Get Your Georgia Business Started/State Payroll Tax Issues/Sales Tax/Business Licenses
Get Your Georgia Business Started/State Payroll Tax Issues/Sales Tax/Business Licenses
One of your first steps as you being your Georgia business, is that you will apply for a Georgia State Taxpayer ID Number to pay your Georgia Income Tax and Net Worth Tax obligations. This will be true for a C Corporation , S Corporation, LLC, LLP, Partnership or Proprietorship. If you are an S or an S Corporation or an LLC that converts to an S Corporation for tax purposes you will need to have a Georgia withholding number and also register with the Georgia Department of Labor, even if you have no other employees, other than yourself as tax law requires these entities to pay a fair and reasonable salary given position and profit. If you do this online, you may also get a provisional Federal ID number at the same time. Get started at the Georgia Tax Registration Gateway.
Georgia Withholding.
To report your Georgia withholdings, Georgia will assign you to a reporting cycle; be sure to carefully review the reports they send, as the due dates will be detailed on the forms. Federal and state withholding (depending upon and varying by state) Employers are required to submit to their employees a withholding form/certificate, on which the employee documents and confirms their filing status and their number of exemptions. Employers then are required to use this information to determine the statutorily withholding based upon withholding tables required by the IRS and varying states. The withholding certificate for the IRS and Georgia are a W-4 and G-4 form respectively. It is the employees responsibility to complete these forms and then for the employer to withhold these amounts as directed. All withholding taxes are taken out of an employee’s check and then remitted over to the respective taking authority. In this capacity, an employer is required to act in a fiduciary capacity in the withholding and payment of these monies
Obtain a Georgia Sales and Use Tax ID Number
If you will be selling goods at retail, or have a rental business you will need to collect Georgia state sales tax, and any local sales taxes, that might be due. These vary by county and your county rate can be determined by visiting the Georgia Department of Revenue web-site at
The Georgia Department of Revenue will issue this tax ID, and provide information about the sales and use taxes you should be collecting. Learn more at the Sales Use Tax website.
Georgia Department of Labor/Unemployment Insurance
This is a DOL/quarterly report due thirty days after the close of the quarter. Employers are required to pay for SUTA/state unemployment taxes using this form. Please note that initially when your business starts the tax rate is statutory. It will adjust over time based upon your claims experience. Please be sure to look for this notice of your annual rate, which Georgia sends at the first of each year. Both the IRS and the state of Georgia assess against employers an unemployment tax. This tax is paid exclusively by the company, and there are no required withholding or additional taxes being paid by the employee. Both the IRS and Georgia limit the amount of taxes a company will pay on any given employee to a maximum salary amount per year. These monies/taxes are due on the first wages paid a particular employee in any given calendar year. While the IRS assessment rate/percentage is statutory the rate to Georgia fluctuates based upon an individual companies claims experience.
Business Licenses for your Georgia Business: How to Obtain a City or County Business License
Sometimes called an Occupation Tax, a business license should be obtained from the county or city in which your office is located. If you primarily work out of your home, then obtain the license in your home county. You can find out the proper procedure for doing this by calling your city hall or county courthouse. For example, in Gwinnett County, you obtain your business license in person at the Licensing and Revenue Department at the County Annex building on South Perry Street in Lawrenceville.
If you are located in the city limits of a town you should obtain your business license from the municipality in which your business operates. For those in Atlanta you can get your license by contacting the City of Atlanta Business Tax Division, 55 Trinity Avenue, SW, Suite 1350, Atlanta, GA 30335-0317 or by calling them direct at 404-330-6270. For those living in Lawrenceville please visit the licensing office at their office at 70 S. Clayton Street, Lawrenceville, GA 30045 or by phone at 770-963-2414. If you live within the city limits of Duluth please contact City Hall at 3578 West Lawrenceville Street, Duluth, GA 30096 with their phone being 770-476-3434.
Please note that many cities and municipalities allow for the registration forms to be down loaded on-line. Generally licenses have a basic underlying fee which then fluctuates based upon your projected sales levels.
To read more about business issues affecting your new Georgia Business visit http://www.hiscpa.com/checklist.htm
To Get Help in Choosing the Right Entity Type for your Business visit http://www.hiscpa.com/article2.html
Understanding Corporate Income Tax Returns and Year-end Tax Filings for Business Owners http://www.hiscpa.com/business-tax-returns.html
To learn if your workers are employees or independent contractors http://www.hiscpa.com/employee-checklist.htm
Atlanta Payroll Services. Payroll tax returns and their attendant issues are the bane of many business owners both big and small. Tax law at federal, state and local levels often leaves an entrepreneur feeling both dazed and confused. There is no greater area of need for tax simplification than in the area of payroll tax issues. Payroll tax returns and payments are due to the varying regulatory agencies at differing times, unique and special forms and often what appears to be conflicting reporting styles and forms. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the confusion to which you will help find clarification below.
John Dillard is a Christian Speaker/Author and Certified Public Accountant (All Rights Reserved). To See how he takes Christ along with him to work visit http://www.hiscpa.com/ (An Atlanta CPA firm) and for his latest book Overcoming Life’s 9/11’s: Job’s Journey and to learn about his ministry visit http://www.john-dillard.com/
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- Atlanta CPA on Payroll 101: Helping Metro Atlanta Business Owners with Payroll Taxes for Decades
- Duluth/Gwinnett/N. Fulton/Atlanta CPA Provides Checklist for New Georgia Business Owners
- Gwinnett CPA on Determining Where Your Business Should Pay Its Taxes/Have State Payroll Withholding
- Atlanta Payroll Services: Payroll Reporting Guidelines
- Gwinnett Christian CPA Firm Advises on IRS and Georgia Unemployment Tax Issues
