266.031.  Permits required, fees, terms — penalty for late application. — 1.  Any person who sells, distributes, offers or exposes for sale any agricultural or vegetable seed in the state of Missouri shall obtain a seed permit from the director of agriculture unless exempted as in section 266.080.  Seed dealers must purchase permits for each seed sales classification performed, selling or taking orders for seed from other than an established place of business, selling seed from a retail place of business, selling seed from a wholesale place of business, or negotiating sales as a broker.  A separate permit shall be required for each place of business from which seed regulated by this law is sold.  A separate permit shall also be required of each person selling or taking orders for seed from other than an established place of business.  Seed permit fees will be assessed as follows:

  2.  Farmers and seed producers shall be classed as seedsmen and must comply with all the provisions of sections 266.011 to 266.111 when the farmers or seed producers:

  (1)  Offer, sell or expose for sale seed not of their own production;

  (2)  Sell and deliver seed to a purchaser by way of common carrier;

  (3)  Sell seed by any public sales service;

  (4)  Advertise or label seed referring to the purity or germination.

  3.  No permit is transferable.  All persons holding a Missouri seed permit shall post the permit in a conspicuous place in the place of business to which it applies.  The licensing year shall be twelve months, or any fraction thereof, beginning on January first and ending December thirty-first.  All permit fees shall be paid to the Missouri department of agriculture and shall be deposited in the state treasury to the credit of the agriculture protection fund created in section 261.200.

  4.  If the application for renewal of any seed permit is not filed prior to expiration date in any year, a penalty of fifty percent shall be assessed and added to the original fee and shall be paid by the applicant before that renewal license shall be issued; provided, that such penalty shall not apply if the applicant furnishes an affidavit certifying that he or she has not engaged in selling, distributing, offering or exposing seed for sale, subsequent to the expiration date of his or her license.