Changes coming September 19th

 Partners,

 

 What is happening?
BLS is updating the Business Licensing applications this coming weekend. We will be moving to a new payment vendor, Official Payments (OPAY), and will start passing the debit/credit card fees on to customers that choose this payment method.

This transaction fee will not be charged or received by BLS, but by OPAY.

Anyone that chooses to use a debit/credit card when:

·         applying for a business license
·         renewing a business license, or
·         filing an annual report

will be charged an average 2.5% credit card convenience fee.

 To avoid this fee, customers can still take advantage of our free, online e-check option.

Our online filings will alert the business of OPAYs processing fee and calculate the convenience fees for them prior to routing them to OPAY.

 When will this occur?
Friday, September 19^th from 7:00 pm through Saturday, September 20^th 7:00 pm.

 What is impacted?

The following BLS web applications and services will be unavailable during this timeframe:
·         Business License application
·         Legal entity renewal
·         Business License renewal

What do you need to do?

Nothing is required other than be aware this is going on.

What if I have questions?

If you have questions, please call Partnership Services at 360-705-6777

 

Systems Down Tonight

Partners,

Our BLS applications and DOR tax information will be down overnight. It's routine system maintenance as our IT team applies critical security patches.

Systems down:

8:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 16 through 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, September 17

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Systems Down Tonight

Partners,

CTS will be performing maintenance affecting Fortress and Secure Access Washington (SAW) tonight.

Systems down:

8:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. Thursday, September 11th.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Department of Revenue closed for Labor Day

Partners,

Like many of your offices, the Department of Revenue will be closed Monday, September 1st in honor of Labor Day. This includes Business Licensing Staff.

Online applications will be available, but staff will not be available to process them until 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 2nd.

Enjoy the weekend!

~ BLS Partnership Services

Systems down tonight

Partners,

Our BLS applications and DOR tax information will be down overnight. It's routine system maintenance as our IT team applies critical security patches.

Systems down:

8:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 19th through 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 20th.

Sorry for any inconvenience

Assisting Businesses in a Disaster

Recent tragedies like the explosion in North Bend and the Oso mud slide affected many businesses. These events also prompted the Department of Revenue to create a standard procedure for providing relief for businesses impacted by disasters. We would like to work with you to help affected businesses in their time of need.  

When a Disaster Declaration is issued by the Governor, DOR will identify the potentially affected businesses and waive penalty fees and/or the $19.00 application fee if necessary. We may also reach out to you with a request to grant renewal filing extensions on behalf of those businesses that hold your license or registration. 

Hopefully, you will not get a request from us anytime soon. If you have questions or concerns please contact Partnership Services at 360-705-6777 or BLSDORPartner@dor.wa.gov.

New Changes to the BLS Website!

We've made some new changes to the bls.dor.wa.gov homepage.  Please take a moment to check it out! These changes were implemented as a process improvement from a recent Lean Event. During the event, we discovered that customers sometimes confuse Apply and Renew when it comes to their state and city licenses. We redesigned the homepage with the intent to make it clearer for customers to find their needs easier and to alleviate confusion and re-work.

We’d like to hear feedback from you and our customers to find out if this change is helpful to them. Please let us know if what you think.