Skip to Content
The 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Section 68: Suspension or revocation of license or registration; appeal; reissuance of registration

Section 68. The commissioner may suspend or revoke any license or registration issued pursuant to section sixty-seven for any one of the following reasons:—

(1) The licensee or registrant willfully fails to file any return or report required by this chapter;

(2) The licensee or registrant willfully files, causes to be filed, gives or causes to be given a return, report, certificate or affidavit required under this chapter, or under the provisions of the applicable tax, which is false;

(3) The licensee or registrant willfully fails to collect, truthfully account for or pay over any tax under the provisions of this chapter;

(4) The licensee or registrant has been convicted of a crime provided for by this chapter;

(5) The licensee or registrant has otherwise willfully failed to comply with any provision of the tax laws of the commonwealth or regulations thereunder; or

(6) The licensee or registrant has ceased to act in the capacity for which the license or registration was issued.

Any person aggrieved by such suspension or revocation may appeal therefrom to the appellate tax board within ten days after written notice of the decision has been mailed or delivered to him. The appellant shall at the time of taking an appeal file with said board a surety company bond running to the commonwealth, with a surety company authorized to do business in the commonwealth as surety, in such sum as said board shall fix, conditioned to prosecute the appeal to effect and to comply with the orders and decrees of said board in the premises. Such appeals shall be preferred cases to be heard, unless cause appears to the contrary, in priority to other cases. During the pendency of any such appeal the decision of the commissioner so appealed from shall, unless otherwise ordered by said board, be inoperative. Said board may grant such relief as may be equitable. If the appeal shall have been taken without probable cause, the board may tax double or triple costs, as the case shall demand; and, upon all such appeals which may be denied, costs may be taxed against the appellant at the discretion of the board; provided, that no costs shall be taxed against the commonwealth.

A person whose registration has been suspended or revoked shall pay to the commissioner a fee of twenty dollars for the reissuance of a registration. The commissioner shall not issue a new registration after the suspension or revocation of a registration unless he is satisfied that the former holder of the registration will comply with the provisions of this chapter and with all pertinent rules and regulations made thereunder.

The commissioner shall provide notice to the director of the state lottery of a retailer, as defined in section 1 of chapter 64C, an electronic nicotine delivery system retailer, as defined in subsection (a) of section 7E of said chapter 64C, or a cigar retailer, as defined in subsection (a) of section 7B of said chapter 64C, whose license, issued under section 67, has been suspended or revoked by the department for a willful violation of paragraph (1) of subsection (l) of said section 7B of said chapter 64C, paragraph (1) of subsection (l) of section 7E of said chapter 64C, or sections 34 or 35 of said chapter 64C and who is a licensee authorized to sell lottery tickets under sections 26 and 27 of chapter 10.