Hollister City Council voted to halt the issuance or re-issuance of tobacco retail licenses.
Since tobacco retail licenses are usually applied for in November and issued in January, local pharmacies will have six to seven months to take all tobacco products off their shelves.
As of July 1, businesses no longer need to purchase annual business privilege licenses in Fayetteville and many other cities and towns throughout North Carolina.
The state legislature had voted last year to take the licensing away from local governments following complaints that the licenses were wildly inconsistent from city to city and even within individual cities. The licenses were as small as $10 for some businesses and hundreds, even thousands of dollars for others.
The city of Bolivar, MO changed the way business license fees will be collected.
The city passed an ordinance that will allow the fees of certain business licenses to be collected through the city’s Utilities Department in conjunction with water and sewer bills. Under the new collection method, the business license fee will be broken down into equal installments of $2 over the course of the year. Businesses that do not receive a utility bill will continue to pay their business license fee on an annual basis.
Muskegon Heights passed a city liquor control ordinance that will give it more sway over businesses with liquor licenses.
The ordinance allows the city to revoke liquor licenses for violating “state and local ordinance rules concerning health, safety, moral, conduct or public welfare.”
The city of Calexico, CA is cracking down on delinquent businesses with outstanding business license fees.
Of the existing 2,667 businesses operating within the city, 670 have not paid their business license fees. The city has issued administrative citations to those businesses that have ignored repeated requests for payment. The citations carry a monetary penalty that increases with each subsequent citation. Calexico is also looking into whether it may have to eventually start revoking the licenses of those delinquent businesses and possibly close them down for failing to comply.
As part of Unlicensed Activity Awareness Week June 15 – 19, the Better Business Bureau and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation are reminding Floridians to thoroughly research professionals and businesses prior to hiring and to report suspected unlicensed individuals.
Florida law sets specific rules and guidelines for obtaining professional licenses, and the people who have met these requirements are held to professional standards. It’s probably a good time to mention that we offer solutions to companies that wish to verify the licensing status of their contractors and employees.
“Their mother, Sandi Evans says her daughters have an entrepreneurial spirit.”
Apparently without proper permits, an entrepreneurial spirit can only get you so far. Two 8 year old girls had their lemonade stand shut down by police in Overton, TX because Texas House Bill 970 “prohibits the sale of food which requires time or temperature control to prevent spoilage. Since lemonade technically must be refrigerated to prevent the growth of bacteria, by law, the girls cannot sell it without an inspection and permit.”
If these girls can get in trouble with the law for lack of proper permits, then no business is safe. Give us a call at 1-800-679-3611 and we’ll help keep your business, reputation, and lemonade safe.
Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office rolled out a version of his plan last week getting rid of the complicated 30-category Business License Fee ranging from $400 to $4 million a year that numerous businesses objected to.
In its place was a business license tax of up to $500 for corporations and $300 for all other businesses filing with the secretary of state and a higher Modified Business Tax.
“We’re kind of forced to pay the piper on these charges, because you don’t get a clean slate when a license transfers,” Nelson said last month, after he and city officials arrived at an accommodation of sorts.
This story is all too common. A Trenton, NJ bar owner will have to pay for the previous owner’s violations because of the way his city’s liquor license laws operate. To be clear, we don’t take a stance on the law. We just advise businesses to always pay close attention to the licensing status of their new acquisitions. Who knows what they’ll find when they conduct a business license gap analysis.
[The Director of Community Planning] implemented a seasonal license that lasts 90 days and increased the temporary license from seven to 10 days. Adding business license categories creates more flexibility for merchants. Previously, Langley only offered a seven-day or year-long license.
Seasonal licenses are obviously nothing new. They are typically good for 3 months, so if an applicant is signing a lease for a location, they definitely need to factor in the processing time for the license. It’s imperative that they make sure there’s more than enough time for the license to be processed before the date the license is set to begin.
