No person may engage in the business of operating a cigarette machine in this State on or after August 1, 2012 without first having obtained a license from the Department. Application for a license shall be made to the Department on a form furnished and prescribed by the Department. Each applicant for a license under this Section shall furnish the following information to the Department on a form signed and verified by the applicant under penalty of perjury:

1. (1) the name and address of the applicant;
2. (2) the address of the location at which the applicant proposes to engage in the business of operating a cigarette machine in this State; and

3. (3) any other additional information the Department may reasonably require.

   The annual license fee payable to the Department for each cigarette machine operator license is $250. Each applicant for a license shall pay that fee to the Department at the time of submitting an application for license to the Department.

   Every applicant who is required to procure a cigarette machine operator license shall file with his or her application a joint and several bond. Such bond shall be executed to the Department of Revenue, with good and sufficient surety or sureties residing or licensed to do business within the State of Illinois, in the amount of $2,500, conditioned upon the true and faithful compliance by the licensee with all of the provisions of this Act. Such bond, or a reissue thereof, or a substitute therefore, shall be kept in effect during the entire period covered by the license. A separate application for license shall be made, a separate annual license fee paid, and a separate bond filed, for each place of business at which a person who is required to procure a cigarette machine operator license under this Section proposes to engage in business as a cigarette machine operator in Illinois under this Act.

   The following are ineligible to receive a cigarette machine operator license under this Act:

4. (1) a person who is not of good character and reputation in the community in which he resides;
5. (2) a person who has been convicted of a felony under any federal or State law, if the Department, after investigation and a hearing, if requested by the applicant, determines that such person has not been sufficiently rehabilitated to warrant the public trust;
6. (3) a corporation, if any officer, manager, or director thereof, or any stockholder or stockholders owning in the aggregate more than 5% of the stock of such corporation, would not be eligible to receive a license under this Act for any reason; or

7. (4) a person, or any person who owns more than 15% of the ownership interests in an entity or a related party, who:

   1. (A) owes, at the time of application, any delinquent cigarette taxes or tobacco taxes that have been determined by law to be due and unpaid, unless the license applicant has entered into an agreement approved by the Department to pay the amount due;
   2. (B) has had a license under this Act, the Cigarette Tax Act, the Cigarette Use Tax Act, or the Tobacco Products Tax Act of 1995 revoked within the past 2 years by the Department for misconduct relating to stolen or contraband cigarettes or has been convicted of a State or federal crime, punishable by imprisonment of one year or more, relating to stolen or contraband cigarettes;
   3. (C) has been found by the Department, after notice and a hearing, to have imported or caused to be imported into the United States for sale or distribution any cigarette in violation of 19 U.S.C. 1681a;
   4. (D) has been found by the Department, after notice and a hearing, to have imported or caused to be imported into the United States for sale or distribution, or manufactured for sale or distribution in the United States, any cigarette that does not fully comply with the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (15 U.S.C. 1331, et seq.); or

   5. (E) has been found by the Department, after notice and a hearing, to have made a material false statement in the application or has failed to produce records required to be maintained by this Act. The Department, upon receipt of an application, license fee, and bond in proper form from a person who is eligible to receive a cigarette machine operator license under this Act, shall issue to such applicant a license in a form as prescribed by the Department. That license shall permit the applicant to whom it is issued to engage in business as a cigarette machine operator at the place shown in his or her application. All licenses issued by the Department under this Section shall be valid for a period not to exceed one year after issuance unless sooner revoked, canceled, or suspended as provided in this Act. No license issued under this Section is transferable or assignable. Such license shall be conspicuously displayed in the place of business conducted by the licensee in Illinois under such license. No cigarette machine operator acquires any vested interest or compensable property right in a license issued under this Act.

      A cigarette machine operator shall notify the Department of any change in the information contained on the application form, including any change in ownership, and shall do so within 30 days after that change.

      Every prior continuous compliance taxpayer shall be exempt from all requirements under this Section concerning the furnishing of bond as a condition precedent to his being authorized to engage in the business licensed under this Act. This exemption shall continue for each prior continuous compliance taxpayer until such time as he may be determined by the Department to be delinquent in the filing of any returns, or is determined by the Department (either through the Department's issuance of a final assessment which has become final under the Act, or by the taxpayer's filing of a return which admits tax to be due that is not paid) to be delinquent or deficient in the paying of any tax under this Act, at which time that taxpayer shall become subject to the bond requirements of this Section and, as a condition of being allowed to continue to engage in the business licensed under this Act, shall be required to furnish bond to the Department in such form as provided in this Section. The taxpayer shall furnish such bond for a period of 2 years, after which, if the taxpayer has not been delinquent in the filing of any returns, or delinquent or deficient in the paying of any tax under this Act, the Department may reinstate that person as a prior continuance compliance taxpayer. Any taxpayer who fails to pay an admitted or established liability under this Act may also be required by the Department to post bond or other acceptable security with the Department guaranteeing the payment of that admitted or established liability.

      The Department shall discharge any surety and shall release and return any bond or security deposited, assigned, pledged, or otherwise provided to it by a taxpayer under this Section within 30 days after:

   6. (1) that taxpayer becomes a prior continuous compliance taxpayer; or
   7. (2) that taxpayer has ceased to collect receipts on which he is required to remit tax to the Department, has filed a final tax return, and has paid to the Department an amount sufficient to discharge his remaining tax liability as determined by the Department under this Act. The Department shall make a final determination of the taxpayer's outstanding tax liability as expeditiously as possible after his final tax return has been filed. If the Department cannot make the final determination within 45 days after receiving the final tax return, it shall so notify the taxpayer within that period, stating its reasons therefore. Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Department under this Section may, within 20 days after receiving notice of the decision, protest and request a hearing. Upon receiving a written request for a hearing, the Department shall give notice to the person requesting the hearing of the time and place fixed for the hearing and shall hold a hearing in conformity with the provisions of this Act and then issue its final administrative decision in the matter to that person. In the absence of a protest and request for a hearing within 20 days, the Department's decision shall become final without any further determination being made or notice given.

(Source: P.A. 97-688, eff. 6-14-12.)