San Francisco Vendor, Food Permit and Street Artist Fees for Veterans

Several City offices license a veteran who sells goods, and they treat the State exemptions differently. See the California entry on Business and Professions Code sections 16102 and 16001.7, which let a veteran hawk, peddle and vend goods the veteran owns without paying any license, tax or fee, and section 16001.8, which frees a veteran sole proprietor from local business license fees. Food permits. The City's permit pages say a no-fee food facility permit "may be granted" to an operator who is a veteran, and that veterans are exempt "only" as section 16102 allows. Present proof of veteran status and write to the Director of Environmental Health asking for the exemption. It does not reach restaurants, places where food is made, or anywhere alcohol is sold. "May" undersells it: section 16102 says the licence is issued without cost, and the Court of Appeal held in Brooks v. Santa Clara County (1987) that it covers health permit fees, so a qualifying veteran is entitled to the waiver, not merely eligible for it. Street artists. Police Code section 2404.3 (2014) requires the Director of Cultural Affairs to waive every Street Artist Certificate fee, including the application and examination fee, for a person honorably discharged or honorably relieved from service who lives in California, on a DD-214 or equivalent. Its test copies section 16001.7, so a general discharge, which section 16102 would cover, is not named. The Arts Commission now says its Art Vendor License is free for everyone, so the waiver matters only if fees return. Street vending. Public Works charges $484 a year for a Street Vending Permit plus an $11 Board of Appeals surcharge, and its pages list waivers only for income and public benefits. A veteran selling goods the veteran owns can cite section 16102, which says "any license, tax or fee whatsoever, whether municipal, county or State", and Brooks, which read it to cover regulatory permit fees and not only revenue licences. San Francisco is a charter city as well as a county; section 16001.8 says outright that it binds charter cities, but only for business license fees, and no court ruling found settles whether charter status changes the answer for a permit fee under section 16102. The veteran should claim the exemption in writing. The permit itself, the six-foot path rule and Public Works Order 206,887 still apply. Business registration. Business and Tax Regulations Code section 855(j) exempts a person from the City's business registration fee "if and to the extent that" State or federal law prohibits it. An honorably discharged California veteran who is the sole proprietor of any business can claim it under section 16001.8, which binds charter cities, and a veteran vending goods the veteran owns under section 16102. Section 855(k) calls the fee a general tax rather than a licence fee, a label that may be raised against the claim; the Treasurer's pages name no veteran exemption at all.