Dougherty County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)
Key Facts
- Massage practitioner tax
- $400.00 per year flat
- Base license fee
- $50.00 per year
- Renewal deadline
- March 15 each year
- Establishment licensing scheme
- None separate from tax code
- Enforcing office
- County license inspector
Summary
Dougherty County has no separate massage-establishment license; instead, Code § 2-10-2(d)(1) lists massage and physiotherapy among the licensed professions and taxes each individual practitioner who keeps a principal office in the unincorporated county a flat four-hundred-dollar annual occupation tax, replacing the employee-based schedule that applies to other businesses.
(1)Professionals. Each individual practitioner of law, medicine, osteopathy, chiropractics, podiatry, dentistry, optometry, veterinary medicine, landscape architecture, land surveying, massage and physiotherapy, public accounting, embalming, funeral directing, civil, mechanical, hydraulic or electrical engineering or architecture who maintains their principal office in the county shall pay by calculating the occupation tax due as a result of a flat occupation tax of fifty dollars ($50.00) plus an additional occupation tax, if applicable, based on number of employees in accordance with "Exhibit A" by paying the sum of four hundred dollars ($400.00) per year. No such levy shall be assessed upon or collected from any practitioner whose office is maintained by and who is employed in practice exclusively by the United States, the State of Georgia, a municipality or county of the State of Georgia, or any instrumentality thereof.
Full Breakdown
Unlike many jurisdictions, unincorporated Dougherty County regulates massage practice only through its business occupation-tax code, not a dedicated massage-establishment licensing chapter. 00) per year, regardless of staff size. The flat tax is waived for any practitioner whose office is maintained by, and who practices exclusively for, the United States, the State of Georgia, or a Georgia municipality or county. 00 base license fee, and the March 15 renewal deadline that governs all licenses under § 2-10-2(h) are the only obligations this code places on a massage practice's principal office in the unincorporated county.
Violations & Fines
Practicing massage from an unlicensed principal office in the unincorporated county without registering and paying the $400.00 professional occupation tax violates § 2-10-3(b)'s requirement to register and pay before engaging in business. Because Article I sets no unique fine, the general penalty in § 2-1-8 applies: up to $1,000.00, up to 60 days in jail, or both, with each day of continued operation a separate offense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Dougherty County license massage establishments separately?
How much occupation tax does a massage practitioner owe?
Is the massage tax based on how many employees the practice has?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Dougherty County
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