1. (a) If the Department of Taxation and Finance considers it necessary for the proper administration of the cigarette tax imposed by article 20 of the Tax Law or the cigarette marketing standards contained in article 20-A of such law, the department may require every cigarette agent to:

   1. (1) file a new application for a license as a cigarette agent;
   2. (2) again comply with, or prove its compliance with, all of the provisions of the Tax Law and this Title in relation to a cigarette agency; and

   3. (3) surrender its existing certificates of license as a cigarette agent.

      The department may require such a license renewal not more often than once every three years. All agents' certificates of license as cigarette agents shall expire on a common date prescribed by the department.

      (b)

   4. (1) At least six months prior to the common expiration date prescribed, the department shall notify every licensed cigarette agent of the need to renew the agency and specify the date of expiration of the existing agency. It shall be incumbent upon an agent to file a new application for a license as a cigarette agent and to obtain such new license on or before the common expiration date.
   5. (2) Upon filing of a new application for an agent's license, with the proper fee and other information required pursuant to section 71.1(b) of this Part, the department will evaluate the application and attachments in the same manner as an original application for a license as a cigarette agent. Any of the grounds for refusing, cancelling or suspending an original license, as specified in article 20 of the Tax Law and this Part, shall be grounds for the department not to renew the agent's license.

   6. (3) Upon approval of the relicensing or refusal to relicense, the department shall notify the agent of its determination and require the surrender to the department of the agent's existing certificates of license as a cigarette agent.

      1. (i) In the event an agent's license is renewed, the department, upon receipt of such certificates, shall issue to the agent new distinctively colored certificates of license, provided the required credit bond or other security has been filed or deposited with the department, if such agent has elected and has been approved by the department to purchase cigarette stamps on credit. The notification of approval to relicense shall constitute certificates of license from the time that the existing certificates are surrendered to the time that the new certificates are issued or until otherwise stated by the department.
      2. (ii) In the event an agent's license is not renewed, a notice of such determination shall be sent to the agent in the manner prescribed in section 71.7 of this Part and such refusal to relicense may only be protested in the same manner and upon the same conditions as a refusal to issue an original license as a cigarette agent. Such refusal to relicense, when finally determined, shall constitute a cancellation of a license as a cigarette agent.

Tax Law, §§ 472(1) and 480(4)