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If any vendor collects the tax imposed by or pursuant to this chapter and fails to remit the tax to the City as prescribed, such vendor shall be personally liable for any amount collected which he or she failed to remit. The Finance Director may make an assessment against the vendor based upon any information in the Finance Director's possession.
If any vendor fails to collect the tax or any transient guest fails to pay the tax imposed by or pursuant to this chapter on any transaction subject to the tax, such vendor or transient guest shall be personally liable for the amount of the tax applicable to the transaction. The Finance Director may make an assessment against either the vendor or the transient guest, as the facts may require, based upon any information in the possession of the Finance Director.
An assessment against a vendor in cases where the tax imposed by or pursuant to this chapter has not been collected or paid shall not discharge the transient guest's liability to reimburse the vendor for the tax applicable to such transaction.
In each case, the Finance Director shall give to the vendor or transient guest an assessed written notice of the assessment. The notice may be served upon the vendor or upon the transient guest assessed either personally or by registered or certified mail. An assessment issued against either the vendor or the transient guest, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, shall not be considered an election of remedies, nor a bar to an assessment against the other for the tax applicable to the same transaction, provided that no assessment shall be issued against any vendor or transient guest for the tax due on a particular transaction if the tax has actually been paid by another.
The Finance Director may make an assessment against any vendor who fails to file a return required by this chapter or fails to remit the proper amount of tax in accordance with this chapter. When information in the possession of the Finance Director indicates that the amount required to be collected is, or should be, greater than the amount remitted by the vendor, the Finance Director may, upon the basis of test checks of a vendor's business for a representative period, which tests are hereby authorized, determine the ratio which the tax required to be collected under this chapter bears to the hotel's lodgings, which determination shall be the basis of an assessment as herein provided. Notice of such assessment shall be made in the manner prescribed in this chapter.
Unless the vendor or transient guest, to whom the notice of assessment is directed, files within thirty days after service thereof, either personally or by registered or certified mail, a petition in writing, verified under oath by the vendor, transient guest or his or her authorized agent having knowledge of the facts, setting forth with particularity the items of assessment objected to, together with the reasons for such objections, the assessment shall become conclusive and the amount thereof shall be due and payable, from the vendor or transient guest so assessed, to the Finance Director. When a petition for reassessment is filed, the Finance Director shall assign a time and place for the hearing of the petition and shall notify the petitioner thereof by registered or certified mail, but the Finance Director may continue the hearings from time to time if necessary.
A surcharge of fifteen percent shall be added to the amount of every assessment made under this chapter. The Finance Director may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations providing for the remission of surcharges added to assessments made under this chapter.
When any vendor or transient guest files a petition for reassessment as provided in this chapter, the assessment made by the Finance Director, together with penalties thereon, shall become due and payable within three days after notice of the finding made at the hearing has been served, either personally or by registered or certified mail, upon the party assessed.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
No assessment shall be made or issued against a vendor or transient guest for any tax imposed by or pursuant to this chapter more than four years after the return date for the period in which the lodging was furnished or more than four years after the return for such period is filed, whichever is later. This section does not bar an assessment:
(a) When the Finance Director has substantial evidence of amounts of taxes collected by a vendor from the lodging of transient guests which were not returned to the City; or
(b) When an assessed vendor failed to file a return as required.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
No transient guest shall refuse to pay the full and exact tax as required by this chapter. No transient guest shall present false evidence to the vendor indicating that the lodging as furnished is not subject to the tax.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
No vendor shall fail to collect the full and exact tax as required by this chapter. No vendor shall refund, remit or rebate to a transient guest, either directly or indirectly, any of the tax levied pursuant to this chapter, or make, in any form of advertising, whether verbal or otherwise, any statement which might imply that the vendor is absorbing the tax, or paying the tax for the transient guest by an adjustment of prices, or furnishing lodging at a price including the tax or rebating the tax in any other manner.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
(a) No person, including any officer of a corporation or any employee of a corporation having control or supervision of or charged with the responsibility of filing returns, shall fail to file any return or report required to be filed by this chapter, or file or cause to be filed any incomplete, false or fraudulent return, report or statement, or aid or abet another in the filing of any false or fraudulent return, report or statement.
(b) If any vendor required to file monthly returns under this chapter fails, in two consecutive months or in three or more months within a twelve-month period, to file such returns when due, or to pay the tax thereon, or if any vendor authorized by the Finance Director to file returns at less frequent intervals fails on two or more occasions within a twenty-four month period, to file such returns when due, or to pay the tax due thereon, the Finance Director may require such vendor to furnish security in an amount equal to the average tax liability of the vendor for a period of one year, as determined by the Finance Director from a review of returns or other information pertaining to such vendor, which amount shall in no event be less than one hundred dollars ($100.00). The security may be in the form of an advance tax payment to be applied to pay the tax due on subsequent returns, or a corporate surety bond satisfactory to the Finance Director, conditioned upon payment of the tax due within the returns from the vendor. The security must be filed within ten days following the vendor's receipt of the notice from the Finance Director of its requirements.
A corporate surety bond filed under this section shall be returned to the vendor if, for a period of twelve consecutive months following the date the bond was filed, the vendor has filed all returns and remitted payment therewith within the time prescribed in this chapter.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
If any vendor corporation required to file returns and to remit tax due to the City under the provisions of this chapter fails for any reason to make such filing or payment, any of its officers or employees having control or supervision of or charged with the responsibility of filing returns and making payments shall be personally liable for such failure. The dissolution of a corporation shall not discharge an officer's or employee's liability for a prior failure of the corporation to file returns or remit tax due. The sum due for such liability may be collected by assessment in the manner provided in this chapter.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
In any sentence, clause, section or part of this chapter or any tax imposed as specified herein is found to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such unconstitutionality, illegality or invalidity shall affect only such clause, sentence, section or part of this chapter and shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections or other parts of this chapter. It is hereby declared to be the intention of Council that this chapter would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal or invalid sentence, clause, section or part thereof not been included herein.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)
Whoever violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a first offense. For each subsequent offense, such person shall, if a corporation, be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500.00), or, if an individual or a member of a partnership, firm or association, be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00), or imprisoned not more than sixty days, or both.
(Ord. 108-99. Passed 6-28-99.)