(Amended by Ord. No. 149,522, Eff. 5/23/77.)
(a) The provisions of this article shall not be construed to require the payment of any business tax to operate or carry on the functions of any charitable or religious institution, organization or association organized for charitable or religious purposes and conducted solely for such purposes, nor the payment of any business tax to engage in teaching, preaching or otherwise disseminating any religious tenets or the beliefs of any religion; nor shall any business tax be required to be paid by any religious or other charitable association, including fraternal, educational, civic, military, state, county and municipal organizations and associations, for the conducting or staging of any theatrical, art, or sporting exhibition or similar event, or any dance, concert, or lecture, when the net proceeds derived from any of the same are not used for the purpose of private gain to any individual but are used wholly for the benefit of such organization or for charitable or benevolent purposes, nor shall a business tax be required to be paid by any credit union corporation. Such persons are entitled to receive tax exempt registration certificates upon application for and qualification as provided in this section.
(b) An independent contractor who for profit or gain undertakes to carry on any business or activity, for the conduct or operation of which a registration certificate and business tax is required by any section of this article, shall not be exempted from the registration and tax requirements of this Article because of the fact that he has paid or agreed to pay or turn over to any charitable institution or organization a portion of the receipts of the business or activity as a reward or recompense for the sponsorship of the business or activity, or for any other reason, and such a contractor shall not be deemed to be acting for purposes entitling him to a tax exempt registration certificate.
(c) 1. The Director of Finance shall, upon application, issue a tax exempt registration certificate to any credit union corporation upon being furnished with satisfactory evidence of its incorporation and operation as such.
2. Any applicant for a tax exempt registration certificate authorized in Subsection (a), other than a credit union corporation, shall make an application upon a form furnished by the Director of Finance. The application shall be forwarded to the Board of Police Commissioners which shall make or cause to be made such investigation of the applicant and the activity carried on or proposed to be carried on as may be necessary to determine whether or not the applicant and the activity for which a tax exempt registration certificate is applied for meet the requirements of Subsection (a) hereof, and that the proceeds of the activity, if any, are to be used for the purposes mentioned therein. The Board of Police Commissioners shall endorse its finding upon the application and return the same to the Director of Finance. If the finding is to the effect that the requirements of Subsection (a) are met, the Director of Finance shall then issue a tax exempt registration certificate provided the applicant has complied with all other applicable provisions of this Code; provided further, however, that when the activity to be engaged in is of the kind for which the applicant must file a Notice of Intention as provided in Article 4 of Chapter 4 of this Code, no tax exempt registration certificate shall be issued until such Notice of Intention has been filed and an Information Card issued to the applicant as provided in said Article 4. The registration certificate so issued shall show on its face that it is tax exempt. If the finding of the Board of Police Commissioners is that the requirements of Subsection (a) hereof are not met, no registration certificate shall be issued without payment of the tax prescribed in the appropriate section of this article. (Amended by Ord. No. 173,283, Eff. 6/26/00, Oper. 7/1/00.)
(d) If at any time any activity listed in Subsection (a) as being entitled to the issuance of a tax exempt registration certificate is conducted in such a manner that, had it been disclosed in the application described in Subsection (c), would not have entitled the person carrying on the activity to a tax exempt registration certificate, or if the net proceeds derived from those activities named in Subsection (a) are not used for a purpose approved therein, any tax exempt registration certificate therefore issued shall be void and the full amount of the tax shall be due and payable.
(e) Subject to the provisions of Subsection (d) hereof, upon the Director of Finance’s issuance of a tax exempt registration certificate to a person, any tax, including any penalty or interest accrued thereon, owing by such person pursuant to any provision of this article for any period prior to such issuance by virtue of carrying on any activity described in Subsection (a) hereof in the manner prescribed therein which would have entitled such person to receive a tax exempt registration certificate shall be canceled as if it had never become due or owing, and, if paid, a refund thereof shall be made, subject to the provisions of Section 21.07 of this Code, as if it had been overpaid. (Added by Ord. No. 149,522, Eff. 5/23/77.)