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Easier Illinois State
Liquor License Renewals
Hardly a day
goes by that we don't field a call from an insured asking for a
certificate of insurance. Most of the time, these are requests for a
certificate for the State of Illinois so that the licensee can
"run up to the office" and get their state liquor license
renewal taken care of.
The Illinois
Liquor Control has offices in Springfield and Chicago. For
most, this is not a brief trip, but rather something you have to
clear a morning or afternoon for. You can also renew by mail,
but that's not always the best option for the procrastinators among
us.
But did you
know that you can renew your liquor license online and save yourself
the trip? As of last September, it's now possible to renew your
state liquor license immediately from the comfort of your home
or office.
You will need
a couple of documents in an electronic format - your local liquor
license and a certificate of insurance showing valid liquor liability
coverage. We can get you the cert in an electronic format
- emailing them to you is our preferred method. You get
your cert right away and we save a stamp.
The local
liquor license could be a bit trickier. Many folks don't have a
desktop scanner, despite them being pretty affordable nowadays.
An alternative would be to snap a picture with your camera
phone. Most phones now have cameras that shoot in pretty good
detail. Take a picture of your local license, email it to
yourelf and save the image file of your license with the Adobe PDF
we'd send you of your certificate to your computer, somewhere easy to
access.
Now, head on
over to the Illinois Department of
Revenue's website. In the middle of the page is a green box
with the heading "Businesses". Find the e-Services
link below it and click on it.
On the
following page, find the link to "File, Pay and Manage Your
Account" and click on that.
You will need
a login for the Illinois My Tax webiste. You may already have
one for filing your sales and payroll taxes. If not, it only takes a
few minutes to creat a new one.
Once logged
in, in the menu on the far left, find the link that says "Annual
Liquor License". Click on it and you're have to navigate
through some questions to verify the information on the
license. Once you're done, in that menu bar running vertically
on the far left side of the web page, you'll have to locate and
upload the two documents needed - your certificate and local liquor
license. You can then submit your renewal application.
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Sample local liquor license.
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The restaurant
owner who pointed this out to us submitted his license renewal on
12/31. The next day, New Years Day, no less, his liquor license
was available to print from the "Letters" section of his My
Tax Illinois website (the original was mailed to him by the
ILCC). It actually appears to have been processed the same day
he submitted it (12/31). He said the process was quick and
painless. How often can you say that about dealing with a
branch of the government?
The Illinois
Liquor Control Commission has more information, including some
frequently asked questions, available on their website.
Have you ever
used the Illinois Department of Revenue website to renew you liquor
license? Ever run into any difficulties using it? What
are your thoughts on filing online? Please
share on our Facebook page.
We want to hear from you.
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