A pair of new bills (HB 689 and SB 912) would substantially affect how often the state audits restaurants with SFS liquor licenses. The language provides for more frequent audits for establishments that sell less food (see excerpt below for details). At the most extreme, licensees who pass the audit with 51-60% of their food and beverage revenue being nonalcoholic would be subject to annual audits, despite their full compliance with section 561.20 of the Florida Statutes.

The legislation would have a couple of important effects:

1. Large and small operators will have to spend more time and money responding to back-to-back audits.

2. The state will almost certainly experience a substantial fiscal impact as they seek to manage a multiplied workload.

A review of state records shows that compliance with the statutory percentage requirement, which would not change under the bills, may be high enough that multiplying the audit workload would only capture a negligible number of violations. Despite auditing over 1,000 SFS licensees over a recent twelve-month period, the state only reported a handful of cases for the same period on its administrative case disposition reports. That data suggests that compliance rates are quite high, though some additional research on this point is slated.

As the Florida Legislature considers new alcoholic beverage laws that may affect manufacturers, distributors, vendors, and consumers, the firm publishes a quick reference guide for the action. Follow these bills and others through the firm’s Florida Alcohol Legislation Tracker.