Richland Office Reopens at 12:30 pm Thursday

The Richland Field office is temporarily closed to the public due to flooding caused by a broken valve. Employees remain in the office and are available by telephone. 

The office will reopen this afternoon at 12:30 PM.   

Signs direct visitors to http://dor.wa.gov or if immediate assistance is needed to call Taxpayer Services at 1-800-647-7706 or Business Licensing at 1-800-451-7985.

BLS Systems Transition Successful

What has happened?

The Business Licensing Service (BLS) has successfully moved all of their licensing systems and licensing data from the Department of Licensing to the Department of Revenue.

What does this mean for BLS and our partners?

The Business Licensing Service systems are now completely housed at the Department of Revenue. This will allow us to continue with further system and program enhancements to better serve our licensing partners.

What do you do if you start receiving calls from business owners?

If you receive calls from business owners regarding links, Internet applications, Internet renewals, or other system functions that are not operating correctly, please contact Partnership Services immediately at DORBLSPartner@dor.wa.gov so we can look into the matter and seek a resolution.

A special thank you

We want to thank all of our licensing partners for being patient and working so closely with BLS over the last six months. There have been many changes to our BLS processes and references during this time. Your continued help and teamwork have been a great help to us during this transition and want you to know how much we appreciate you.

Dennis, Eric, Jan & Linda
BLS Partnership Services

(360) 705-6777

E-check Option Offers $aving$ for BLS Partners

GOOD NEWS! BLS to add E-check to the Internet payment processes

E-check is a BLS Internet payment option effective May 21, 2012.  You may also see references for E-check also known as an “Automated Clearing House” or “ACH”.

If you like, track your quarterly billing statements over the next year. Let us know how much benefit you are receiving from this enhancement. We are always interested in hearing about how our BLS enhancements affect our partners. 

If you have questions, let us know.

BLS Partnership Services
(360) 705-6777 DORBLSPartner@dor.wa.gov

Reminder! BLS System Offline Tomorrow - 5/18

Reminder:  BLS licensing systems will unavailable May 18 through May 20

What is happening?

The Business Licensing Service (BLS) will move all online licensing systems from the Department of Licensing to the Department of Revenue.

When is this happening?

The BLS licensing system and all BLS online application and renewal systems will be taken down at

7:30 a.m. on Friday, May 18 and brought back up on Monday, May 21.

What can I expect?

It’s important that business owner’s finish partially completed applications or renewals before May 18, as the information will be deleted during the move and the applicant will have to start over. 

Reports that normally generate on Fridays or Saturdays will arrive a day later than usual.

How should I prepare?

Please add a note on your website from now until Monday, May 21, to notify local business owners who may be planning to apply or renew electronically, during this time period.

Can business owners still submit paper applications or renewals during this time?

Yes. This outage only affects online applications and renewals. Paper applications and renewals will be processed without interruption. We encourage online processing.  The online licensing systems will be down for a very short time period. It is still quicker to wait until the online licensing systems are back up, than to mail it into the Business Licensing Service.

URGENT: BLS systems move from DOL to DOR update!

The BLS licensing system (HOST) will be operational on Friday, May 18 until 5:00 p.m.

The BLS internet services will be down beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, May 18 and will be back up on Monday, May 21.

What’s happening?

Beginning the morning of May 18, we will be transferring the following online applications from DOL to the DOR’s Business Licensing Service (BLS):

•   Business License Application (IBLA)
•   Business License Renewal (SOLAR)
•   Corporation and LLC Renewal (ICRNL)

What is the impact?

We will bring the internet applications down at 8 a.m. Friday, May 18. Normal operations will be back on Monday, May 21.  Customers won’t be able to start a new application or renewal, or access saved work during the transfer.

If you talk to some who is working on their business application or renewal…

Encourage them to finish and submit before May 18.  Customers must finish partially completed applications and renewals before the transfer, or they will lose their data and will have to start over.

URLs will change – Effective Monday, May 21, 2012

Once the online applications have been moved over to BLS, the URLs will change. If you have bookmarks to the online applications, you’ll need to update them. Please make customers aware of these changes too.

 

Online System	New URL
Business License Application	https://fortress.wa.gov/dor/bls/IMBA
Business License Renewal	https://fortress.wa.gov/dor/bls/SOLAR
Corporation or LLC Renewal	https://fortress.wa.gov/dor/bls/CRNL

BLS System Down Friday

What is happening?

The Business Licensing Service (BLS) will move all licensing systems and related data from the Department of Licensing (DOL) to the Department of Revenue (DOR).  The BLS licensing system will be down from May 18 to May 20. We expect to return to normal operations on Monday, May 21.

When will this occur?

Implementation will be effective Monday, May 21.

What can I expect?

• It’s important that business owner’s finish partially completed applications or renewals before May 18, as the information will be deleted during the move and the applicant will have to start over. 
• Reports that normally generate on Fridays or Saturdays will arrive the following week.

Can business owners still submit paper applications or renewals during this time?

Yes. Paper applications and renewals will be accepted without interruption. 

The BLS licensing system will be down for a very short time period. It is still quicker to wait until the online licensing systems are back up, than to mail the application and information into the Business Licensing Service.

DOR Closes Accounts of Some Non-Reporting Businesses

Your offices may get questions this week as the Department of Revenue mailed notices to 19,553 annual taxpayers informing them their tax reporting account has been administratively closed. Notices could arrive Tuesday and thereafter.

The Department occasionally will close accounts that do not report any gross income for two consecutive years.

If a taxpayer believes their account should remain open, they can contact Revenue and request that their tax reporting account be reopened. 

No Business Applications May 18 - May 20

The online Business License Application is moving to the Business Licensing Service on May 18, 2012.

Tell your customers they won't be able to start a new online application or access saved work during that time.

It's important they finish partially completed applications before May 18, or they'll have to start over.

The system should be available again Monday, May 21, 2012. 

Thanks for your patience.

Incompletes/Delinquents Listed in DOR SFT folder

City Partners:

Something to keep in mind as you look for your reports this week....

The Incomplete Applications and Delinquent Endorsement List report deliveries will be changing from EOM/group email address deliveries to the DOR SFT folder.

1^st Saturday of the month – Incomplete accounts – first run May 5.

2^nd Saturday of the month – Delinquent accounts – first run May 10.

If you need help accessing the report(s) or are experiencing other concerns regarding the report deliveries, please contact us at DORBLSPartner@dor.wa.gov.

The Roadmap for Registering Businesses

Gearing up to start a business can be intimidating. Now, you can help steer new business owners you meet in the right direction. They can set course for the New Business Owner Roadmap, a free online publication to help them navigate their way to a successful business startup in Washington.

No Line Breaks In Your Email? Here's Some Help!

City Partners:
How do the emails with the daily list of reports BLS look to you?
Is the formatting jumbled?

If so, does the list of your reports run together like this?


Click image to enlarge and sharpen



If you're using Microsoft Outlook, try changing a setting to make it look like this:

 

Click image to enlarge and sharpen










In Microsoft Outlook, go to:

Tools -> Options -> Preferences -> Email Options 

If the option, "Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages" is checked, uncheck it.

(See the outlined option the image below. UNCHECK that option.)

The lines will no longer jumble in your incoming emails, though they may be longer on the page.

If you have questions, let us konw at dorblspartner@dor.wa.gov.