A recycling business operating on Gary’s West Side had its privileges revoked last week when Gary city officials shut down the business for not being in compliance with city ordinances.

The business was discovered to be operating without a general business license. The owners were originally denied an opportunity to apply for a business license because the location, a residential neighborhood, is not zoned for a recycling type business. In addition to operating without a business license, the recycling business was also violating the city’s zoning ordinance.

The Town of Columbus is out approximately $3,500 a year after the state took away municipalities’ ability to charge privilege license taxes, or business licenses.

Columbus Town Council met Thursday, Oct. 15 and approved repealing its business licenses. The main reason being that the privilege tax has been applied inconsistently throughout the state. Privilege licenses are paid to towns and cities for the “privilege” of doing business in municipalities. Similar businesses in nearby towns often ended up paying very different business licenses for the same service because of how each city or town calculated its licenses.

“We would have to look at not having beer or liquor. I’m worried it’s going to cripple our business,” Jessica Frazey said of what would happen if the Supreme Court rules with previous courts that have said Pender sits within the Omaha Indian Reservation, thus giving the tribe authority to regulate the businesses and impose taxes.

Businesses in Pender that sell alcohol are awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on whether or not they are subject to an Omaha Tribe of Nebraska ordinance that would require them to buy a tribal liquor license and pay sales taxes to the tribe on top of what they already pay in state licensing fees and taxes.  The additional costs could put some owners out of business.

A Gonzales man was arrested Tuesday for operating a bar without a valid state alcohol permit, according to the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.

The owner was booked into the Ascension Parish Jail on 210 counts of operating without a permit and his business was closed by ATC agents. The bar had been operating without a state alcohol permit since March 2015.

A changed liquor licensing ordinance went into effect Monday in Rochester Hills, MI allowing for more oversight into which restaurants, bars and taverns bring licenses into the city.

The amendment to the ordinance will provide more notice to local officials when a business applies for a license. The change will also require City Council approval of on-premises liquor licenses and license transfers, and add non-payment of taxes and other obligations as a factor in officials’ consideration of an application.

Nine people were arrested Saturday after the Bluffton Police Department and S.C. Law Enforcement Division searched a Bluffton nightclub on suspicion of operating without a business license.

The Bluffton Police Department executed a search warrant on Burroughs Bar and Grill Night Club after investigators learned that the night club was operating, charging admission and serving alcoholic beverages without a business license and alcohol permit. The owner was cited for operating without a business license and for unlawful manufacture, possession and storage of alcoholic beverages.

The small business website Thumbtack.com surveyed 17,633 small business owners across the United States and asked them about the friendliness of their states and cities toward small business.

The survey revealed that for small business owners, trying to comply with their states’ tax laws is actually more burdening than the taxes themselves. Small business owners just don’t have the resources they need to help them understand how to renew their license or how to do their taxes. If you are a small business owner facing these problems then contact us to find out how we can provide you with the best solutions to all of your licensing problems.

Eleven unlicensed contractors have been netted in a Natomas-area sting, the Contractors State Licensing Board said Tuesday.

The Contractors State License Board has been keeping busy this summer staging multiple sting operations in order to crack down on unlicensed contracting. Just last week, the CSLB cited ten unlicensed contractors in Petaluma, CA. This week eleven more were caught in a sting. All eleven suspects were issued a notice to appear in Sacramento County Superior Court for contracting without a license. Ten of the eleven were also cited for illegal advertising. Contracting law requires unlicensed operators to state in their advertisements that they are not licensed; the penalty is a fine of $700 to $1,000.

The Elmwood Park Council adopted a resolution waiving the 500 foot distance requirement between liquor license locations in the borough.

The liquor license resolution was passed in support of “free enterprise.”

The City of Tucson is offering business owners an opportunity to submit delinquent sales tax or license fees without penalty, or reduced penalty, through their Tax Amnesty Program.

The amnesty period will run from September 1 through October 30. Businesses with delinquent business license fees, tax license fees, and/or city sales tax on or before Sept. 1, 2015 are eligible for the Amnesty Program. Unlicensed businesses will also have the opportunity to obtain a business and/or tax license with a waiver of penalties during the program.