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Council pulls proposed quarterly-payment change to business occupation tax after hour-long debate; exemptions list to be updated
Summary
Councilors debated removing the municipal quarterly payment option for occupation taxes to enable online renewals. After extensive public and council discussion, the council voted to remove section 2 of the proposed ordinance (the quarterly-payment change) and will vote next week on a separate update to the ordinance’s exemption list.
Columbus city staff presented a first-reading ordinance on Dec. 10 to amend Chapter 19 of the municipal code governing local occupation taxes. The proposal included two parts: (1) update section 19-57 to list occupation-tax exemptions that align the city code with state law, and (2) revise section 19-59 to remove the long-standing quarterly-payment option so the city could implement online renewals more efficiently.
Finance Director Miss Alexander told council staff and IT testing showed the city’s proposed online licensing/renewal vendor does not support quarterly payments, and fewer than 300 of the city’s roughly 8,000 licensed…
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