5.05 — BUSINESS LICENSES[1 ]

This chapter is enacted solely to raise revenue for municipal purposes, and is not intended for regulation.

(1991 code § 6-1; Ord. 754 § 1, 2000)

As used in this chapter:

Administrative offices mean offices of firms or organizations providing executive, management or administrative services to their own companies, and generating no gross receipts. This category includes offices that have no direct public or client contact, and do not generate income. This category does not include professional offices, as defined below, or banks and savings and loan offices.

Auctioneer means a person who sells or advertises for sale or arranges for the disposal to the highest bidder at public auction any interest in real or personal property.

Business means professions, trades, vocations, rentals, leases, enterprises, establishments and occupations and every kind of calling whether or not carried on for profit, whether or not the business has a fixed place of business in the city.

Carnival means a circus, fair, menagerie, tent show, exhibit, game of skill or ride.

Collector means the city tax collector, finance director, or other city officer charged with the administration of this chapter.

Contractor means and includes a subcontractor, developer or builder. (Bus. and Prof. Code § 16000(c); Health and Saf. Code § 19830.)

Craft fair means a craft fair, street fair, art fair or similar activity where sellers rent spaces, stalls or designated places from the organizer.

Days mean calendar days.

Dwelling unit means one or more habitable rooms designed for occupancy by only one family, for living and sleeping purposes, and having a kitchen. (See PHMC § 5.05.240.)

Employee means a person who regularly works 30 or more hours during a week in any six-month period and who is engaged in the operation or conduct of business in the city, including but not limited to the owner, or the owner's family, partner, agent or manager.

Exhibition means an exhibition where a fee is charged to the public or to participants or where a donation is accepted.

1. Editor's note: For statutory provisions authorizing a city to license for revenue and regulation purposes, see Government Code section 37101; for provisions regarding the authority of a city to license in exercise of police power, see Business and Professions Code section 16000; for provisions regarding licensing by cities generally, see Business and Professions Code sections 16000 through 16003.Editor's note: Prior legislation: Ords. 496, 498, 514, 526, 556, 609, 643, 652, 653, 690, 732 and 740.

Garage/yard sale means a garage sale, yard sale or similar activity in a residential area where individuals sell their own personal property. (See PHMC § 18.15.070.)

Gross receipts mean the total of amounts actually received and receivable from sales, services and use of real or personal property. Included in gross receipts are all receipts, cash, credits and property of any kind without deduction of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, or losses or other expenses. Included as gross receipts is the money received by a lessor, lessee or sublessee leasing to another person. Excluded from gross receipts are the following:

• A.

  • Cash discounts allowed and taken on sales;

• B. Credit allowed on property accepted as part of the purchase price and which property may later be sold;

• C. Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;

• D. Such part of the sale price of property returned by purchasers upon rescission of the contract of sale as is refunded either in cash or by credit;

• E. Amounts collected for others where the business is acting as an agent or trustee to the extent that such amounts are paid to those for whom collected, provided the agent or trustee furnishes the collector with the names and addresses of the others and the amounts paid to them. Examples include travel agents and ticket agencies;

• F. That portion of the receipts of a general contractor which represents payments to subcontractors licensed under the title, and provided the general contractor furnishes the collector with the names and addresses of the subcontractors and the amounts paid to them;

• G. Receipts of refundable deposits, except that refundable deposits forfeited and taken into income of the business are not excluded;

• H. As to a real estate agent or broker, the sales price of real estate sold for the account of others except that portion which represents commission or other income to the agent or broker;

• I. As to a retail gasoline dealer, (1) a portion of his or her receipts from the sale of motor vehicle fuels equal to the motor vehicle fuel license tax imposed by and previously paid under Part 2 of Division 2 of Revenue and Taxation Code of the State of California; and (2) the special motor fuel tax imposed by Section 4041 of Title 26 of the United States Code if paid by the dealer or collected by him or her from the consumer or purchaser;

• J. The amount of gross receipts which has been the basis of a business license tax paid to any other city.

Gross receipts subject to business license tax means the portion of gross receipts related to business conducted within the city. For businesses with their business headquarters located within the city, their total gross receipts shall be deemed to be related to business conducted within the city (see gross receipts definition above), unless an apportionment of gross receipts is requested by the business under PHMC § 5.05.210.

Itinerant vendor means a person who engages in a temporary and transient business in the city selling any merchandise, article, or service with the intent of continuing for not more than 90 days, and who for the purpose of carrying on such business either has no fixed place of business, or hires or occupies a room or place for the sale of merchandise.

Manufacturing means a business which has as its primary function the production of a finished product or products from materials or parts assembly or modification through the use of hand labor or machinery, according to an organized plan or systematically with the division of labor.

Peddler any person who travels from door to door, house to house, or place to place, in order to enter uninvited upon residential property, with the object of selling, offering for sale, or soliciting subscriptions, contracts, or orders for any food, wares, merchandise, or real or personal property, or with the object of offering business services to be performed now or in the future.

Person means a natural person, or a domestic or foreign corporation or association, syndicate, joint stock corporation, partnership, club, business or common law trust, or society transacting and carrying on any business in the city, other than as an employee.

Professional means a person engaged in an occupation requiring a bachelor's or advanced educational degree and a professional license in the field. Examples include medicine, law, engineering, psychology and accounting.

Rummage sale means the sale of assorted things, usually secondhand. It includes a flea market or swap meet.

Sale means the exchange of goods or services for money or its equivalent.

Sworn statement means an affidavit, declaration, or certification made under penalty of perjury.

Vending machine means a machine or device which operates with the insertion of a coin, plug, token or card. It includes but is not limited to washing, drying, dry cleaning, and pressing machines; a machine which dispenses objects or information; or a machine which is used as a game, contest or amusement. (Bus. and Prof. Code §§ 16002.2 and 16002.5.) (1991 code § 6-2; Ord. 754 § 1, 2000)