Ringgold evaluating occupational tax ordinance for businesses

Ringgold is reevaluating how it charges businesses for their mandatory occupational tax certificates, and could soon switch from an overall flat fee to a fee based on how much revenue each business brings in.

During the most recent City Council meeting on Monday night, Nov. 14, the council discussed and introduced its plan to gather information about the switch, which would ultimately be based on each business’ gross receipts.

Council member Larry Black said, “We want to look at the possibility of changing our current ordinance in place now, dealing with our amount of money paid for occupational tax certificates with businesses in the city. It’s an introduction of a new way of doing business where, instead of paying a flat fee regardless of the size businesses, we look at the possibility going forward and setting it up so businesses pay different amounts based on their gross receipts.”

Currently, the city’s occupational tax certificate costs $100 per year no matter the size of the business, meaning a small family-owned business like Caffeine Addicts pays the same fee as a big chain store like Walmart, even though it has nowhere near the same staff or revenue.

During the premeeting work session, City Manager Dan Wright gave an example of another city’s ordinance, which instituted a fee of $100 for businesses that grossed between $1 and $200,000 per year. The fee in that town increased in subsequent brackets based on the gross receipts.

“It needs further study and more research to see how other municipalities use it and how it would affect local businesses before we make a decision on what we’re going to do,” Black said.

Wright also pointed out that the state law allows exemptions for some practitioners such as lawyers, doctors and dentists, which caps the fee for those businesses at $400.

“Those folks may want to just pay the $400. Or, depending on how much they make each year, they may choose to go by their gross receipts,” Wright said.

During the meeting, the council unanimously approved a motion of intent to set the practitioner fee at $400, as it progresses with evaluating how it wants to amend the rest of the ordinance.

“We’re not ready to move forward yet because we don’t have specific numbers,” Mayor Nick Millwood said. “When we get that put together, we can bring it back to the council.”

The council will need to hold a series of public hearings on the matter, the first of which could take place at the next regularly schedule meeting slated for Dec. 12.