(a)

(1) Before any person shall be authorized to offer for sale at retail the liquors as prescribed in this subchapter in any county, or if within the incorporated limits of any town or city, then he or she shall apply to and secure a permit or license from the county clerk if outside incorporated limits of a city or town or to the city clerk or town recorder if within the incorporated limits of a city or town, a permit or license.

(2) The county clerk or city clerk or recorder shall charge for the permit or license a sum not in excess of:

(A) Fifteen dollars ($15.00) for a retailer whose total gross annual sales do not exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000); and

(B) Twenty dollars ($20.00) for retailers whose total gross annual sales shall not be in excess of two thousand dollars ($2,000).

(3) The city clerk or recorder or county clerk shall be empowered to collect from the retailers an additional five dollars ($5.00) for each one thousand dollars ($1,000) gross annual business in excess of two thousand dollars ($2,000).

(b) The permits to retailers shall not be granted or issued by any city clerk or recorder or any county clerk until the retailer shall exhibit the state permit granted or issued to him or her by the Director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division or the director's agent.

(c) The state permit shall be prima facie evidence of the retailer's right to apply for and purchase a city or county permit, and it shall be unlawful for any city clerk, recorder, or county clerk to refuse to issue the permit upon proper application by the retailer.

(d) Whenever it shall appear to the city clerk or recorder or to the county clerk that a retail dealer has secured a permit for fifteen dollars ($15.00) when a larger amount should have been paid therefor, he or she require the payment of the difference or cancel the permit.

(e) The tax shall be due and payable at each place where the retail dealer carries on business.

(f) The city clerk or county clerk charged with the duty of collecting the license fees shall notify the director of the identity of retailers failing to comply with the provisions of this section. The director shall then notify wholesale dealers to discontinue sales to delinquent retailers. When the license fee is paid, the appropriate clerk shall notify the director that the retailer has paid the fee. The director shall notify wholesalers to resume sales to the retailers.

(g) Any wholesaler who continues to sell to a retailer after notification from the director to discontinue sales shall be subject upon conviction to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).