Every business in Arizona will have to renew its transaction privilege tax (TPT) license before Jan. 1 or risk a penalty.

Holbrook City Manager Ray Alley urges all business owners to read the information being sent out by the Arizona Department of Revenue along with the usual monthly reporting forms.

“Don’t throw away the renewal forms. That will be your new license,” he said.

Until now, TPT licenses were permanent and did not need to be renewed. That has changed, and businesses now have until the first of the year to renew the license, let it expire or pay a penalty. According to Alley, the licenses cannot be renewed online this year; the process must be completed by mail. The department of revenue will be mailing out renewal forms soon, and Alley notes that all business owners should be on the look out for them, and should not toss out the “extra” papers that are normally tucked in with the monthly reporting forms.

After this year, businesses will be able to renew their licenses online and must do so annually in order to maintain a valid license. According to Alley, department of revenue officials say that the change to renewable licenses is to allow the department to purge all of the old inactive licenses that have not been canceled.

There is no fee to renew a license. Penalties for late renewal will not take effect until 2016.

In addition to license renewals, the state department is making changes to the TPT reporting form. It is termed as “TPT simplification,” but Alley explained that filling out the new forms may be confusing at first. He noted that he received a full day’s training on the process, and along with Finance Director Randy Sullivan is available to anyone who has questions or is confused about the changes.

“It’s going to be complicated,” he said. “There are substantial changes for the people filling those out.”

For example, instead of the existing four reporting lines, there will be 23 lines. In addition, business owners must use the proper deduction codes or the form will be rejected, and two of the existing catch-all codes are being eliminated. The due date is also being modified. All reporting forms must be received by the day before the last day of the month. Postmarks will no longer serve as proof that a form or payment was submitted on time; they must actually be at the department by the day that they are due.

Alley noted that he is happy to assist any Holbrook business owner who needs help with the license renewal process or the new forms.

“If any businesses have questions, they should contact me or Randy Sullivan,” he said. “We will be glad to help.”