InTucker Magazine

From the Mayor – February 2019

There are a lot of things I love about owning a small business. Renewing my business license has never been one of them.

For several years, I – just like every other business owner in the area – had to wade through paperwork and calculations to renew my license with DeKalb County and, more recently, the City of Tucker. It can be an exhausting way to start the year: you make the trip downtown, wait with the crowd and eventually make your payment. Unless you’re told you made an error somewhere along the way, then you get to go through the whole process again.

While there’s nothing I can do to get myself or my fellow business owners excited about the license renewal process, we have made it better and it’s going to continue to get better. If you’re a business owner who recently received their annual business license renewal letter in the mail, you know that for this year we have moved part of this process online. One of the main  reasons for the change is you can now sit at your desk or your kitchen table, go to www.tuckerga.gov/licenses and complete this process whenever you want to, not just during business hours.

In theory, you’ll never have to come into the office. For now, this is a two-step process: step one you file your renewal application online, step two our team processes your application and sends you an invoice. Make payment and you’re licensed in the City of Tucker.

The process will be a little longer this year, as you’ll need to input your business’ information and set up your online account. But that’s a one-time requirement.

The other thing to know is that this year, for the first time, we’ll be calculating your business license fee based on your actual revenue from the previous year, rather than the old “estimate and reconcile” method.  Simply put, this is an easier and more transparent way of calculating your license fee.

I hope you’ll give this new online renewal system a chance. We have additional staff in our Business License Department to help guide you through the process. The sooner you’re able to file your renewal application, the sooner this process will be complete.

This isn’t perfect. Nothing is the first time around. But it’s designed to make things easier. Our staff is here to walk you through questions or challenges that may arise; I know, because they had to do it for me.