Illinois Statutes Chapter 35. Revenue § 130/11. Records to be kept by distributors; inspection; revocation of license

§ 11. Every distributor of cigarettes, who is required to procure a license under this Act, shall keep within Illinois, at his licensed address, complete and accurate records of cigarettes held, purchased, manufactured, brought in or caused to be brought in from without the State, and sold, or otherwise disposed of, and shall preserve and keep within Illinois at his licensed address all invoices, bills of lading, sales records, copies of bills of sale, inventory at the close of each period for which a return is required of all cigarettes on hand and of all cigarette revenue stamps, both affixed and unaffixed, and other pertinent papers and documents relating to the manufacture, purchase, sale or disposition of cigarettes. Every sales invoice issued by a licensed distributor to a retailer in this State shall contain the distributor's cigarette distributor license number unless the distributor has been granted a waiver by the Department in response to a written request in cases where (i) the distributor sells cigarettes only to licensed retailers that are wholly-owned by the distributor or owned by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the distributor; (ii) the licensed retailer obtains cigarettes only from the distributor requesting the waiver; and (iii) the distributor affixes the tax stamps to the original packages of cigarettes sold to the licensed retailer. The distributor shall file a written request with the Department, and, if the Department determines that the distributor meets the conditions for a waiver, the Department shall grant the waiver. All books and records and other papers and documents that are required by this Act to be kept shall be kept in the English language, and shall, at all times during the usual business hours of the day, be subject to inspection by the Department or its duly authorized agents and employees. The Department may adopt rules that establish requirements, including record forms and formats, for records required to be kept and maintained by taxpayers. For purposes of this Section, “records” means all data maintained by the taxpayer, including data on paper, microfilm, microfiche or any type of machine-sensible data compilation. Those books, records, papers and documents shall be preserved for a period of at least 3 years after the date of the documents, or the date of the entries appearing in the records, unless the Department, in writing, authorizes their destruction or disposal at an earlier date. At all times during the usual business hours of the day any duly authorized agent or employee of the Department may enter any place of business of the distributor, without a search warrant, and inspect the premises and the stock or packages of cigarettes and the vending devices therein contained, to determine whether any of the provisions of this Act are being violated. If such agent or employee is denied free access or is hindered or interfered with in making such examination as herein provided, the license of the distributor at such premises shall be subject to revocation by the Department.