§ 8-11. Definitions.
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
Affiliated group means:
(1)
One or more chains of includable corporations connected through stock ownership with a common parent corporation, which is an includable corporation if:
a.
Stock possessing at least 80 percent of the voting power of all classes of stock and at least 80 percent of each class of the nonvoting stock of each of the includable corporations, except the common parent corporation, is owned directly by one or more of the other includable corporations; and
b.
The common parent corporation directly owns stock possessing at least 80 percent of the voting power of all classes of stock and at least 80 percent of each class of the nonvoting stock of at least one of the other includable corporations. As used in this subsection, the term "stock" does not include nonvoting stock which is limited and preferred as to dividends. The term "includable corporation" means any corporation within the affiliated group irrespective of the state or country of its incorporation; and the term "receipts" includes gross receipts and gross income.
(2)
Two or more corporations if five or fewer persons who are individuals, estates or trusts own stock possessing:
a.
At least 80 percent of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or at least 80 percent of the total value of shares of all classes of the stock of each corporation; and
b.
More than 50 percent of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or more than 50 percent of the total value of shares of all classes of stock of each corporation, taking into account the stock ownership of each such person only to the extent such stock ownership is identical with respect to each such corporation.
(3)
When one or more of the includable corporations, including the common parent corporation, is a nonstock corporation, the term "stock" as used in this definition shall refer to the nonstock corporation membership or membership voting rights, as is appropriate to the context.
Assessment means a determination as to the proper rate of tax, the measure to which the tax rate is applied, and ultimately the amount of tax, including additional or omitted tax, that is due. An assessment shall include a written assessment made pursuant to notice by the assessing official or a self-assessment made by a taxpayer upon the filing of a return or otherwise not pursuant to notice. Assessments shall be deemed made by an assessing official when a written notice of assessment is delivered to the taxpayer by the assessing official or an employee of the assessing official, or mailed to the taxpayer at his last known address. Self-assessments shall be deemed made when a return is filed or, if no return is required, when the tax is paid. A return filed or tax paid before the last day prescribed by ordinance for the filing or payment thereof shall be deemed to be filed or paid on the last day specified for the filing of a return or the payment of tax, as the case may be.
Assessor or assessing official means the treasurer.
Base year means the calendar year preceding the license year, except for contractors subject to the provisions of the Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3715, and except for beginning businesses which shall use their probable gross receipts for the current license year as the basis for their license tax.
Business means a course of dealing which requires the time, attention and labor of the person so engaged for the purpose of earning a livelihood or profit. It implies a continuous and regular course of dealing, rather than an irregular or isolated transaction. A person may be engaged in more than one business. The following acts shall create a rebuttable presumption that a person is engaged in a business:
(1)
Advertising or otherwise holding oneself out to the public as being engaged in a particular business; or
(2)
Filing tax returns, schedules and documents that are required only of persons engaged in a trade or business.
Commission merchant means any person buying or selling any kind of goods, wares, or merchandise for another on commission.
Contractor shall have the meaning prescribed in the Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3714.B, as amended, whether such work is done or offered to be done by day labor, general contract or subcontract.
Definite place of business means an office or a location at which occurs a regular and continuous course of dealing for 30 consecutive days or more. A definite place of business for a person engaged in business may include a location leased or otherwise obtained from another person on a temporary or seasonal basis, and real property leased to another. A person's residence shall be deemed to be a definite place of business if there is no definite place of business maintained elsewhere and the person is not licensable as a peddler or itinerant merchant.
Financial services means the buying, selling, handling, managing, investing, and providing of advice regarding money, credit, securities and other investments and shall include the service for compensation by a credit agency, an investment company, a broker or dealer in securities and commodities or a security or commodity exchange, unless such service is otherwise provided for in this chapter.
(1)
Furthermore:
a.
Broker means an agent of a buyer or a seller who buys or sells stocks, bonds, commodities, or services, usually on a commission basis.
b.
Commodity means staples, such as wool, cotton, etc., which are traded on a commodity exchange and on which there is trading in futures.
c.
Dealer, for purposes of this article, means any person engaged in the business of buying and selling securities for his own account, but does not include a bank, or any person insofar as he buys or sells securities for his own account, either individually or in some fiduciary capacity, but not as part of a regular business.
d.
Security, for purposes of this article, shall have the same meaning as in the Securities Act (the Code of Virginia, § 13.1-501 et seq.) or in similar laws of the United States regulating the sale of securities.
(2)
Those engaged in rendering financial services include, but without limitation, the following:
a.
Buying installment receivables.
b.
Chattel mortgage financing.
c.
Consumer financing.
d.
Credit card services.
e.
Credit unions.
f.
Factors.
g.
Financing accounts receivable.
h.
Industrial loan companies.
i.
Installment financing.
j.
Inventory financing.
k.
Loan or mortgage brokers.
l.
Loan or mortgage companies.
m.
Safety deposit box companies.
n.
Security and commodity brokers and services.
o.
Stockbroker.
p.
Working capital financing.
Note: Federal credit unions are not subject to state or local license taxation under the Federal Credit Union Act, 12 USC 1768, are hereby declared exempt.
Gross receipts means the whole, entire, total receipts attributable to the licensed privilege, without deduction, except as may be limited by the provisions of the Code of Virginia, title 58.1, ch. 37.
Itinerant merchant means any person who engages in, does or transacts any temporary or transient business in the state, either in one locality or in traveling from place to place in the sale of goods, wares and merchandise, and who, for that purpose of carrying on such business, hires, leases, uses or occupies any building or structure, motor vehicle, tent, car, boat or public room or any part thereof, including rooms in hotels, lodginghouses, or houses of private entertainment, or in any street, alley, or public place in any city or town, or in any public road in any county, for a period of less than one year, for the exhibition of or sale of such goods, wares, or merchandise.
(1)
A charitable institution or other not-for-profit organization that engages in the business of buying and selling merchandise may be subject to a local license tax as a retail or wholesale merchant, even though the proceeds are subsequently used for charitable purposes.
(2)
A lunch counter operated by an organization open to members only, the proceeds from which are used to maintain the organization, may be subject to a local license tax.
(3)
Any hotel, motel, boardinghouse, or lodginghouse which also furnishes or sells food or merchandise for compensation is engaged in retail sales as to the sales of the food or merchandise.
(4)
A person is not subject to local license tax if his business in this state is limited solely to the solicitation of orders by catalogs mailed from outside this state to mail-order buyers in this state and who fills orders from outside this state; however, if the catalogs are distributed by a state resident by mail or in person or if the person engaged in the mail-order business has a definite place of business in this state at which mail orders are received or filled, the mail order business may be treated the same as any other retail or wholesale business for purposes of local license taxes.
(5)
Any person who merely fills prescriptions for or fits corrective lenses and eyeglass frames is a retail merchant; however, any practitioner who examines eyes is engaged in rendering a professional service.
(6)
Any practitioner of a profession who sells goods, wares, or merchandise in connection with the practice of the profession may be engaged in making retail sales depending on the nature of the products sold and the service performed. Examples in this area are as follows:
a.
A medical doctor who engages in the sale of drugs or other goods, wares or merchandise as well as the practice of medicine is a merchant as to those sales; however, a medical doctor is not a merchant as to the drugs used in giving an immunization to a patient.
b.
A chiropodist who sells shoes in connection with his practice is a retail merchant as to such sales.
c.
A job printer is a manufacturer and is engaged in either retail or wholesale sales as to the sales of the items printed.
d.
The sales price alone is not determinative of whether the sale is at retail or wholesale. The fact that a person sells goods, wares or merchandise at wholesale prices, at cost, or at less than cost does not prevent the person from being classified as a retail merchant if the sales fall within he definition of a retail sale.
e.
Any person who purchases rough stone already cut and who then polishes, glazes and cuts lettering in the stone is not a manufacturer and is engaged in either retail or wholesale sales.
f.
Any person who sells goods at retail through a commission merchant may be held liable for a local license tax as to such sales.
License year means the calendar year for which a license is issued for the privilege of engaging in business.
Peddler means any person who carries from place to place any goods, wares, or merchandise and offers to sell or actually sells and delivers at the same time. Any person who does not keep a regular place of business, whether it be a house or a vacant lot or elsewhere, with regular business hours, but at that place offers to sell goods, wares, and merchandise, is a peddler. Any person who keeps a regular place of business, with regular business hours at the same place, who other than at that regular place of business, personally or through agents, offers for sale or sells and, at the time of such offering for sale, delivers goods, wares and merchandise is a peddler.
Personal services means rendering for compensation any repair, personal, business or other services not specifically classified as "financial, real estate or professional service" under this article, or rendered in any other business or occupation not specifically classified in this article unless exempted from local license tax by the Code of Virginia, title 58.1.
Professional services means services performed by architects, attorneys-at-law, certified public accountants, dentists, engineers, land surveyors, surgeons, veterinarians, and practitioners of the healing arts (the arts and sciences dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure or alleviation of human physical or mental ailments, conditions, diseases, pain or infirmities) and such occupations, and no others, as the state department of taxation may list in the BPOL guidelines promulgated pursuant to the Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3701. The department shall identify and list each occupation or vocation in which a professed knowledge of some department of science or learning, gained by a prolonged course of specialized instruction and study, is used by its practical application to the affairs of others, either advising, guiding, or teaching them, and in serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art or science founded on it. The term "profession" implies attainments in professional knowledge as distinguished from mere skill, and the application of knowledge to uses for others rather than for personal profit.
Purchases means all goods, wares and merchandise received for sale at each definite place of business of a wholesale merchant. The term shall also include the cost of manufacture of all goods, wares and merchandise manufactured by any wholesaler or wholesale merchant and sold or offered for sale. Such merchant may elect to report the gross receipts from the sale of manufactured goods, wares and merchandise if he cannot determine or chooses not to disclose the cost of manufacture.
Real estate services means rendering a service for compensation as lessor, buyer, seller, agent, or broker and providing a real estate service, unless the service is otherwise specifically provided for in this article, and such services include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1)
Appraisers of real estate.
(2)
Escrow agents, real estate.
(3)
Fiduciaries, real estate.
(4)
Lessors of real property.
(5)
Real estate agents, brokers and managers.
(6)
Real estate selling agents.
(7)
Rental agents for real estate.
Retailer or retail merchant means any person or merchant who sells goods, wares and merchandise for use or consumption by the purchaser or for any purpose other than resale by the purchaser, but does not include sales at wholesale to institutional, commercial and industrial users.
Services means things purchased by a customer which do not have physical characteristics, or which are not goods, wares, or merchandise.
Wholesaler orwholesale merchant means any person or merchant who sells wares and merchandise for resale by the purchaser, including sales when the goods, wares and merchandise will be incorporated into goods and services for sale, and also includes sales to institutional, commercial, government and industrial users which, because of the quantity, price, or other terms, indicate that they are consistent with sales at wholesale.
(Comp. Ords., § 11.10)
(Comp. Ords., § 11.10)