MN Commercial Operations - Fees!

Dfly · Mar 13, 2022

Are there any other commercial operators here in MN who have had the pleasure of forking over $$ to the money hungry state of Minnesota? I’ve gone through all the FAA requirements, figured out insurance, LLC registration with the state, banking etc, only to stumble across the state’s requirement to also register my drone with them AND register my commercial business with them…and of course pay them $25/yr for the drone reg and $30/yr for the commercial ops registration.

Does anyone have the slightest idea what kind of services we commercial drone operators are getting from the state in exchange???

gschulzuio · Mar 19, 2022

Dfly said:
Are there any other commercial operators here in MN who have had the pleasure of forking over $$ to the money hungry state of Minnesota? I’ve gone through all the FAA requirements, figured out insurance, LLC registration with the state, banking etc, only to stumble across the state’s requirement to also register my drone with them AND register my commercial business with them…and of course pay them $25/yr for the drone reg and $30/yr for the commercial ops registration.

Does anyone have the slightest idea what kind of services we commercial drone operators are getting from the state in exchange???

Yes, have had multiple aircraft registered with MnDoT since 2018 at $100/year per aircraft, in addition to annual license fee as an operator, insurance requirements, registered with SoS as business and so forth.

The good news, well kind of is that as of early summer 2021 MnDoT has decreased from $100 to $25 per year or aircraft. Its not great news however certainly better than what it was.

As for what what services from MnDoT as a commercial drone operator do you get for those annual fee's? Well, there's the spiral bound airport directory they send out each year

plus you get listed in their PDF document list of licensed drone operators in the state (also includes those from out of state who are licensed to operator in MN), and, per the legislature who made the rules, you also get to operate legally as a drone operator in Minnesota.

Where in MN are you located? Im in the east metro.

Dfly · Mar 19, 2022

Oh yay! I’m sure lots of potential clients are looking to the state when trying to find a drone pilot

. That is good that they lowered it though.

I’m up in Elk River, so I try to just focus my efforts between the NW and west metro, where I also work my FT job. I know that limits my numbers, but my goal is to remain low volume and just supplement the income. That way I can be a little more attentive to detail, plus better maintain that life balance.

Another question regarding taxes - From what I’ve deduced from the state dept of revenue, MN doesn’t require photography services to collect sales taxes. Is that what you’ve concluded as well?

gschulzuio · Mar 19, 2022

Dfly said:
Oh yay! I’m sure lots of potential clients are looking to the state when trying to find a drone pilot . That is good that they lowered it though.

I’m up in Elk River, so I try to just focus my efforts between the NW and west metro, where I also work my FT job. I know that limits my numbers, but my goal is to remain low volume and just supplement the income. That way I can be a little more attentive to detail, plus better maintain that life balance.

Another question regarding taxes - From what I’ve deduced from the state dept of revenue, MN doesn’t require photography services to collect sales taxes. Is that what you’ve concluded as well?

I have had clients who find me via the MnDOT list of business, as well as clients who validated that I was on the list as it was part of their requirements and attention to detail process.

curd1 · Mar 19, 2022

It took me about an hour and $55 to register my company and my drone
The statute says provide proof of insurability. I use on-demand insurance and that's all I had to say on the application.

gschulzuio · Mar 19, 2022

curd1 said:
It took me about an hour and $55 to register my company and my drone
The statute says provide proof of insurability. I use on-demand insurance and that's all I had to say on the application.

Thats a good point and improvement as well that you no longer need to have the longer duration continuous insurance they required in the past. Most of my renewals for last year occurred shortly before they lowered the amount so still had to pay $100 for each of several aircraft. Was crazy that they wanted $100 a year for a Mavic Mini, for a private jet, that would be a bargain. Then people wonder why MN has somewhere around $8B budget surplus...