SAN FRANCISCO—The city of San Francisco announced on Tuesday, August 4 that it will extend deferrals to collect Business Registration Fees and Unified License Fees until March 1, 2021.
In a news release, Mayor London Breed and Treasurer José Cisneros announced that Business Registration Certificates issued for 2019-2020 will remain valid through March 1, 2021, according to the City and County of San Francisco. Unified License Fees include charges from city departments to restaurants and food businesses, bars, convenience stores, many small retailers, hotels, tour operators, Entertainment Commission, Fire Department, Police Department and other businesses. The former deferral on business taxes for small businesses will also continue to take effect.
The mayor and treasurer will inform business owners that they have five extra months to pay the Business Registration Fee. There are currently 93,000 registered businesses and they pay nearly $49 million in Business Registration Fees. This deferral policy impacts almost $14 million billed to 11,000 businesses, according to the city of San Francisco.
“Businesses in San Francisco continue to struggle with a loss of revenue and unfortunately we know that the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away any time soon,” “we keep working with them to help them stay afloat and take care of their employees”. Treasurer José Cisneros said “I’ve heard from many businesses that were concerned about paying these bills by September 30th. I am hopeful that further delaying collections of the business registration and license fees will provide some needed relief,” said the Mayor of San Francisco in a statement.
