129 County Recreation Road, Suite 200
P.O. Box 801 • Blairsville, GA 30514

Phone: 706-745-4500 Fax: 706-745-1859
Wednesday - Oct 09, 2024

Taxes & Incentives

Grow, Thrive, Prosper in Blairsville and Union County

Union County’s low-tax and pro-business environment offers significant long- and short-term operational
advantages to new and expanding businesses in our community. The Union County Development Authority will
work with your company to aggressively package the most beneficial statutory and negotiated tax, financing,
development and training incentives to help you locate or expand your business enterprise in our community.
Call the Union County Development Authority at 706-745-4500.


 

Taxes

Through fiscally conservative and effective local leadership, Union County is committed to low taxes while maintaining high levels of services to our citizens and businesses.

Millage Rates - 2023
Union County 4.286
Schools 7.523
Combined 11.809

Assessed valuation in Georgia is 40% of real property value. Thus, the effective tax millage is 40% of the mills levied. Millage is expressed as dollars of tax per$1,000 of assessed value.

For additional information on tax rates and County services, please visit the Union County Government website.

For additional information on individual properties and parcels including maps and aerial information, please visit the Tax Assessor's website

Freeport

Union County offers our businesses 100% Freeport. Raw materials, goods in process and finished goods bound for out-of-state shipment that are held in factories and warehouses in Union County are 100% exempt from County ad valorem taxes.

Single Factor Apportionment

Georgia’s 5.75 percent corporate income tax rate applies only to the portion of income that is earned in Georgia. Companies operating in Georgia use a "Single Factor Gross Receipts" apportionment formula. This formula substantially reduces Georgia income tax for companies based in the state that deliver a large portion of products or services to customers outside Georgia. Gross Receipts, or sales in Georgia, are the only factor used to determine the amount of a company’s income that is subject to Georgia income tax.

Georgia’s broad definition of what sales qualify as out-of-state means that tax savings in Georgia will likely exceed those of other states that use single-factor apportionment.

Incentives

Georgia and Union County offer attractive and highly competitive incentives to newly-located and expanding companies. Our incentives are designed and negotiated to both ensure our competitiveness for your project and to ensure your company has every competitive advantage during start up and continuing through long-term operations.

State Financial Incentives
  • • Jobs Tax Credits: provides $1,750/job created (minimum 15 new jobs) each year
  • • Port Tax Credit Bonus: increases Jobs or Investment credits if port activity is increased by 10%
  • • Quality Jobs Tax Credit: provides $2,500-$5,000 per job (minimum 50 new jobs over a 24-month span) with above-average wages for five years
  • • R&D Tax Credit: credit up to 10% of increased qualified R&D expense over gross receipts
  • • Investment Tax Credits: provides tax credits equal to 1-3% of qualified capital investment for manufacturers and telecommunications companies that have operated in Georgia for at least three years
  • • Retraining Tax Credit: credit up to $500/yr per employee for direct investment in training
  • • Child Care Tax Credit: credit of 75-100% of employer-sponsored child care for employees
  • • Mega Project Tax Credit: $5,250 credit for project with 1,800+ jobs or $450+ million investment
  • • Premium Tax Credit: $1250 per job credit (minimum 15 new jobs) against the annual premium tax applied to insurance companies in the state, based on new job creation in Georgia
  • • Parolee Tax Credit: $2,500 per job credit for hiring an individual granted parole within 12 months of date of hire
  • • Sales & Use Tax Exemption: on equipment and electricity used directly in manufacturing
State Technical and Training Incentives

• Quick Start: Georgia’s nationally acclaimed employee training program provides customized training for new employees in skill-based jobs at no cost to qualifying companies. Quick Start provides training space, instructors and all materials related to the company’s customized program. Quick Start can potentially save companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in training costs.

• Enterprise Innovation Institute: Georgia Institute of Technology offers world-class IT, engineering and other services to help companies with issues related to process productivity, quality and international standards, energy and environmental management, lean enterprise transformation, trade adjustment assistance, new product design and development, and information technology strategies.

• Centers of Innovation: Georgia provides several Centers across the state that support different strategic industry sectors including manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture and logistics. Georgia companies can utilize university-sponsored research, public and private sector talent and other state and private sector resources for their innovation and growth strategies needs.

• Hope Grant: allows any Georgian to complete a degree or certificate program through the State Technical Colleges, which allows Georgia companies to take advantage of additional training opportunities for their employees and business.

Union County Financial Incentives

• Industrial Revenue Bond Financing: UCDA is statutorily enabled to issue IRBs for project-related costs of land, facilities and machinery & equipment. Interest rates fluctuate but are generally well-below commercial rates and terms are determined by the company and its investment banker.

• Tax Abatements: This incentive may be available through the Development Authority if a company chooses to finance all or part of its project with IRBs. Pursuant to an IRB “bond-for-title” financing structure, title to project property is held by UCDA and a payment in-lieu-of tax (PILOT) schedule is agreed upon. Under this arrangement, UCDA issues a bond that is underwritten by an investment bank that provides the capital. UCDA holds title to and leases the financed assets to the company, with the lease payments being equal to the debt service of the note. UCDA and the company may then negotiate an abatement and corresponding PILOT payment in lieu of normal ad valorem taxes. All ad valorem tax abatements are negotiated on an individual basis to ensure our competitiveness for your project.

• Freeport Exemptions: All raw materials, goods in process and finished goods bound for out-of-state shipment that are held in factories and warehouses in Union County are 100% exempt from County ad valorem taxes.

• Site Improvements: UCDA may provide some improvement to a Union County property for the

location of a new business enterprise. Sites in the Authority-owned Blairsville Airport Regional Industrial Park are already prepared to pad-ready status and are served with water, sewer, road, power and telecommunications infrastructure.

• Site Subsidies: Dependent on job creation and private investment and negotiated on a case-by-case basis, the Authority may reduce or subsidize the cost of a site of choice for a prospective business in the Blairsville Airport Regional Industrial Park.

• Infrastructure Improvements: Depending on the location and scope of a project and determined on a case-by-case basis, UCDA, through local, state and federal resources, may provide infrastructure improvements such as road, water or sewer service to a site.

• Permitting: In close cooperation with City and County officials, UCDA will expedite local permitting processes and may seek to reduce or waive fees on behalf of a prospective business.

• Other Financing: The Union County Development Authority has access to a host of below-market, publicly-sourced and flexible financing programs that may be used by a new or expanding business for real and personal property costs. Such financing may be used independently or in conjunction with IRB financing or commercial lending. UCDA will aggressively seek to structure financing that is most advantageous to your company.

The Union County Development Authority’s partnerships with the TVA, SEIDA and Blue Ridge Mountain EMC gives us a competitive advantage in Georgia. These partnerships make available additional low-cost financing and grant/loan packages to companies interested in bringing a business to Union County, funds that are not accessible to businesses in other regions.

Long Term Incentives for locating in Union County
  • • Low cost of living
  • • Low transportation costs
  • • Excellent location, within two hour’s drive of Atlanta, GA; Chattanooga, TN; and Greenville, SC
  • • Well-trained and disciplined work force
  • • Low taxes
  • • Excellent quality of life