Ringgold wrestling with business fees

RINGGOLD — The city of Ringgold’s Occupational Tax Committee will hold a second meeting to further brainstorm ideas for a plan on how to adjust the way it collects occupational taxes from local businesses.

The meeting will be held Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Ringgold City Hall, 150 Tennessee St.

For more than 20 years, Ringgold has operated under an ordinance that charges businesses a $50 application fee and a $100 occupational tax fee for 20 employees or less. The tax fee climbs to $350 if the business has 100 employees or more, meaning the most any business would pay is $400 for the year.

Late last year the city planned to switch to an ordinance that would charge each business based on its annual revenue of gross receipts.

On Dec. 12, after a five-day dialogue with business owners that spanned two meetings, the council opted to keep the current ordinance for a little longer. The council set up the Occupational Tax Committee, which includes some of the concerned business owners, to see if their input could help create a better solution.