[Natsu]

If I understand you correctly, while it's not a license, you must have one to do business and you can be punished for not having one.

So I have to ask exactly how many businesses can you give me the names & addresses of which legally operate in the USA without any sort of government paperwork which they could punish you for operating without?

[true_religion]

My understanding is that we were talking about removing the idea of a business as seperate legal entity, not stopping capitalism in general and preventing people from exchanging money for goods or services.

As such, the only 'business' licence of interest is one which would prevent an individual, real, breathing human being from selling goods, or providing services to the general public.

The requirement that you must personally fill out a sales tax form is not that. This is really just on par with the law that says 'if you make an income, you must fill out your income tax forms'. The only penalty for ignoring it is paying additional administrative costs (and perhaps a small punitive fine) because you made everything harder for everyone.

Edit: And importantly, no one can stop you from filling the form so it can't be called a barrier to entry.