As used in this article:
(a) "Business, activity, trade or employment" includes all activities engaged in or caused to be engaged in with the object of gain or economic benefit, either direct or indirect, and includes but is not limited to, retail sales business, service businesses or callings, selling at wholesale or wholesale sales and contracting. "Business, activity, trade or employment" shall not include a casual sale by a person who is not engaged in the business of selling the type of property involved in such casual sale. "Business, activity, trade or employment" includes the production of natural resources or manufactured products which are used or consumed by the producer or manufacturer and includes the activities of a banking business or financial organization.
(b) "Banking business" or "financial organization" means any bank, banking association, trust company, industrial loan company, small loan company or licensee, building and loan association, savings and loan association, finance company, investment company, investment broker or dealer, and any other similar business organization at least ninety percent (90%) of the gross receipts of which consists of dividends, interest and other charges derived from the use of money or credit.
(c) "Service business or calling" includes all activities engaged in by a person for other persons for a consideration, which involve the rendering of a service as distinguished from the sale of tangible property, but shall not include the services rendered by an employee to his employer. "Service business or calling" includes, but is not limited to:
(1) Persons engaged in manufacturing, compounding or preparing for sale, profit or commercial use, articles, substances or commodities which are owned by another or others;
(2) Persons engaged as independent contractors in producing natural resource products which are owned by another or others, as personal property, immediately after the same are severed, extracted, reduced to possession and produced;
(3) The repetitive carrying of accounts, in the regular course and conduct of business, and extension of credit in connection with a sale of any tangible personal property or service.
(d) "Selling at wholesale" or "wholesale sales" means:
(1) Sales of any tangible personal property for the purpose of resale in the form of tangible personal property;
(2) Sales of machinery, supplies or materials which are to be directly consumed or used by the purchaser in the conduct of any business or activity which is subject to the fee imposed by this article or to the taxes imposed by West Virginia Code Chapter 11, as amended; and
(3) Sales of any tangible personal property to the United States of America, its agencies and instrumentalities or to the State, its institutions or political subdivisions.
(Ord. 88-06. Passed 6-7-88.)
(e) "Contractor" means a person who in any capacity for compensation, other than as an employee of another, undertakes, offers to undertake or submits a bid to construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, improve, move, wreck or demolish any building, highway, road, railroad, structure or excavation associated with a project, development or improvement, or to do any part thereof, including the erection of scaffolding or other structures or works in connection therewith, where the cost of the undertaking is one thousand dollars ($1,000) or more.
"Contractor" includes a construction manager who performs management and counseling services for a construction project for a professional fee.
"Contractor" does not include:
(1) One who merely furnishes materials or supplies without fabricating or consuming them in the construction project;
(2) A person who personally performs construction work on the site of real property which the person owns or leases whether for commercial or residential purposes;
(3) A person who is licensed or registered as a professional and who functions under the control of any other licensing or regulatory board, whose primary business is real estate sales, appraisal, development, management and maintenance, who acting in his or her respective professional capacity and any employee of such professional, acting in the course of his or her employment, performs any work which may be considered to be performing contracting work; or
(4) A corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship whose primary purpose is to prepare construction plans and specifications used by the contractors defined in subsection (c) hereof and who employs full-time a registered architect licensed to practice in this State or a registered professional engineer licensed to practice in this State. Employees of such corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship shall also be exempt from the requirements of this article.
(f) "Electrical contractor" means a person who engages in the business of contracting to install, erect, repair or alter electrical equipment for the generation, transmission or utilization of electrical energy.
(g) "General building contractor" means a person whose principal business is in connection with any structures built, being built or to be built for the support, shelter and enclosure of persons, animals, chattel or movable property of any kind, requiring in the construction the use of more than two contractor classifications, or a person who supervises the whole or any part of such construction.
(h) "General engineering contractor" means a person whose principal business is in connection with public or private works projects, including, but not limited to, one or more of the following: irrigation, drainage and water supply projects; electrical generation projects; swimming pools, flood control; harbors; railroads; highways; tunnels; airports and airways; sewers and sewage disposal systems; bridges; inland waterways; pipelines for transmission of petroleum and other liquid or gaseous substances; refineries; chemical plants and other industrial plants requiring a specialized engineering knowledge and skill; piers and foundation; structures or work incidental thereto.
(i) "Heating, ventilating and cooling contractor" means a person who engages in the business of contracting to install, erect, repair, service or alter heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment or systems to heat, cool or ventilate residential and commercial structures.
(j) "Multifamily contractor" means a person who is engaged in construction, repair or improvement of a multifamily residential structure.
(k) "Piping contractor" means a person whose principal business is the installation of process, power plant, air, oil, gasoline, chemical or other kinds of piping; and boilers and pressure vessels using joining methods of thread, weld, solvent weld or mechanical methods.
(l) "Plumbing contractor" means a person whose principal business is the installation, maintenance, extension and alteration of piping, plumbing fixtures, plumbing appliances and plumbing appurtenances, venting systems and public or private water supply systems within or adjacent to any building or structure; included in this definition is installation of gas piping, chilled water piping in connection with refrigeration processes and comfort cooling, hot water piping in connection with building heating, and piping for stand pipes.
(m) "Residential contractor" means a person whose principal business is in connection with construction, repair or improvement of real property used as, or intended to be used for, residential occupancy.
(n) "Specialty contractor" means a person who engages in specialty contracting services which do not substantially fall within the scope of any contractor classification as set out herein.
(Ord. 91-05. Passed 8-20-91.)