Ringgold finalizes ordinances for occupational and alcohol
The city of Ringgold recently finalized amendments to both its occupational business tax and alcohol ordinances, which will garner more city revenue from business owners, as well as allow for the city’s first microbrewery.
In December, the council began the process of evaluating the city’s occupational tax ordinance with an emphasis on creating a way of recouping more revenue to cover evolving operating costs of the city. The proposal of switching from a flat-rate system to one based on gross receipts stalled when a number of business owners expressed concerns over the drastic numbers some businesses would have incurred, as well as the added accounting that would have been required.
Instead of passing something new in order to get it on the books for 2017, the council opted to create a committee to brainstorm a fair solution to the problem.
Mayor Millwood created an occupational tax committee comprised of business owners and chaired by councilman Larry Black to brainstorm a new system that would not only benefit the city, but also offer an alternative to the gross receipts concept.
The first reading of the revamped ordinance, which will base the tax on a business’ number of employees, had its final reading Monday night, May 22.
“The new ordinance will take effect Jan. 1, 2018, and will not impact any occupational tax until next year,” Black said.
Each year, business owners will have to pay a flat $100 administration fee that’ll be standard for each business, and then an additional fee based on the number of employees the business has.
That fee scale breaks down as $20 for 1-25 employees, $18 for 26-50 employees, $16 for 51-100 employees, $14 for 101-200, $13 for 201500, and then $12 for more than 500 employees. The scale applies to each employee, meaning a small coffee shop that has five employees would have to pay the $100 flat fee, and then an additional $100 for its five total employees. On the flipside, a large business with 500 employees would have to the $100 admin fee and an additional Updated versions of both ordinances can be found on the city’s website at cityofringgoldga.gov.