Walnut Municipal Code Ch. 4.08 License Taxes

The amount of license tax to be paid to the City by any person engaged in or carrying on any profession, trade, calling, occupation or business hereinafter designated is hereby fixed and established as hereinafter in this chapter provided. Such license fee shall be paid by every person engaged in, carrying on or maintaining any such profession, trade, occupation, calling or business in the City.

A. Outdoor Signs, etc. Every person engaged in the business of constructing, erecting, installing, maintaining or operating outdoor advertising, advertising structures, billboards, advertising signs, painted signs on structures, signboards or similar devices, shall pay an annual license tax of $75.00; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not be deemed to apply to signs affixed to the building in which a licensed business is being operated, which signs refer only to such business nor to "for sale" or "for rent" signs on real estate.

B. Wheeled Vehicles.

1. Every person engaged in the business of operating and who operates upon the streets, any wheeled vehicle equipped with music or a musical device, loudspeaker or other device for attracting attention, shall pay a license tax of five dollars a day for each vehicle used.

2. Every person engaged in the business of operating and who operates upon the streets any wheeled vehicles for advertising purposes and to which wheeled vehicles there are attached signs, placards, billboards or other advertising matter, shall pay a license tax of five dollars a day for each vehicle so used.

3. Every person engaged in the business of operating and who operates upon the streets any wheeled vehicle equipped with a searchlight for attracting attention, shall pay a license tax of five dollars per day for each vehicle so used.

4. Every person engaged in the business of operating and who operates upon the streets any wheeled vehicle for retail sale of food and/or beverages shall pay a license tax of $75.00 annually for each vehicle used.

A. Retail. Every person not having a regularly established place of business in the City carrying on the business of operating any wheeled vehicle for the retail sale, or soliciting orders for the retail sale or delivery of any goods, wares, or merchandise of any nature, kind or description, or for the purpose of carrying on a bakery route, vegetable route, ice route, water route (distilled, spring, mineral, aerated), dairy route, fuel oil route or other routes of a like or similar nature, shall pay an annual license tax of $36.00 for each vehicle; provided, that every person paying a license tax under other sections of this chapter for the privilege of carrying on a place of business in the City shall be exempt from the license tax under this section.

B. Wholesale. Every person not having a regularly established place of business in the City selling at wholesale or soliciting orders for the wholesale sale of any goods, wares or merchandise of any kind or nature who makes deliveries in the City shall pay an annual license tax of $24.00 for each vehicle.

A. Bowling—Billiards—Skating—Shooting Gallery. Of conducting, managing or carrying on any business mentioned in this section, such license shall be in the amount as set forth herein:

1. Any public bowling, skee ball or bat ball alley or handball court, shuffleboard, coin-operated amusement device or mechanical amusement device or any other similar device, equipment or means of entertainment, $20.00 per year for each such alley or device.

2. For every person carrying on the business of a pool hall or billiard parlor, the sum of $150.00 per year, and such license shall include the right to sell tobacco, confections, soft drinks and lunches.

3. Any ice or roller skating rink, enclosure or park shall be governed by Section 4.08.270. This shall not apply to any exhibition given in any restaurant, café, hotel or theater, when the public is not permitted to participate in such exhibition.

4. Every person engaged in the business of conducting, managing, or operating an arcade shall pay an annual license tax of $150.00.

B. Circus—Menagerie—Tent Show—Theatrical—Vaudeville.

1. For conducting, managing or carrying on a circus, carnival or other similar exhibition, the license tax shall be $125.00 per day, plus $25.00 per day for every sideshow conducted in conjunction therewith; for every parade conducted by or under the same management as a circus, carnival or similar exhibition, where such circus, carnival or similar exhibition is conducted outside the City, the sum of $100.00 per day.

2. For conducting, managing or carrying on any lecture or traveling theatrical performance under or surrounded or partially enclosed by canvas, such as comedy, spoken drama, opera or concerts, the license tax shall be $25.00 for the first day and $15.00 for each additional day; for any of such performances held in any public hall, club room, assembly hall or theater, where moveable scenery and theatrical appliances are used, whether or not an admission fee is charged, $10.00 per day. The holder of a theater license shall not be required to procure an additional license to conduct, maintain or carry on any theatrical or vaudeville performance when such performance is conducted at any such theater so licensed.

3. For conducting, managing or carrying on a trained animal show, to which an admission fee is charged or collection taken, the license tax shall be $25.00 per day.

4. The operation of a golf course, miniature golf course, bicycle course, golf practice driving course or archery range, shall be governed by Section 4.08.270.

5. For conducting, managing or carrying on a motion picture theater or any other type of theater, the annual license tax shall be $50.00 for a theater with a seating capacity of zero to 500 seats; $100.00 for a theater with a seating capacity of 501 to 1,000 seats; $150.00 for a seating capacity of over 1,000 seats.

6. The operation of a riding academy where instructions in horseback riding are given or horses or other animals are maintained for hire, and of a feed or livery stable, shall be governed by Section 4.08.270.

7. Every person engaged in the business of operating any place to which the public is admitted, and an admission fee is charged, and at which any boxing or wrestling match or exhibition is conducted, presented or carried on, shall pay a license tax of $75.00 per exhibition when such place contains 500 seats or less, and $150.00 per exhibition when such place contains over 500 seats.

C. Every person conducting the business of drive-in-theater shall pay an annual license tax of $150.00.

A. Every person engaged in the business of auctioneer shall pay a license tax of $25.00 per day.

B. Every person engaged in the business of maintaining, conducting or carrying on an auction house shall pay a license tax of $75.00 annually.

C. Every person engaged in the business of conducting, maintaining or carrying on an auction yard shall pay an annual license tax of $75.00.

A. Renting.

1. Every person engaged in the business of renting automobiles, trucks or trailers shall pay an annual license tax of $45.00 plus an annual license tax based upon the number of vehicles rented, as follows:

2. For each automobile, $4.50.

3. For each truck, $7.50.

4. For each trailer, $2.25.

5. A person operating a gasoline service station and paying a license tax for that business shall, if he or she is renting trailers, pay in addition, only the $2.25 tax per trailer per annum.

B. Wrecking. Every person engaged in the business of automobile wrecking shall pay an annual license tax of $225.00.

Every person engaged in the business of bail bond broker shall pay an annual license tax of $75.00.

Every person engaged in the business of owning, opening, establishing, managing, operating, maintaining or having charge of any temporary location or place of business of any kind for the selling of any insolvent, bankrupt, fire damaged or other similar goods, wares or merchandise, and every itinerant or transient merchant having a temporary place of business but not having any continuous or permanent place of business in the City who sells or offers for sale any insolvent, bankrupt, fire damaged or other goods, wares or merchandise, shall pay a license tax of $37.50 per day.

The operator of a barbershop or beauty parlor shall pay a license tax governed by Section 4.08.270.

Every person engaged in the business of giving steam baths, electric light baths, sponge baths, sun baths, mineral baths, Russian, Swedish or Turkish baths or any public bath place which maintains in connection therewith a steam room, plunge, shower bath or sleeping accommodations, shall pay a license tax governed by Section 4.08.270.

Every person engaged in the business of bootblack, or operating a shoe shining or shoe polishing stand, shall pay an annual license tax of $12.00.

A. The annual license tax for a business conducting, managing, carrying on or engaging in any business, profession or occupation hereinafter enumerated shall be based upon the average number of professional members and the average number of employees computed as follows.

B. For each owner or member of the firm practicing his or her profession, other than as a salaried employee:

1. $45.00 per annum for each of the first 15 professionals, plus $25.00 per annum for any professionals in excess of 15, plus

a. $5.00 per annum for each of the first four employees, plus

b. $4.00 per annum for each of the next four employees,

c. $3.00 per annum for each of the next four employees,

d. $2.00 per annum for each of the next four employees.

2. $1.00 per annum for any employees in excess of that number, however, the maximum annual license fee calculation for any one member shall be $150.00.

C. A professional shall include:

Accountant.

Advertising agent.

Appraiser.

Architect.

Artist.

Assayer.

Attorney at law.

Auditor.

Bacteriologist.

Blue printer.

Book agent.

Broker or commission agent.

Certified public accountant.

Chemical engineer.

Chemist.

Chiropodist.

Chiropractor.

Civil engineer.

Collection agency.

Consulting engineer.

Credit reporting bureau.

Decorator.

Dentist.

Designer illustrator.

Detective agency.

Draftsman.

Drugless practitioner.

Electrical engineer.

Electrologist.

Engraver.

Entomologist.

Feed broker.

Fruit broker.

Geologist.

Grain broker.

Hydraulic engineer.

Illustrator or show card writer.

Insurance broker.

Insurance or claims adjuster.

Interpreter.

Landscape gardener or architect.

Lapidary.

Lithographer.

Masseuse.

Mercantile agency.

Midwife

Mining engineer.

Money lender or broker.

Mortician.

Naturopath.

Occulist.

Optician.

Optometrist.

Osteopath.

Photographer.

Physician.

Physiotherapist.

Piano tuner.

Public stenographer.

Real estate broker or salesman.

Roentgenologist.

Sign painter.

Structural engineer.

Surgeon.

Surveyor.

Taxidermist.

Termite inspector.

Upholsterer.

Veterinarian.

And of every person carrying on or engaged in the business of treating, curing, administering to or giving treatments to the sick, wounded, or infirmed for the purpose of bringing about their recovery, by any method or pursuant to any belief, doctrine or system other than those hereinabove specifically named, and charging a fee or compensation therefor.

Every person conducting, carrying on or engaged in the business of general contractor or builder whether having a fixed place of business in the City or not, shall pay an annual license tax as follows:

A. Contractors possessing a Class A or Class B-1 State License shall pay an annual license tax of $75.00 plus $2.50 for each employee.

B. Contractors possessing other than a Class A or a Class B-1 State Contractors License shall pay an annual license tax in the amount of $60.00 plus one dollar for each employee.

A. Any person in the business of maintaining and operating a public dance hall shall pay a single license tax of $500.00 per annum which shall be in lieu of all other license taxes imposed by this chapter. This subsection does not apply to any person engaged in the business of conducting a restaurant, hotel, café, coffee house, cabaret, club, barroom, beer hall, beer garden, burlesque show, burlesque review or burlesque theater.

B. In addition to any other license tax or permit fee imposed by this chapter, any person engaged in the business of conducting a restaurant, hotel, café, coffee house, cabaret, club, barroom, beer hall, beer garden, and, in addition, entertainment, not including burlesque and including fashion shows, or conducting public dances, shall pay a license tax of $300.00 per annum.

C. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section, and in lieu of all other license fees imposed by this chapter, any person conducting a burlesque show, burlesque review or burlesque theater shall pay a single license tax of $2,500.00 per annum.

D. For the purposes of this section, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this subsection:

Dance Hall, Public. A place where dancing is conducted, whether for a profit or not, and to which the public is admitted, either with or without charge, or at which the public is allowed to participate in the dancing either with or without charge.

Entertainment. Any act, play, revue, pantomime, burlesque show, scene, song, dance act, song and dance act or poetry recitation, conducted or participated in by one or more persons. "Entertainment" also includes the following:

1. Fashion shows wherein females, whether owners, proprietors, managers, receptionists, waitresses, dancing girls, models, barmaids or employees or agents are directed or authorized or employed or retained by any owner, proprietor or licensee or permittee, or by the agent thereof, to display, or who engage in the act of displaying, while visible to any customer or person on the premises of any such owner, proprietor, manager, licensee or permittee, clothes, or fashion or clothes styles of any nature whatsoever.

2. The use or display of nude or seminude females whether owners, proprietors, managers, receptionists, waitresses, dancing girls, models, barmaids, or employees or agents, where directed or authorized or employed or retained by any owner, proprietor or licensee or permittee or the agent thereof to appear nude or seminude, or who engage in the act of appearing nude or seminude, while visible to any customer or person on the premises of any such owner, proprietor or manager, licensee or permittee. Nude, as that word is used herein, means appearing with less clothing than the following:

Seminudity, as that word is used herein, has reference to that degree of nudity where the pubic area, private parts and the crease of the buttocks are completely covered by nontransparent material and are not visible to the human eye, by any female, while visible to any customer or person on such premises, who exposes any portion of either breast below a straight line so drawn that both nipples and all portions of both breasts which have a different pigmentation than that of the main portion of the breast areas below such straight line, or the wearing of any type of clothing so that such may be observed.

Every person engaged in the business of electrical sign installation and maintenance shall pay a license tax of $60.00 per year.

A. Every person engaged in the business of fortunetelling shall pay an annual license tax of $500.00.

B. Fortunetelling—Business Defined. As used in this title, "fortunetelling business" includes every person, engaged in the activity of, or advertising by sign, circular, handbill, newspaper, periodical, magazine or other publication, or by any other means whatsoever, the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures or furnishing any information not otherwise obtainable by the ordinary processes of knowledge, for or without pay, by means of any occult or psychic power, faculty or force, clairvoyance, clairaudience, cartomancy, psychology, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, mediumship, seership, prophecy, auguary, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mind-reading, telepathy, or other craft art, science, cards, talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, gypsy cunning or foresight, crystal gazing, oriental mysteries or magic of any kind or nature, or engaging in, practicing or carrying on any art, profession or business, the advertisement and practice of which is regulated by this chapter. Excepted from the aforementioned definition are the following:

1. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any person solely by reason of the fact that he or she is engaged in the business of entertaining the public by demonstrations of mindreading, mental telepathy, thought conveyance, or the giving of horoscopic readings, at public places and in the presence of and within the hearing of other persons and at which no questions are answered, as part of such entertainment, except in a manner to permit all persons present at such public place to hear such answers, when not conducted in connection with the business of telling fortunes. Nothing in this section, however, shall be construed as exempting any person from the payment of the applicable license fee, if any, required to be paid by the licensing provisions of this chapter.

2. No person shall be required to pay any fee or take out any license for conducting or participating in any religious ceremony or service when such person holds a certificate of ordination as a minister, missionary, medium, healer, or clairvoyant from any bona fide church or religious association maintaining a church and holding regular services and having a creed or set of religious principles that is recognized by all churches of like faith; provided further, that the fees, gratuities, emoluments, and profits thereof shall be regularly accounted for and paid solely to or for the benefit of the church or religious association; provided further, that the person holding a certificate of ordination from such bona fide church or religious association, as set forth in this section, shall, before practicing the profession specified in this chapter, file with the City Clerk a certified copy of his or her certificate of ordination with his or her name, age, and street address in this City where he or she intends to carry on the business. Such bona fide church or religious association, as defined in this section, may, however, pay to its ministers, missionaries, mediums, or workers a salary or compensation based upon a percentage basis; provided that the agreement between the church and the minister, missionary, medium or worker is embodied in a resolution and transcribed in the minutes of such church or religious association.

3. No person shall be required to pay any fee or take out any license for carrying on the art of reading tea leaves in any bona fide, regularly established restaurant, for the purpose of amusement to the patrons of the restaurant, where no charge for such readings is made.

Every person engaged for profit in the business of operating, conducting or managing a rest home, nursing home, hospital, sanitarium or any other institution maintained for healing the sick, shall pay an annual license tax computed upon the same basis and in the same manner as the annual license tax specified in Section 4.08.270.

For operating the business of collecting, buying or selling at either retail or wholesale or otherwise dealing in junk or rubbish, waste material, refuse or any old rags, sacks, bottles, cans, papers, metals, jewelry, precious metals, rubber, bric-a-brac, cordage, truck or automobile tires, truck or automobile parts, truck or automobile accessories and other like articles, whether the same can be sold or otherwise disposed of in the condition or state of repair as collected, or whether the same is collected, bought or sold or otherwise disposed of for the purpose of being treated, repaired or prepared so as to be used again in some other form, the license tax shall be $54.00 per annum for each wheeled vehicle.

Every person not having a regularly established place of business in the City who carries on the business of operating a laundry or dry cleaning route or linen and towel service business shall pay an annual license tax of $36.00 per year per vehicle.

Every person conducting the business of a finance company or savings and loan association within the City shall pay a license tax of $100.00 annually.

For carrying on a business consisting mainly of manufacturing, packing, processing, canning or fabricating any goods, wares, merchandise or produce, the annual license tax shall be computed upon the same basis and in the same manner as the annual license tax applied to wholesalers and retailers, as specified in Section 4.08.270.

Every person carrying on the business of operating a motel, hotel, apartment and rooming house, auto court or motor court, having more than four units or four rooms, shall pay an annual license tax of $1.50 per room or unit.

Every person maintaining an outdoor festival shall first procure a license and pay a tax of:

A. Ten dollars, if such outdoor festival is exclusively devoted to religious worship and all music is incidental thereto.

B. In all other cases, $100.00, plus $250.00 per day.

Every person engaged in the business of pawnbroker shall pay an annual license tax of $150.00 annually.

Every person not having a fixed place of business in the City and engaged in the business of peddler, photographer or book agent, and every solicitor and every commercial traveler and not otherwise licensed, shall pay an annual license tax of $100.00 or $10.00 per day. No credit shall be received for any daily tax paid in the event an annual license is thereafter obtained.

Every person conducting, carrying on or engaged in the business of garbage and rubbish collection within the City shall pay an annual license tax of $50.00 per year for each truck or pick-up used in the business.

For carrying on the business consisting of selling at retail or wholesale any goods, wares and merchandise or commodities, of conducting, maintaining or carrying on any trade, occupation, calling or business not otherwise specifically licensed by the other sections of this chapter, the annual license tax shall be computed as follows:

$45.00 plus

$5.00 per annum for each employee for the first four employees, plus

$4.00 per annum for each of the next four employees, plus

$3.00 for each of the next four employees, plus

$2.00 for each of the next four employees, plus

$1.00 for any in excess of that number, however, the maximum annual license tax for any such business shall be $225.00.

For the business of operating any taxicab for carrying passengers for hire, the license tax shall be $25.00 per annum for the first vehicle so operated and $10.00 per annum for each additional vehicle so operated.

Every person engaged in the business of managing or operating an automobile trailer camp or court shall pay an annual license tax, based on the number of parking spaces or units available for parking of trailers, of $2.25 per unit or space.

A. For every person engaged in the business of operating, maintaining or letting the use of any coin-operated vending machine within the City, the license fee shall be based on two percent of the gross receipts derived within the City directly attributable to the coin-operated vending machines located within the City.

B. Except as otherwise provided in this section, each coin-operated vending machine which is operated, maintained or used within this City shall have conspicuously stamped upon it or affixed thereon for identification purposes the name and address, business tax registration certificate number and the telephone number, if any, of the owner or operator thereof. Such identification shall be provided by the owner or operator of the machine at his or her expense and shall be removed from the machine by such owner or operator when the authority to use such machine is transferred to another person, whether by sale, lease, license or otherwise.

C. No business tax or identification shall be required for the maintenance or operation of:

1. Any machine dispensing sanitary or hygienic articles or drinking cups, towels or medicine, which machine is entirely owned and supplied by the owner or operator of the premises where installed and is maintained solely for the convenience of employees, visitors or customers and not for profit to him or her or to any other person; or

2. Any machine which is entirely owned, operated and supplied by the owner or operator of the premises where such machine is installed, and such owner or operator holds a valid business license at that location to engage in a business taxed under the provisions of this chapter and such owner or operator includes the gross receipts from the sale of all goods, wares, merchandise or other tangible property dispensed by such machine in the measure of the applicable business license tax paid under this chapter.