what is involved in obtaining a wholesale fish license in New York. I have a couple of fish tanks and it's become a big hobby of mine but the hobby gets expensive and with a couple of tanks I tend to buy fish quite often. I was thinking it may be cost effective to obtain a wholesale license so i can cut down on the cost of the fish and maybe start selling a few fish here and there in the process. Does anyone know what is required to obtain a wholesale license for fish in New York? There's not much about it online and i'm not quite sure it's worth it just for a hobby's sake and not so much to have an actual business. If anyone does know how to obtain the wholesale license it would be greatly appreciated if they can advise the easiest way to go about doing so. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Your hobby is still hobby size. At one point in my fish hobby I had over a hundred tanks and was breeding and raising many species of fish for the Breeders Award Points from local aquarium clubs and for local fish club auctions. It was not until I started raising more live daphnia than I needed for all my tanks and started selling it online that I needed to set up my hobby as a business at my tax accountant's instruction. The "big profit" from the daphnia sales was more than offset by all the business expenses of maintaining the fish tanks that provided the tempered water daphnia need, heating and electrifying a 40 by 15 foot fish room, and replacing and getting needed equipment and supplies. Keeping all those financial records was not my idea of a hobby, and it was no fun to know to the penny just how much money and time was invested and lost into it. For the year I was selling daphnia I actually was in a business.If your get a wholesale or retailer license just to get thing cheaper or avoid New York state sales tax, there might be a risk you could cause some beaurocrat to suspect you of fraud or worse, you might be red flagging your tax returns for an I R S a u d i t. Get a lawyer to advise you on this and set up what is proper.