Support for those affected by California fires

Although becoming more contained, the wildfires that continue to ravage California will have ongoing effects for all those impacted. The Avalara team has been following with concern and you’ll continue to be in our thoughts as you, your families, your businesses and homes recover.

We hope we can help you in some small way by offering a few resources to ease your mind about concerns you may have about compliance delays when day-to-day business tasks may not be top of mind.

• The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) recently published a resource page titled Sonoma County Fires Information for ABC Licensees. On it, the ABC provides a helpful list of frequently asked questions and reassures licensees that they’re committed to being as flexible as possible for those impacted by the fires. Topics include relocation of business operations, storage of beverage alcohol products, retail license issues, tied house exceptions, waiver of licensee fees, closing licensed premises, return of inventory, and more.
• The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) also distributed an email regarding the possibility of waivers of excise tax penalties for businesses affected by the California wildfires. For more information on qualification criteria or to apply, you can visit their Disaster Relief page or contact the TTB by telephone (toll free) at 877-882-3277 or via online inquiry: Use the National Revenue Center Contact Form, and select Disaster relief question.
• Additionally, following other natural disasters in the past, other agencies, and other states have offered flexibility to those in need. Our friends at Hinman & Carmichael put out a nice summary of resources in 2017 following those fires. If you need help requesting assistance, please let us know. We’d love to help.

We hope you find this information helpful and wish you well. Please reach out to us if we can help in any way at 877-855-9956.