Several county and city governments and the Department of Revenue (DOR) have launched a pilot project to analyze and improve the collection of sales taxes. Cherokee County and Canton, Hall County and Gainesville, Chatham County and Savannah, and Lowndes County and Valdosta have been comparing their occupation tax records with DOR’s sales tax data. Businesses that are listed on the records of either state government or local government but not both are closely examined.
Hall County and Gainesville reported their findings at a pilot project meeting with DOR on October 27, 2009. Hall County discovered that there were 881 businesses in DOR’s data set that were operating without paying occupational taxes. Upon discovery of the discrepancy, Hall County and Gainesville immediately sent notices to these businesses. The comparison also revealed that there were 2,060 sales tax remitting businesses located within Hall County and Gainesville that were paying occupational taxes but were not included on DOR’s sales tax database. Lowndes County and Valdosta had not completed their data comparison by the meeting but indicated that their preliminary results were very similar to what Hall County and Gainesville reported. Once Chatham County / City of Savannah and Cherokee County / City of Canton complete their analysis, the group will reassemble to determine how best to move forward with possible administrative and legislative remedies.
While the pilot project is in the early stages, the initial results clearly demonstrate that a formalized information sharing methodology between local governments and the Department of Revenue would be extremely beneficial for both the State and local governments.
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