By By MARY-ALLISON LANCASTER – Managing editor
East Brewton Mayor Terry Clark is unhappy with the way the city's sales taxes have been collected so he and City Council members voted in favor of changing the way it collects taxes.
During Monday evening's council meeting, Mayor Clark and City Council members listened to a presentation by a local government liaison for the Alabama Department of Revenue (ADOR) Monday evening.
According to Mayor Clark, AlaTax, based out of Birmingham, has been collecting the city's sales taxes. City Clerk Karen Singleton said Tuesday morning she was unsure how long AlaTax had been collecting for the city. AlaTax collects taxes for the cities of Brewton and Atmore. According to City Clerk John Angel, the city has not had any problems with the company. In fact, Angel added that the company has had the time to find more revenue from participants the city wasn't aware of.
East Brewton council members voted unanimously to make the change. If the city of East Brewton is unsatisfied with the services from ADOR, it has 30 days to dissolve the agreement. There is no penalty if the city decides ADOR isn't what it wants.
By law, ADOR annually charges $3.71 per transaction. The total cost the city will pay, with no additional fees, is 2 percent of total gross collections. That means 98 percent of the revenue goes to the city of East Brewton.