Georgia business license (occupation tax) cost by city and county

Georgia has no statewide business license: your city (or your county, if you're outside city limits) charges an occupation tax. For a one-person business with $50,000 in receipts, the 20 places we could estimate range from $30 (Cherokee County (unincorporated)) to $273.40 (Atlanta) (sources checked Oct 30, 2026).

Last updated Oct 30, 2026 · 3 sources

41 of Georgia's largest cities and counties: what the occupation tax and admin fee cost, how each one figures it, when renewal is due and the late penalty, each linked to the official source.

Estimate your Georgia fee

How Georgia business licenses work

Georgia cities and counties don't sell a 'business license' as such. They levy an occupation tax under O.C.G.A. 48-13 and issue an Occupation Tax Certificate (OTC), which most people still call a business license.

You pay where your business is located: the city if you're inside city limits, the county if you're in unincorporated territory. Some counties (for example Fulton, which only licenses the Fulton Industrial District) have almost no unincorporated land left.

State law lets each government pick one method and apply it to everyone: number of employees, profitability class, gross receipts combined with profitability class, or a flat fee. In practice large metro cities mostly use gross receipts times a NAICS-based class rate, and many suburbs and counties use employee counts.

Most places add a non-refundable administrative fee (commonly $25 to $191) on top of the tax.

Licensed professionals listed in O.C.G.A. 48-13-9(c) (lawyers, doctors, dentists, CPAs, engineers, architects, counselors and similar) can choose a flat fee of up to $400 per practitioner instead of reporting receipts.

Certificates usually run on the calendar year. Renewals are typically due between Jan 1 and Apr 15, with a 10% penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest common when late.

New for July 1, 2026: HB 141 lets a business submit a CPA's affidavit instead of tax returns when a city or county figures its occupation tax.

Applications usually need a notarized SAVE affidavit and, for employers with more than 10 employees, an E-Verify affidavit.

All 41 Georgia places we track

Sorted by population (Census 2024 estimates). Tap a column to sort. Estimates use the lowest class, $50,000 in receipts, an owner-only business and include the admin fee. "not published" = the official source doesn't say; we don't guess.

Download: Georgia data (CSV) · JSON