By Jessica Johnson
Contributing Writer

Location, location, location. It’s one of the most important parts of doing business.

What that location will cost business owners around the Lowcountry varies from business to business and from municipality to municipality.

The cost for the privilege of doing business, otherwise known as a business license, costs the least in rural Dorchester County, save for rural Berkeley County, which has no licensing structure.

Barry Crook, Dorchester County business license administrator, said his county generates $750,000 a year in business license fees and could probably generate more for the county’s general fund. He has contacted Dorchester County officials about possibly increasing the rates.

“Ours are very low,” Crook said.

A general merchandise store would pay $86.74 per every $100,000 of gross profit up to $1 million in Dorchester County. In Summerville, the same store would pay $177 per every $100,000 of gross profits up to $2 million.

“Our license rates are so outdated,” Crook said.

Each municipality sets its own licensing fees; generally businesses pay a base rate according to their class for the first $2,000 of gross revenues and then a fee per every $1,000 of revenue afterward.

Once a business makes $1 million in gross revenues the excise fee is reduced in most areas. Summerville puts the cap at $2 million before reducing the charge.

The licenses enable counties to keep better track of which businesses have paid their business personal property taxes. Crook works with the Dorchester County auditor’s office and refuses licenses to businesses that have not paid the proper taxes to the county, he said.

Businesses in Summerville and Goose Creek often pay double fees for business done outside their home area. Dorchester charges non-resident business double rates as well.

Real estate agents, for example, would pay on gross commissions made in a particular area regardless of the office they call home.

The variability of fees from city to city are among the grumbles heard about licensing, said Philip Owens, vice president of business development for the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.

“What most businesses would like to see as they expand into other communities is continuity,” Owens said of the variety of business rates.

These fees, however, are generally seen as a cost of doing business and are not a primary consideration when selecting a location, Owens said.

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