Working on a large Dominion Virginia account in Richmond and the franchise fees don't match what I calculate manually. The tariff shows 2.5% on the first $15 of monthly charges, then 1.95% on the excess, but the bill shows 2.1% flat rate. Is there some gross receipts tax component I'm missing? This is Schedule GS-3 with about $8,500 monthly bills. - Phil G.
Dominion Virginia Power hidden fees - franchise tax calculation seems wrong
Phil, Virginia has some weird municipal franchise tax variations. Richmond specifically has a different structure than the standard state calculation. Check if there's a separate city gross receipts tax being applied. Some Virginia cities layer their own taxes on top of the standard franchise fee. - Barbara N.
Barbara, you might be onto something. I found a separate line item for "Municipal Tax" at 0.58% that wasn't in the main tariff book. It's buried in a separate municipal addendum. Why don't utilities just include all this stuff in one document? - Phil G.
Phil, municipal taxes are often kept separate because they vary by city and change independently of the main tariff. Richmond, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach all have different structures. The SCC approves the main tariff but cities set their own franchise fees. Always check for municipal addenda - they're usually buried deep in the tariff book or sometimes in completely separate documents. For Virginia accounts, I always verify the specific municipality and pull their tax schedule separately. - Randy Dawson
Same issue with Appalachian Power in Charleston WV. The municipal taxes can add 1-2% to the total bill and they're never clearly explained. I started keeping a separate database of municipal tax rates by city because they change so randomly. - Wanda R.
This is why I hate utility audits in Virginia. Every city has their own special fees and they're never documented in the same place. National Grid Rhode Island is so much cleaner - everything's in one tariff book with clear calculations. - Deb M.
Update: Found the issue. Richmond has a 0.58% gross receipts tax PLUS the standard Virginia franchise fee structure, but they cap the combined rate at 2.1% for commercial accounts over $5,000 monthly. So the math was actually correct, just not obvious from reading the tariff. Took me 6 weeks to figure that out. - Phil G.