Gulfport, MS Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Section 1-142 of the Gulfport Code adopts Mississippi's Local Privilege Tax Law, Miss. Code Ann. , as the city's general privilege (business) tax law, and authorizes the city clerk to levy and collect privilege taxes at the maximum amounts the state law allows. Rather than write a single business-license fee schedule, Gulfport classifies businesses by adopting separate state statutory schemes for specific trades and setting its own rates within them. Section 1-143 adopts Miss. Code Ann. 1972 Sections 27-71-301 through 27-71-347 as the city's privilege tax law on alcoholic beverages, with the clerk authorized to collect at the maximum rate under Section 27-71-345.

Section 1-145 adopts Miss. Code Ann. 1972 Sections 27-27-301 through 27-27-305 for weighing, postage-stamp and merchandise-vending machines. Section 1-147 sets the city's own flat-dollar tobacco dealer tax directly in the code: fifty dollars a year for a wholesale distributor whose warehouse or wholesale business is located in the city, and five dollars a year for each retail location selling cigars, cigarettes or smoking tobacco, due separately for every place of business the retailer operates. These classifications sit alongside a separate division for slot amusement machine license taxes, running twenty-seven dollars per music or picture machine, forty-five dollars per game machine and eighteen dollars per children's-ride machine, collected annually every January 1 through December 31 by the city clerk and paid into the general fund.