2020 Georgia Code
Title 48 - Revenue and Taxation
Chapter 6 - Taxation of Intangibles
Article 4 - Taxation of Financial Institutions
§ 48-6-93. Local Business License Tax on Depository Financial Institutions; Tax Rate Based on Georgia Gross Receipts; Return Required; Allocation of Gross Receipts; Tax Credited Against State Corporate Income Tax Liability

1. Municipalities and counties may each levy and collect a business license tax from depository financial institutions having an office located within their respective jurisdiction at a rate not to exceed 0.25 percent of the Georgia gross receipts, as defined and allocated in Code Section 48-6-95 and this Code section, of said depository financial institutions. Municipalities and counties may provide that the minimum annual amount of such levy upon any depository financial institution shall be not more than $1,000.00.
2. Reserved.
3. Every depository financial institution subject to the tax authorized by this Code section shall file a return of its gross receipts with each applicable jurisdiction levying such tax by March 1 of the year following the year in which such gross receipts are measured. Said return shall be in the manner and in the form prescribed by the commissioner based on the allocation method set forth in subsection (d) of this Code section. The return shall provide the information necessary to determine the portion of the taxpayer's Georgia gross receipts to be allocated to each taxing jurisdiction in which such institution has an office. Each taxing jurisdiction which has enacted a business license tax pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section shall assess and collect said tax based upon the information provided in the returns.
4. A depository financial institution's Georgia gross receipts shall be allocated among each taxing jurisdiction in which such institution has an office as of December 31 of the year in which gross receipts are measured, as follows:
   1. Each jurisdiction shall be assigned the gross receipts attributable to the offices located within such jurisdiction; and
   2. In determining the amount of "gross receipts" attributable to each office, 20 percent of the institution's Georgia gross receipts shall be attributable to that institution's principal Georgia office, which for this purpose shall be the Georgia office to which the greatest amount of deposits by value are attributable. The remaining 80 percent of Georgia gross receipts shall be attributable to the institution's other Georgia offices, pro rata according to the number of such offices. The term "office" as used in this Code section means a place of business of a depository financial institution at which the institution accepts deposits but shall not include unmanned automatic teller machines, point-of-sale terminals, or other similar unmanned electronic facilities at which deposits may be accepted. If there are fewer than five offices in addition to the principal Georgia office, the amount of gross receipts attributable to each such office shall be determined by dividing the Georgia gross receipts by the aggregate number of such offices.
5. Any tax paid by a depository financial institution pursuant to this Code section shall be credited dollar for dollar against any state income tax liability of such institution for the tax year during which any business or occupation tax authorized by this Code section is paid. Such credit shall be subject to the provisions of Code Section 48-7-29.7.
6. Except as authorized by this Code section, no municipality or county shall levy any form of business license tax, fee, franchise, or occupation tax on any depository financial institution.

(Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 156, § 2; Ga. L. 1949, p. 1050, § 1; Ga. L. 1973, p. 924, § 3; Ga. L. 1976, p. 405, § 1; Code 1933, § 91A-3303, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1983, p. 1350, § 8; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 48; Ga. L. 1988, p. 13, § 48; Ga. L. 1996, p. 181, § 4; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1445, § 3.)

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2000, "Code Section 48-7-29.7" was substituted for "Code Section 48-7-29.4" at the end of subsection (e).

- Ga. L. 1983, p. 1350, § 15, effective January 1, 1984, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that should subsection (e) of Code Section 48-6-93 or paragraph (11) of subsection (b) of Code Section 48-7-21 be declared invalid or unconstitutional, it is the intent of the General Assembly that the entire Act be held invalid and the method of taxation affected by the Act revert to the method in effect prior to January 1, 1984.

Ga. L. 1996, p. 181, § 10, not codified by the General Assembly, provides for a study and report by the state revenue commissioner regarding the effect of the Act on revenue received by the state, counties, and cities in 1997 and 1998 from the tax imposed by Article 4 of Chapter 6 of Title 48 of the Code.

Ga. L. 2000, p. 1445, § 5, not codified by the General Assembly, provided in part that the Act shall be applicable to all taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2001.

- For article, "Revenue and Taxation: Amend Titles 48, 2, 28, 33, 36, 46, and 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating Respectively to Revenue and Taxation, Agriculture, the General Assembly, Insurance, Local Government, Public Utilities, and State Government," see 28 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 217 (2011).

Cited in Bartow County Bank v. Bartow County Bd. of Tax Assessors, 248 Ga. 703, 285 S.E.2d 920 (1982).

Construction with § 48-6-98. - O.C.G.A. § 48-6-98 operates to qualify or restrain the general terms of subsection (a) as applied to savings and loan associations. 1984 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 84-58.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

C.J.S.

- 84 C.J.S., Taxation, §§ 89, 90, 120, 121, 128, 184 et seq.

- Discrimination by state against foreign corporations in imposition of taxes and license fees, 49 A.L.R. 726; 77 A.L.R. 1490.

Constitutionality, construction, and application of state and local public-utility-gross-receipts-tax statutes modern cases, 58 A.L.R.5th 187.