DUMFRIES — Officials in Dumfries are looking to lower some of the town’s taxes while raising the tax on cigarettes.
Town Manager Robert Ritter says the town will hold a public hearing on June 5 at the town hall where the Town Council will hear from residents about a plan to lower the business and professional license tax (BPOL) and its hotel tax.
The BPOL tax is a tax on gross receipts collected at town businesses, and officials want to increase the threshold for the collection of the tax. Right now, BPOL is collected when someone purchases $35 or more, but under the new rules, the town would begin collecting the tax when purchases rise to $50 $55 or more.
Ritter says town officials will also decide if they want to lower the hotel tax, also known as the transient occupancy tax collected when travelers stay at hotels in the town, to include a Super 8 and Sleep Inn. If lowered, that tax would decrease by nearly half, from 13.7 percent to 7 percent.
The town wants to increase the tax collected on the sale of a pack of smokes from 55 cents to 75 cents per pack. The increase will be used to fund the town’s police department.
In the coming days leading up to the public hearing, Acting Town Mayor Charles Brewer said it’s likely that hotel tax would be lowered but not by 13 percent. He said town leaders had been lobbied by some from tourism and hotel groups that have urged the town to reduce the tax.
“The town has to stop listening to and being swayed by outside groups and make its own decision,” said Brewer.
By comparison in nearby Manassas, that city’s hotel tax is five percent. Dumfries Councilman Derrick Wood, whose soon to be mayor on July 1, said his town’s tax is too high and forces contractors who work at Quantico to choose to stay in hotels outside the town, in Prince William County or elsewhere.
“This has hurt sales at hotels,” said Wood.
Town officials are expected to post the June 5 agenda on the web prior to the meeting date.
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