CATLETTSBURG —
Boyd County businesses that fail to obtain licenses or pay net-profit taxes will now face penalties.
Officials estimate as many as 30 percent of businesses that operate in Boyd County fail to get licenses and therefore also are not likely to pay the county’s net-profits tax or collect occupational license fees for their employees. These taxes make up the bulk of the county’s operating expenses, which have dwindled dramatically in the wake of the recession.
The Boyd County Fiscal Court on Tuesday added an amendment to its original business license and payroll tax ordinance adopted in 2001. Under the new rule, “any person, firm, corporation, entity, partnership or other business organization that fails and/or refuses to obtain a business license” can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, with punishments including a fine of up to $500 and/or imprisonment up to a year, or both.
Boyd County Judge-Executive William “Bud” Stevens said the measure has been needed for some time to help force compliance. In the past the county has only been able to ask for compliance. He said this will put some “teeth” into the ordinance.
In 2009, the county also amended its ordinance to allow code enforcement officers to issue stop-work orders for contractors who hadn’t secured licenses, but it, too, failed to set a penalty if they refused.
A business license fee is $100, and businesses are required to pay the county a 1 percent tax on their net profits or wages earned in Boyd County.
County Treasurer Billie Zellers said any and all businesses operating in the unincorporated parts of Boyd County must have licenses.
“If you are going to have a presence in this county and do business in this county, you are supposed to have a business license,” she said. The net-profit taxes a business pays, and whether or not its employees are subject to the occupational tax, vary by the nature of the business.
“They have to pay net profits based on revenue earned while they are working in Boyd County,” she said, adding employees in turn would pay payroll taxes on wages earned while working in the county.
According to Susan Campbell, who oversees the collection of business-license and net-profit taxes for Boyd County, 2,698 businesses are registered with the county. “Being real conservative, I would say 30 percent (more) do not have licenses,” she said.
Campbell speculated the new measures will help to capture some of those lost revenues, but some businesses will continue not to comply. The biggest culprits, according to Zellers and Campbell, are contractors and one-man entities that do business in Boyd County during off-business hours.
As of Thursday, the new ordinance had not been used, according to officials.
According to Zellers, business-license and net-profit tax revenues are up for the year, but are down from their average before the recession. For the 2011 fiscal year ending in June, the county took in $793,039 in net profits and business-license fees, compared to $495,867 during the previous year. In June 2009, the county took in $2.1 million.
CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or
(606) 326-2653.
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