|
|
|
Fayetteville makes business tax changes for professionals By JOHN
MUNFORD The city of Fayetteville is in the process of amending its occupational (business) tax ordinance to bring it into compliance with several recent court decisions. The amended ordinance specifically relates to how a group of businesses referred to by Georgia law as "professionals" such as lawyers, physicians, funeral directors, landscape architects, other medical professions and other occupations. The Georgia statute requires that local governments may not regulate such professionals and so they may not charge for regulatory duties as cities can for other occupations. Specifically, the ordinance will be amended to indicate that the city is not regulating the practice of law due to recent court decisions, said city finance director Lynn Robinson. Professional practitioners are not required to pay the occupational tax as a precondition for conducting business in the city, the amended ordinance states. Instead, those professionals must pay their occupational tax by April 1 of each year to cover their business for the previous year. The first reading of the amended ordinance was approved by the City Council at its regular meeting last week.
|
||