Episode 9: It's Business License Renewal Time!

Tune in to learn the latest about ‘online business license’ renewal with Jefferson County Director of Revenue Scott Moore.

To renew your business license online log on to srt.jccal.org.

For more information email jeffcobusinesslicense@jccal.org or call 205-325-5195.

Have an idea for a County podcast? Contact the Director of Public Information, Helen Hays at haysh@jccal.org

Transcript

Speaker 0:19

Welcome to Jefferson County's Podcast for the People. I'm your host, Chiara Morrow. With us here today is Scott Moore, Director of the Department of Revenue here at Jefferson County. Welcome, Scott.

Speaker 1 0:32

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Speaker 0:33

Absolutely. Thank you so much. You've come on the show before and talked about the business license renewal process. That time has come again. It seems like this year flew by. Tell us what your thoughts are on business license renewal and how business owners should go about renewing their license in the month of October and even moving forward as a you know better way to get their license renewed.

Speaker 1 0:56

No, right. All licenses expired September the 30th. So everybody's licenses expired with the Jefferson County Department of Revenue and with the state of Alabama. October's the month of renewal. So they were due October 1st and they're late after October 31st. So you got the whole month. So November 1st, you're going to be delinquent. So we need to get everybody to renew their licenses during the month of October. There's a few things you need to renew your licenses. You're going to need every for-profit business in Jefferson County is required to have a Jefferson County business license, and they will need their prior year's annual gross revenues. So you're going to need your gross revenues from the last full calendar year. So that'll be 2024 for the 2025-26 license year, which we were which we're about to renew for. They will need those figures. And the best way to do that is to go online to our online portal. And it is srt.jccal.org. It's quick and easy. You can renew your state and county licenses there. The county licenses can be printed on demand after they're renewed. And the state licenses are mailed out the next business day. So you should receive those within probably three to five business days after renewal. It's quick, easy, and the most efficient way for everybody to do it. We don't want people coming and standing in line at the courthouse or wasting postage, mailing things when they could go online and do that and get it much more efficient.

Speaker 2:20

Okay, so that's some great information. Again, that address is srt.jccal.org. Correct. Awesome. And they have until October 31st, after November 1st, they are delinquent. Any new or important information in addition to that that citizens should know when renewing their business license? Anything within the last year?

Speaker 1 2:42

Not anything real new. We do have a little improvement to the website. Last year, businesses that renewed online had to go in and link their business license to their user accounts. Okay. Well, this year those are already pre-populated based on what they renewed last year. If this is their first year to renew online, of course, they will have to link those. But it's just a simple process of clicking, almost like adding to a shopping cart for an online shopping experience. So once they do that, they can put all those licenses in a shopping cart and make one payment. So that was an improvement we made from last year in listening to businesses and problems that they encountered when renewing. So that's pretty much it as far as the new enhancements to the online feature. Everything else is like it has been for 70, 80 years. You can come to any of our locations, the downtown courthouse, the Bessemer Courthouse, or any of our three satellites, Center Point, Hoover, or Gardendale, or they can mail those in to County Courthouse and we can process those.

Speaker 3:40

Awesome. So they do have ops. If you did receive the feedback and got a more easier way for business owners to renew their license online, so pay attention, guys. If ever you need, you know, your feedback, don't think it's not taken into consideration. These things are helping to make the process easier and more fluent so that business can continue. I think that's a great thing. And just to continue to welcome them, you are still welcome to come in and renew your license. But to make it easier for those business owners that are on the go a lot, this is definitely a great, great avenue to utilize. If you do not have your own internet at home, you can go to a local library, right? You don't have to have your own computer. These are some things that they can use from your phone. If you're listening to the podcast, you can go to the library. So yeah, I think that's great to know that their feedback is always heard.

Speaker 1 4:28

Yes, it I've done it on the phone just as test, and it does operate pretty good on the phone as well. It's not real cramped on there. So you you can see how to renew online through your phone as well. We do have some FAQs on the website. So if you go to the county's main website at jccal.org and navigate to the revenue department page, you can uh find our FAQs there as far as business license renewal. There's a business license page with some FAQs there. Right. you can always email us with any questions at Jeffcobusinesslicense@jccal. That's Jeff Cobusiness License at JCCAL.org. Or call us at 205-325-5195 and we'd be glad to assist.

Speaker 5:19

That sounds like a wrap for me. I'm glad that you're here. And again, we appreciate you coming in just to give the citizens great information to help them stay on task because these type of things they can get lost in the fray. You know, business gets heavy, especially around the holidays. We're getting ready to get into, well, heavily into the fall season with Halloween and all these things coming up. So any type of information to make this process easier and more fluent is always appreciated. All right, so we thank you so much for coming by today. Anything else you want to add? I think that's it.

Speaker 1 5:49

Thank you. Get your licenses renewed before the end of October. There's no penalties or interest on there.

Speaker 5:56

Get it out of the way, get it out of the way long before Halloween, so there's no excuses for candy ODs.

Speaker 1 6:02

Yeah, I don't want to interrupt trick-or-treating business license renewal on that last day.

Speaker 6:06

Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much, Scott. We always appreciate you. And we look forward to having you back on to share even more information about the process, you know, in the Department of Revenue, anything that citizens need to know regarding these types of processes. And we thank you so much. Thank you.