Morro Bay is giving businessess who are out of compliance with their business licenses a 90 day window to meet their requirements without penalty. After conducting an audit, “city officials estimate that Morro Bay has lost about $200,000 in revenue per year in business license taxes — about 2 percent of the city’s general fund.”

“An audit conducted for the council expects the city to recoup about $1 million in unpaid taxes and penalties, Buckingham said. With a penalty waiver, that amount could drop to about $700,000.”

In Rome, GA, they are discussing an increased liquor license fee. Most municipalities typically create a limited number of alcohol licenses in the first place. Then all the businesses have to vie for those available licenses. It does not seem to be the case for Rome, GA, but we have been seeing that more and more localities are limiting the amount of licenses available.

“An informal survey conducted by the Rome News-Tribune found that Rome’s volume-based rate is relatively rare.

Dalton charges businesses $750 annually each for beer and wine pouring licenses, and $2,000 for liquor, while Cartersville only provides a combined beer-wine pouring license for $900, and a liquor pouring license for $1,500.”

The city of Alabaster, AL is trying to strike a compromise with hospitals and warehouse owners on an amended business license fee structure.

“The revision approved by the council in June removed a $15 million cap on gross receipts used for calculating a business license in various categories… For both categories, the city created a multi-tiered method for implementing the new fees.”

It is not uncommon for cities to adopt multi-tiered business license fees. To learn how to stay on top of business license fee changes, contact us. We can help.

Obtaining a liquor license and paying liquor license fees can be complex and expensive depending on where you operate your business. In Mankato, MN, there is a discussion on revisiting the way liquor licenses should be charged as consumer behavior regarding drinking has changed.

“City officials are looking at kitchen facilities as one way to define which businesses are primarily restaurants and which businesses are primarily bars, Miller said. Restaurants with commercial grade burners, ovens, range hoods and larger refrigeration units are more likely to be considered a business that is focused as much on selling food as alcohol.”

In Butte County, Montana, the police are cracking down on unlicensed businesses and penalties can include fines. However, the tax clerk is partnering with local businesses to help them get licensed so they can avoid run-ins with the police.

“Businesses are required to register annually, but the county prefers to work with people to get licensed instead of taking a punitive approach. If people don’t, police can ticket and fine them.”

The big takeaway from the New Hampshire Business Review’s article about the state’s new healthcare licensing laws:

“If you are a health care provider subject to the law, you should promptly educate your workforce about the licensing and reporting requirements. You should also consult with legal counsel to implement appropriate policies and procedures for ensuring compliance with this law.”

We know from experience that healthcare providers struggle with tracking not just their company’s business licenses but also their workforce’s business licenses. We recently delved into the topic in a recent healthcare compliance webinar which you can access here. In particular, look for the first question in the Q&A about telemedicine and the third question about individual pharmacists. Lorraine Cody’s responses are very insightful.

While you’re at it, also request a demo of the BLMS module that helps track professional licenses. This is exactly what it’s designed to do.

You can’t work with licensing authorities for a living without getting moderately cynical and we half-heartedly plead guilty to that charge. Earlier this year, we conducted a public poll of licensing experts and found that we were in good company – cynicism is widely shared among our colleagues in tax and legal departments across the country and that world-weary cynicism is perfectly encapsulated by the question, “Why do licensing authorities pass new compliance laws?” Overwhelmingly, people responded that the main reason is to close revenue gaps in the municipality. To protect the public’s safety and well-being was a distant second.

That widespread perception may have been influenced by the sour state of America’s economy (it really is true that local municipalities are starved of much needed revenue) or it may be a permanent fact of the business license compliance landscape. Either way, we take satisfaction in highlighting instances of licensing authorities ramping up their enforcement of laws and even creating new laws when there really is a strong public safety concern at heart.

Yesterday, New Hampshire passed a new law that will require medical technicians to seek licensure from the New Hampshire Board of Registered Medical Technicians prior to practicing or advertising services in New Hampshire. These licenses will require applications and fees along with fingerprints and criminal history reports.

Why the fuss? It all dates back to 2011 when a traveling medical technician named David Kwiatkowski infected dozens of patients at Exeter Hospital with Hepatitis C. The New Hampshire Business Review has all the details on the new law and what it means for healthcare companies in the region.

We don’t wade into public controversies, we haven’t researched this particular issue, and we have nothing – neither positive nor negative – to say about Donald Trump. However, this licensing incident does highlight an important message that we’ve spent years trying to promulgate. When you get smacked with a noncompliance charge, the damage to your brand can significantly outweigh the monetary costs to your balance sheet.

“Donald Trump is personally liable for operating a for-profit investment school without the required license, a New York judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General against the real estate entrepreneur.

New York state Supreme Court Justice Cynthia S. Kern said he was notified by the state in 2005 that his Trump Entrepreneur Initiative – known as Trump University until 2010 – was in violation of state education law.”

“Damages will be determined later, “ the article goes on to say. Well yes, but this headline (“New York judge finds Donald Trump liable for unlicensed school”) has been picked up by news outlets across the globe. Damages aside, it’s fair to say that the harm to Donald Trump’s reputation has already been signed, sealed, and delivered.