How we source and check the guides
Every fact in Placetta's license guides comes from an official government form or an agency's own web page, and every filing links to that page. If a fact can't be traced to an official source, it isn't published.
The official-source rule
Each guide lists the filings in the order they are made, with the agency, how each is filed, the government fee and a link to the agency's own page. The facts come from Placetta's library of official forms (401 forms), and each one is checked against the agency's own page or the form itself.
For 284 of those forms, Placetta keeps a passage-level proof: a sentence of under 25 words copied from the official page that states the requirement, the address of the page it was read on and the day it was read. A guide shows the latest of those days as "Sources checked"; the latest read was on October 21, 2026.
What we don't publish
No invented numbers, no testimonials and no ratings in the guides. Fees are the government's own; build-out, insurance and adviser costs are on top and are said to be. When a city's filings are the same for several kinds of business and no official page states anything that differs between them, one guide is indexed and names the others, so search engines don't see the same page twice. Where an official page does state a difference for one kind of business, such as a bakery's wholesale registration or a coffee shop's inspection category, that guide quotes it in the agency's own words, with the link and the day it was read.
Review and dates
A person reviews new government facts before they go live. Each page shows the date its content last changed, and its structured data carries the date it was first published and the date it last changed.
Limits
The guides are general information, not legal or tax advice. Placetta is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Where a step requires a licensed attorney or customs broker, you engage one directly. Agency requirements change; check the agency's page before you file.
Corrections
To report an error, write to support@placetta.com with the page and the agency source.