Prohibitions on Occupation Tax Levies by Local Governments

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Revenue and Taxation
  4. Specific, Business, and Occupation Taxes
  5. General Provisions
  6. Prohibitions on Occupation Tax Levies by Local Governments

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Local governments are not authorized to:

  1. Require a business or practitioner to pay more than one occupation tax for each office or location, except that businesses or practitioners with multiple services or products shall be taxed in accordance with Code Section 48-13-12;
  2. Levy occupation tax on more than 100 percent of the total gross receipts of the business or practitioner, when occupation taxes of all local governments are added together;
  3. Levy occupation tax on any practitioner whose office is maintained by and who is employed in practice exclusively by the United States, the state, a municipality or county of the state, or instrumentalities of the United States, the state, or a municipality or county of the state;
  4. Require the payment of a fee by whatever name in any amount by a business or practitioner for the cost of ascertaining whether such a business or practitioner has paid occupation tax to another local government; or
  5. Levy any occupation tax, regulatory fee, or administrative fee on any state or local authority, nonprofit organization, or vendor operating under a contract with a tax-exempt agricultural fair, as that term is defined in Code Section 2-2-8.

(Code 1981, §48-13-13, enacted by Ga. L. 1993, p. 1292, § 7; Ga. L. 1995, p. 419, § 1; Ga. L. 1996, p. 1268, § 3; Ga. L. 1997, p. 143, § 48.)

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 1993, p. 1292, § 9, effective January 1, 1995, renumbered former Code Section 48-13-13 as present Code Section 48-13-22.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Local authority explained.

- In enacting O.C.G.A. § 48-13-13, the General Assembly did not intend the term "local authority" in O.C.G.A. § 48-13-13(5) to refer to a local government corporation, that is, a municipality or a county, but only to a local authority in the narrower sense, and therefore, § 48-13-13(5) does not prohibit one municipality from levying, assessing, and collecting an occupation tax from another municipality that conducts proprietary (nongovernmental) revenue-generating activities within the geographical corporate limits of the first municipality; use of the phrase "local authority" shows that the General Assembly views a local government, that is, a county or municipality, and a local authority as distinct categories, and a "local authority" means an agency created by one or more local governments to carry out certain discrete governmental functions for a local purpose. City of Atlanta v. City of College Park, 311 Ga. App. 62, 715 S.E.2d 158 (2011).

City was not a local authority.

- Trial court erred in determining that a first city was a local authority that was statutorily exempt from liability to a second city for any occupation tax for the first city's proprietary business operations because the first city was not a local authority within the meaning of O.C.G.A. § 48-13-13(5), such that the second city was prohibited from taxing the first city; in enacting O.C.G.A. § 48-13-13, the General Assembly did not intend the term "local authority" in § 48-13-13(5) to refer to a local government corporation, that is, a municipality or a county, but only to a local authority in the narrower sense, and therefore, § 48-13-13(5) does not prohibit one municipality from levying, assessing, and collecting an occupation tax from another municipality that conducts proprietary (nongovernmental) revenue-generating activities within the geographical corporate limits of the first municipality. City of Atlanta v. City of College Park, 311 Ga. App. 62, 715 S.E.2d 158 (2011).

In a declaration suit, a city was properly determined not to be a local authority as that term is used in O.C.G.A. § 48-13-13(5) and, thus, was subject to the levy of occupation taxes by another municipality for the city's proprietary operations at the city's airport, which was in the other municipality's city limits, because the terms local authority and municipality were not the same under the statute. City of Atlanta v. City of College Park, 292 Ga. 741, 741 S.E.2d 147 (2013).


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