Business Licenses and Permits:: Published by Corporation Service Company » Blog Archive » Unsuccessful licensing amnesty nears its end in Moreno Valley

The business licensing amnesty programme in Moreno Valley, California is set to come to a close.

Family-owned businesses in the area have benefitted from the city’s one-time offer to waive financial charges that they have accumulated over the last few years, since September 2011, but the scheme is about to end, the Press-Enterprise reported.

According to Brooke McKinney, the city’s treasury operations division manager, only half of participants had been out of compliance, while others were contractors seeking business licenses.

“It’s always good when you get a few more businesses into compliance,” he told the newspaper. “But I wouldn’t call the program wildly successful.”

Local officials introduced the programme to improve compliance rates, but thus far only $7,000 have been collected through the amnesty, some of which was from fees for new businesses.

For businesses that participated in the Business License Amnesty Program, the City pledged to charge their business license fees for the current year and for each non-compliant year the business operated, up to a maximum of three prior years, but will waive all penalties and interest that would otherwise be due.

Because of the disappointing uptake, Mr. McKinney does not expect the city to offer the same deal at the end of 2012.