Effingham County, GA Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Effingham County's occupation tax runs through Chapter 70, Article II of the county code, administered by the zoning administrator's office. Every person engaged in a business, trade, profession or occupation in the unincorporated county must register and pay the tax (Sec. 70-37), and Sec. 70-43 requires that registration to identify the business's dominant line of business, the single category that defines what the business actually does for tax purposes. That classification matters because the tax is tiered by employee count rather than revenue: Sec. 70-39 sets liability at $100 for zero to nine employees, rising in bands to $200, $300, $400 and $500, and topping out at $600 for 50 or more employees, calculated for the dominant line.

Sec. 70-44 addresses businesses operating at more than one fixed location or combining more than one line: each separate location counts as its own business for tax purposes, and where a single business spans multiple lines, it pays under the taxing method and rate that applies to its dominant line at each location. Licensed professionals under O.C.G.A. § 48-13-9(c) get a separate election in Sec. 70-45: instead of the employee-count tax, a practitioner can choose a flat $400 per-practitioner fee, made annually by February 1.

The tax is expressly for revenue only, not regulatory purposes, under Sec. 70-40, and Sec. 70-52 exempts categories such as state-regulated utilities, farm operations, insurance companies and depository institutions from the article. Registrations tied to an inaccurate or unpaid classification can be revoked under Sec. 70-54.