A guide from Valleypine Credit in Frankfort, Kentucky to the city and county occupational license fees, as each office describes them online, and where the filings fit in a funding request.
Frankfort, KY Occupational Tax Form: Where It Fits in a Funding File
The license and the returns behind it show a partner that the business is registered and current with local taxes. The forms a business files depend on location: the city's business license page has the application, with home office and commercial questionnaires and an online option; the county's tax administration page has the county application, payroll returns, net profit returns and an online payment portal.
In a funding file, include the current license, the last net profit return and the last quarterly withholding returns. A partner that sees unpaid local taxes may ask how they will be cleared before any funds go out.
If the business has moved between the city and the county, include the license and returns for both places for the years involved, so the record shows no gap.
Franklin County, KY Occupational Tax Rate Inside and Outside Frankfort, KY City Limits
Inside city limits, the City of Frankfort imposes an occupational license fee on employee wages at 1.95%, and a net profit license fee at the greater of 1.95% of net profit or $60, according to its licensing fees page. Outside city limits, Franklin County imposes an occupational license fee on wages at 1% and a net profit license fee at 1%, with a $40 initial processing fee, according to the county.
The county's doing business page says its jurisdiction is the unincorporated area outside the City of Frankfort, and that city residents who perform work in the county also complete a county application.
Illustration only, invented figures: a business inside the city with $300,000 in wages would withhold about $5,850 a year at 1.95%, and a county business with the same wages about $3,000 at 1% (our arithmetic). Those withheld amounts belong to the employees and are remitted quarterly.
Frankfort, KY Business License Renewal: Records Contractors Keep Ready
Renewal works through the annual return. In the county, filing the net profit license fee return renews the business license each year, per the county; in the city, failure to file the return results in automatic revocation of the occupational business license, per the city's fees page. A contractor should keep each year's return, proof of payment and the license itself together.
Contractors and subcontractors working in the county are named in the county's licensing requirement. Seventy-three construction firms with employees operated in Franklin County, KY in 2023 (County Business Patterns); a firm working on both sides of the city line deals with both offices.
Frankfort, KY Occupational Tax: Payroll Withholding Records a Practice Keeps for a Lender
Employers withhold the occupational license fee from employees' pay and remit it quarterly, in both the city and the county. A practice adding a provider adds to those quarterly remittances, and a partner reviewing a payroll or hiring request may ask for the last four quarterly returns to confirm that withholding is current.
Offices of physicians in Franklin County, KY had 472 paid employees in 2023 (County Business Patterns), every one of them on a payroll subject to local withholding. Medical practice loans covers provider hiring.
Withholding that falls behind is a red flag in any review, because it is money held on behalf of employees. Clear any balance before applying, and keep the payment confirmation.
Net Profit License Fee Returns and Their Due Dates in Frankfort, KY
The city's net profit return is due 105 days after the close of the business's federal tax year. The county's is due April 15, or for fiscal-year filers by the fifteenth day of the fourth month after the fiscal year ends, and the county's page also lists a request for extension form. The county minimum is $40 and the city minimum is $60.
A retailer opening mid-year still files for the part of the year it operated. Put the due date on the same calendar as any loan reporting, since a partner may ask for the return when it is filed.
A business on a calendar year in the city files by mid-April as well (105 days after December 31 falls in April, our arithmetic), so the city and county returns arrive in the same weeks.
Transient Room and Insurance Premium Taxes Collected by Franklin County, KY
The Franklin County Occupational Tax Office also collects the transient room tax and the insurance premium tax for the county, and its page posts a quarterly transient room return and quarterly insurance premium return instructions. Lodging businesses across the county, including inside the City of Frankfort under the rates effective July 1, 2025, file the room tax returns; insurers writing policies outside city limits deal with the premium tax filings.
Agencies, brokerages and other insurance related activities counted 25 employer establishments in Franklin County, KY in 2023, and traveler accommodation 11 (County Business Patterns). Insurance agency loans, Frankfort business counts and the funding types cover funding for both.
By Valleypine Credit · Updated
