5.02.320 Taxes - Flat rate.
   Every person transacting and carrying on any business, as set forth in this section, shall pay a license tax set forth as follows, with the exception of businesses that operate with no fixed place of business, and who engage in business within the city. Those businesses with no fixed place of business, and who engage in business within the city may elect to pay a license tax under Classification A, as provided in § 5.02.310, measured by gross receipts from the business done within the city up to but not exceeding, the state flat rate for inside city businesses as indicated in §§ 5.02.320(A) through 5.02.320(P). The provisions of this division are subject to the terms and provisions of the California Business and Professionals Code § 16000 (a) et seq. and are proportional of the activity actually carried on within the taxing jurisdiction.
   (A)   Contractors. Contractors and subcontractors, as defined in California Business and Professions Code, Chapter 9, Division 3 (commencing with §§ 7000 et seq.) and the Rules and Regulations of the Contractors’ State License Board as provided in Cal. Administrative Code, Title 16, Chapter 8, shall pay $110 per year or $68.75 semiannually. A general or prime contractor shall furnish the Collector with a written listing of subcontractors who will perform services on his or her proposed work project before the Collector will issue a license to him or her.
   (B)   Professional. Every person required by the state or federal law to be licensed to perform his or her profession, if not otherwise provided for in this chapter, shall pay a license tax of $110 annually.
   (C)   Carnival, circus, tent show or similar exhibition. Every person not having a fixed place of business within the city and conducting a carnival, circus, tent show or similar exhibition shall pay a daily license tax of $110.
   (D)   Loan associations. Every person conducting the business of a building and loan association or savings and loan association within the city shall pay an annual license tax of $220.
   (E)   Finance company. Every person conducting the business of a finance company shall pay an annual license tax of $137.50.
   (F)   Auctioneers. Every person conducting the business of auctioneer within the city shall pay a daily license tax of $82.50, subject to the provisions of California Business and Professions Code § 16002.1.
   (G)   Hospitals. Every person conducting the business of a hospital shall pay an annual license tax of $55, plus $1.10 per bed.
   (H)   Junk dealers, junk collectors and/or automobile wrecking. Every person conducting the business of junk dealing, junk collecting or automobile wrecking shall pay an annual business license tax of $220 for the first year and $110 for each year of renewal thereafter.
   (I)   Handbill distributors. Every person not having a fixed place of business within the city and conducting the business of commercial advertising by the distribution of handbills, circulars or other written or printed commercial advertising materials shall pay an annual business license tax of $110.
   (J)   Peddlers. Every person engaged in the business of peddling, as defined in § 5.34.010, within the city, shall pay an annual license tax in the amount of $110. The person shall not be relieved from the provisions of this section by reason of associating temporarily with any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer, or as apart of, or in the name of, any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer. The payment of such license tax shall not relieve any peddler from obtaining a license as provided in Chapter 5.34.
   (K)   Real estate broker and salesperson. Every real estate broker operating within the city, whether or not his or her office is located within the city limits, shall pay an annual business license tax in the amount of $55. Each real estate agent, other than the employing broker, operating within the city shall pay an annual business license tax in the amount of $22.
   (L)   Solicitors. Every person conducting the business of soliciting, as defined in § 5.34.020, within the city shall pay an annual business license tax in the amount of $55 in advance. The payment of such license tax shall not relieve a solicitor from obtaining a license as provided in Chapter 5.34.
   (M)   Vehicular deliveries and services. Every person not having a fixed place of business within the city, who is not otherwise licensed or classified pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and who delivers goods, wares or merchandise of any kind by vehicle or who provides any service by the use of vehicles in the city shall pay an annual license tax in the amount of $27 per vehicle used within the city; provided, however, any such person may elect to pay a license tax under Classification A, as provided in § 5.02.310, measured by gross receipts from business done within the city. The provisions of this division are subject to the terms and provisions of the State Highway Carriers’ Uniform Business Tax License Act (State Utility Code §§ 4300 et seq.).
   (N)   Telling of fortunes. Telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures or furnishing any information not otherwise obtainable by the ordinary processes of knowledge by means of any occult or psychic power, faculty or force, clairvoyance, clairaudience, cartomancy, psychology, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, 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, hypnotism, oriental mysteries or magic of any kind or nature. Every person who carries on, practices or professes to practice and demands or receives a fee for the exercise or exhibition of his or her practice as described in this division, directly or indirectly, either as a gift, donation or otherwise or who gives an exhibition thereof at any place where an admission fee is charged (hypnotism, as used in this subsection, does not include within its terms hypnotism as practiced by a doctor of medicine duly admitted to practice medicine in the state), shall pay $100 annually.
   (O)   Oil and natural gas production. Every person conducting, managing, carrying on or engaged in the business or activity of producing crude oil, petroleum or other hydrocarbon substances or products and producing natural gas for sale from any well, or any portion of a well, which is located in, passes through or is bottomed under real property within the City of Corona, County of Riverside, State of California, will pay an annual license fee in the manner and to the extent as provided in this division. The fees shall be due and payable as provided in this chapter.
      (1)   For the calendar year commencing January I, 1969, and for each succeeding calendar year thereafter, every person engaged in the business of producing oil and/or natural gas for sale, or a combination thereof, from any well located in the city shall pay a license tax in an amount equal to one cent per year per well for each barrel of oil produced and/or every 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas produced for sale, or a combination thereof, by each such well in excess of 1,200 barrels and/or 12 million cubic feet, respectively per year. Production during the calendar year 1968, from April 15, 1968, and the preceding calendar year thereafter, shall constitute the measurement of the amount due on the first day of the succeeding calendar year. If, at the end of any licensing year, the amount of tax paid in advance per well exceeds the amount due and owing on the actual oil and/or natural gas, or combination thereof, produced from the well during the calendar year, the difference between the amount paid and the actual amount due and owing shall be credited towards the amount of the tax to be advanced on the well for the succeeding calendar year; provided, however, if any well is abandoned during a calendar year and the amount of tax actually due on the total production of such well to date of abandonment exceeds the tax paid in advance for such well, such excess shall be paid by the licensee within 20 days of the date of abandonment and the production of such well is finally stopped.
      (2)   (a)   Any person subject to the payment of the tax shall, before the tax for each calendar year becomes delinquent, file with the Collector a written statement setting forth the number of wells in operation and the number of barrels of oil produced and/or number of cubic feet of natural gas produced and sold, or combination thereof, from each well during the pertinent one-year period of production upon which the tax advanced is to be calculated, and the person shall pay at such time the amount of the tax computed upon the measure of the tax reported in the statement. The written statement shall be made upon a form prescribed by the Collector and shall include a declaration substantially as follows:
      "I declare under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to make this statement, and that to the best of my knowledge and belief it is a true, correct and complete statement made in good faith for the period stated, in compliance with the provisions of the Corona Municipal Code."
         (b)   Such statements shall not be conclusive against the city as to the information set forth therein, nor shall the filing of such a statement preclude the city from collecting by appropriate action any additional tax that is later determined to be due and payable.
      (3)   For the purpose of this section, a well is located in the city if the surface location of the well, or the surface
of the well itself, is located in the city, regardless of where the hole of the well may be bottomed and irrespective of the subsurface location of the well and the producing interval thereof.
      (4)   A barrel of oil consists of 42 U.S. gallons of crude petroleum or hydrocarbon substances corrected for temperature variations in accordance with methods generally approved in the petroleum industry. "Petroleum" or "hydrocarbon substances" means crude oil remaining after the removal therefrom of water or other impurities by preliminary processing in the vicinity of the well site preparatory to the shipment thereof.
      (5)   If oil produced and/or natural gas produced and sold, or a combination thereof, from two or more wells is commingled without the production of the respective wells being separately measured, each well whose production has been so commingled shall be considered as having produced an equal part of the total.
      (6)   Every person required to have a license under this section shall keep full, true and accurate records as to the amount of oil and/or natural gas, or combination thereof, produced and shipped or sold by him or her from wells located within the city and shall upon demand of the city’s Collector make such records, together with any shipping documents or sales invoices pertaining to such oil and/or natural gas available for the inspection of the Collector or his or her duly authorized representative at all reasonable times.
   (P)   Professional corporation. Every professional corporation shall pay a license tax of $110 annually for each employee required by state or federal law to be licensed to perform his or her profession.
(`78 Code, § 5.02.320.) (Ord. 2863 § 1, 2006; Ord. 1651 § 1, 1982.)