NC city to refund $2.6M in business license fees

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina’s largest city says it will refund to building contractors some $2.6 million in improperly collected business license fees.

The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that the city’s action is designed to settle a lawsuit. The lawyer for Vision Ventures Construction contended that contractors paid the city as much as $10,000 a year, but should have paid only $10.

Attorney Jameson Wells says the refunds will affect about 2,100 companies.

A city attorney said Charlotte agreed that it overcharged certain contractors. Officials say state law limited contractor taxes to $10 a year, but the city applied the cap only to firms
that operated before the state handed some business regulation to local government.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)