Kenbridge changes business license fee — again

Published 8:58 am Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Kenbridge Town Council has revised its revision to its business license fee.

At its Feb. 16, meeting, the council removed the $30 processing fee it imposed in January.

Instead, the council decided that if a business’s gross receipt tax comes in below $30, it will have to pay a $30 minimum.

If it is above $30, the business will just pay whatever their gross receipt tax is, depending on the type of business it is.

The business license fee is based on gross receipts and the type of business.

“We messed up, but we’re trying to make it right,” Mayor Emory M. Hodges explained. “It’s not the administrative personnel; it’s council.”

In mid-January, Kenbridge Town Council revised its business license fee — exempting the first $30 of revenue from the fee calculation but adding a $30 processing fee.

Changing the town’s business license fee is something the council started discussing late last year.

From the beginning of the situation, council members said they weren’t trying to raise revenues, but simply to keep the town’s expense of the paperwork from being more costly than the charge.

“My impression was we were trying to weed out the $1, $5, $8” fees, councilman Daniel Thompson said.

“We got sideways on how to word it. I don’t think our intent was to raise everybody’s business license by $30,” Hodges said.