The city of

Fayetteville is in the process of amending its occupational (business)

tax ordinance to bring it into compliance with several recent court decisions.

The amended

ordinance specifically relates to how a group of businesses referred to

funeral directors, landscape architects, other medical professions and

other occupations.

The Georgia

statute requires that local governments may not regulate such professionals

and so they may not charge for regulatory duties as cities can for other

occupations.

Specifically,

the ordinance will be amended to indicate that the city is not regulating

the practice of law due to recent court decisions, said city finance director

Lynn Robinson.

Professional

practitioners are not required to pay the occupational tax as a precondition

for conducting business in the city, the amended ordinance states. Instead,

those professionals must pay their occupational tax by April 1 of each

year to cover their business for the previous year.

The first reading

of the amended ordinance was approved by the City Council at its regular

meeting last week.