Legal Insights

SNAP Reauthorization – Dairy Requirements

SNAP Reauthorization: SNAP Dairy Inventory Deficiency Did you receive a licensing authorization letter from the USDA for dairy inventory problems?  Often, the USDA will claim that your store doesn’t satisfy the criteria because it lacks dairy products.  Over the past year, this claim by the USDA has been very common.  It is a result of…

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SNAP Retailer Requirements for SNAP Reauthorization

USDA SNAP Retailer Reauthorization Free Consultations Navigating Through the SNAP Reauthorization Process Current SNAP Retailers If you are an authorized retailer, you are required to submit a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP reauthorization application every five years. This is designed to determine your continued eligibility to participate as a SNAP retailer.  Without a successful re-authorization,…

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SNAP Violation Defense

SNAP Violation Defense What You Need to Know: Unlike many other state and federal agencies, the USDA is not a business friendly agency.  Since 2013, the Department has spent a considerable amount of time seeking to disqualify small stores.  It is their belief that the majority of trafficking that occurs on SNAP happens at small stores…

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SNAP Disqualification Retailer Defense

SNAP Disqualification of a Grocery Store The store owner of a large Asian grocery store in Minnesota was proud of how she had grown her company.  Since the 1990’s, her grocery store had moved from a 3,000 square foot space into a 20,000 square foot commercial building.  The store boasted nearly a hundred employees and…

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Dismissal of Trafficking Charges

Answer to Charging Letter For a number of years, a small Pensacola, Florida convenience store operated in a 1,500 square foot space.  The store was one of six owned by a local gentleman.  Each store operated similarly with a number of flat fee (bulk item) sale prices.  Further, the store was located in the middle…

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SNAP Violation Attorney

SNAP Violation Attorney Many small grocers and convenience stores rely on the revenue they receive from their EBT transactions.  That’s why good legal representation makes all the difference when the USDA sends a SNAP Violation Charging Letter.  Andrew Tapp has been a SNAP Violation Attorney since 2012 and has successfully handled hundreds of cases for stores across…

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SNAP Trafficking Charge Letter

What to do with a SNAP Trafficking Charge Letter So, if you’re reading this you have probably received a SNAP Trafficking Charge Letter. The first thing to do is call our offices or fill out an e-mail consultation form.  Though it sounds self-serving for me to tell you to call me, we offer free consultations with…

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Food Stamp Fraud?

Food Stamp Fraud: Trafficking in SNAP Benefits In the past two years, I have run across a number of claims by the USDA against retailers for “trafficking in SNAP benefits.”  My clients always ask me what that means, and the answer is simple: it’s food stamp fraud.  While food stamps themselves haven’t been used in about…

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Protecting Against USDA SNAP Violation

What is a USDA SNAP Violation? For any business that accepts payment from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP)  such as Electronic Benefit Transfers (EBT), Women & Infant Care (WIC) or food stamps, there is always a danger of falling into non-compliance and losing qualification to accept SNAP payments from customers.  This can cause gross sales losses…

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USDA SNAP Violation Letter: How to Respond

Responding to a USDA SNAP Violation Letter As I discussed in Preventing a USDA SNAP Violation, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees violations of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP).  The USDA is specifically responsible for compiling what is called a Charge Letter, or a USDA SNAP Violation Letter.  This letter is the…

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