It seems that we’ve got the AtlantaCuisine.com forums talking about the Liquor License Non-Renewal too. And these are some knowledgeable folks!

Read the thread here or at least check out the comment below from the thread that gives the best explanation I’ve seen on how one could potentially get tripped up by the endlessly bureaucratic liquor license process.

“For those unaware, it takes two alcohol permits to be in business: a state license in order to purchase from a wholeslaer and a city (or county if you are in an unincorporated area) to sell to customers. Plus, the local license is wortheless unles you also have the state permit.

Well, lets see here. Most companies with more than a handfull of employees use a payroll service and they automatically take out state payroll taxes each pay period. The cost to renew the STATE permit is $200 (L,B,&W) and could be done online this year and paid with a credit card. So if the state is refusing to renew permits because these businesses owe money to the state, it almost certainly has to be because they are not remitting the sales and use tax due the 20th of each month for the previous month.

I would also venture to say some think we are still living in the good ol’ days when you could send in your renewal after Christmas and not have to worry about anything til the end of March. As long as your application was in and the state had the check, distributors could continue to ship to businesses as long as they could verify the renewal had been approved and the business was just waiting for the permit to be delivered in the mail. If things drug out past March, you could get a temporary permit until the permanent one arrived (we printed one out from online a few years back when by April we still hadnt received the permit we applied fopr the previous November!). All that changed two years ago.

At that time, the state issued an edict that all businesses selling alcohol had to have their new permits posted on the wall by Jan 1 or wholesalers couldn’t deliver to your business. It was put upon the distributors to verify the permits were posted or face heavy fines. Well, the word didnt come down until around Thanksgiving that year (maybe after) and there was a scramble to get everything done. We also still had to post a Surety Bond to get the permit (that requirement has since been dropped). With so many people scrambling at the last minute, two or three extensions were granted and I think we wound up having until the end of January to post the permits. But we were all forwarned that no such mercy would be shown in the future and so here we are.

I am sure there is a combination of reasons why all those permits havent been renewed. Yes, I recognize many closed establishments. That doesnt necessarily mean they owe taxes just that last year they had a permit and it wasnt renewed this year. The state could be behind on processing (though we had all our alcohol permits in place by Christmas, we didnt get our final county permit renewal until last weekend even though the application was submitted before Thanksgiving). And I am sure some are truly in debt.

LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL THOSE WHO WISH TO RUN THEIR OWN BUSINESS-PAY YOUR TAXES AND PROTECT THOSE PERMITS AND LICENSES. Dont float loans out of payroll taxes. Dont say you will pay sales tax next month. Have an accountant calculate what you owe as you owe it and get those reports and checks in on time each month. This is non-negotiable. Otherwise, stay up on the porch”