SPLOST is an optional one percent county sales tax used to fund capital outlay projects proposed by the county government and participating qualified municipal governments. The tax is imposed when the County Board of Commissioners calls a local referendum i. The tax is collected on items subject to the state sales and use tax within the county, including the sale of motor fuels as defined in O. In general, the tax may be levied for up to five years. If the county and qualified municipalities enter into an intergovernmental agreement, the tax may be imposed for six years.
Once the tax ends, it can be immediately continued without a gap in collections if a new referendum is timely held in which the voters approve the new SPLOST. Skip to Main Content. Loading Close. One percent of the amount collected is paid into the general fund of the State Treasury to defray the cost of administering this program and a percentage is paid to the entity that collects and reports the taxes.
The remainder is used as revenue for the general fund and reduces the amount of property tax revenue required to fund the annual budget. It requires that the tax bill of each property taxpayer must show the reduced county and city millage rate resulting from the receipt of sales tax revenue from the previous year as well as the reduced dollar amount. All counties and municipalities that impose a joint sales and use tax are required to renegotiate the distribution certificate for the proceeds following each decennial census.
The criteria to be used in the distribution of such proceeds and for the resolution of conflicts between the county and its municipalities are set by state law and if the county and cities fail to renegotiate such certificates as required by this law, the tax then terminates. The revenues from this tax must be used for capital outlays and the tax is subject to voter approval each time one is levied.
This tax is collected by the Department of Revenue and disbursed to the county government and it is distinguished by virtue of being a county tax rather than a joint county-city tax-however, it may be used to fund city projects and often is used for this in counties around Georgia. As a condition of levying a SPLOST, the county must have a meeting and confer with the city officials at least 30 days before the call for the referendum in order to consider any capital projects for which the cities may seek SPLOST funding.
If the county agrees to include a city project s in the call for referendum, the county and city must enter into an agreement before the call. SPLOST is providing its County and City citizens with potential benefits towards reducing property taxes and maintaining or increasing the quality of government services.
If there is no intergovernmental agreement in place, the tax can only be levied up to. With no intergovernmental agreement in place, the default distribution formula between the county and its cities is a formula based on the amount of expenditures made for transportation in the most recent three fiscal years. A Regional TSPLOST allows for the tax to be levied up to 10 years and 25 percent of the funds are discretionary money that goes back to each individual local government.
In Summary: LOST is approved by the voters and will continue annually, subject to certain provisions.
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