During the 2012 legislative session the Georgia General Assembly overhauled Georgia’s tax system in large and meaningful ways.
One of the changes to Georgia’s tax system will provide for an exemption to the sales tax used in manufacturing starting in 2013. The Governor, however, did not want local governments to lose an important revenue source without providing for options and thus, the new legislation contained provisions allowing for local governments to impose an excise tax on the energy used in manufacturing. The new potential excise tax would be phased in over a four year period beginning in 2013 and contains numerous rules that must be followed by local governments in order to properly impose the excise tax.
In order to help cities that wish to impose such an excise tax, GMA has developed a model ordinance following the provisions of the new law. Additionally, GMA has developed a model intergovernmental agreement for use with county governments when the county chooses to impose an excise tax for energy used in manufacturing.
Special thanks is given to Joe Scheuer with the ACCG for his help in drafting these model documents.
Should you have any questions or comments related to these model ordinances, please feel free to contact Rusi Patel at
rpatel@gmanet.com.