ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270062
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
If you ask Patti Cowley, Blacksburg has before it an opportunity.
Earlier this year, the General Assembly changed the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax, known as BPOL. An annual, local-option tax, the BPOL tax is based on an individual company's gross receipts from the previous year.
Cowley, president of the Blacksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, said using a company's gross receipts to figure the tax is unfair. She understands the need for a business tax and doesn't mind paying one. But a more accurate way to determine a BPOL tax, she said, would be with a company's net profits.
Intended as a boon to businesses grossing $50,000 or less, the new law exempts them from paying the BPOL tax. But it also allows municipalities with populations under 50,000 - such as Blacksburg - to recoup lost revenue by charging a fee of up to $50 to issue a business license.
Most cities and towns in Virginia and half the counties levy a BPOL tax. In Blacksburg, in fiscal year 1994-1995, BPOL fees generated 6.2 percent, or $630,917, of the town's local revenue - roughly the amount of the town's parks and recreation budget, said Town Manager Ron Secrist.
The dilemma before Town Council: Do away with BPOL and lose a significant chunk of the operating budget; or keep it and continue to levy local businesses with what some owners say is an unjust form of taxation.
Secrist is presenting two plans for the Town Council's perusal tonight. Both options refigure the way the BPOL fee is computed for some businesses and both generate the same amount of money for the town.
The first option charges a flat $45 fee for the town's 444 businesses with gross receipts of less than $50,000. Of those 444, 140 would pay a lower fee next year and 304 would pay a higher fee.
The second option is more in keeping with the original small-business-friendly intent of the state law. It imposes a $20 license fee on all town businesses and charges a gross receipts tax for all businesses with total sales of more than $50,000.
Secrist said there are other options available and the two being presented are for illustrative purposes. Town Council is not expected to take action on the BPOL issue until later this fall and the new rates wouldn't kick in until January.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB