The following words and phrases shall have the meanings set forth below when used in this chapter:
(A) "Business" shall include all activities engaged in or caused to be engaged in within the city, including any commercial or industrial enterprise, trade, profession, occupation, vocation, calling, or livelihood, whether or not carried on for gain or profit, but shall not include the services rendered by an employee to his or her employer.
(B) "Cannabis" means all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa Linnaeus, Cannabis indica, or Cannabis ruderalis, whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin, whether crude or purified, extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds, or resin. "Cannabis" also means the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from cannabis. "Cannabis" shall not include "industrial hemp," unless otherwise specified.
(C) "Cannabis product" means raw cannabis that has undergone a process whereby the raw agricultural product has been transformed into a concentrate, an edible product, or a topical product. "Cannabis product" also means cannabis products as defined by Cal. Health and Safety Code § 11018.1 and is not limited to medicinal cannabis products.
(D) "Commercial cannabis business" means any business involving cannabis, including but not limited to cultivating, transporting, distributing, manufacturing, compounding, converting, processing, preparing, storing, packaging, delivering, testing, dispensing, retailing and wholesaling of cannabis, cannabis products or of ancillary products and accessories, whether or not carried on for gain or profit.
(E) "Commercial cannabis business tax" means the tax due pursuant to this chapter for engaging in a commercial cannabis business in the city.
(F) "Commercial cannabis permit" means a permit issued by the city pursuant to Chapter 5.36 of this code to authorize that person to operate or engage in a commercial cannabis business within the city.
(G) “Cultivation” or “cultivating” means any activity involving the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, curing, grading, or trimming of cannabis and includes, but is not limited to, the operation of a nursery.
(H) "Distribution" means any activity involving the commercial procurement, sale, transfer and/or transport of cannabis and cannabis products from one commercial cannabis business to another commercial cannabis business for purposes authorized pursuant to state law.
(I) "Employee" means each and every person engaged in the operation or conduct of any business, whether as owner, member of the owner's family, partner, associate, agent, manager or solicitor, and each and every other person employed or working in such business for a wage, salary, commission, barter or any other form of compensation.
(J) "Engaged (engaging) in a commercial cannabis business" means the commencing, conducting, operating, managing or carrying on of a commercial cannabis business, whether done as owner, or by means of an officer, agent, manager, employee, or otherwise, whether operating from a fixed location in the city or coming into the city from an outside location to engage in such activities. A person shall be deemed engaged in business within the city if:
(1) Such person or person's employee maintains a fixed place of business within the city for the benefit or partial benefit of such person;
(2) Such person or person's employee owns or leases real property within the city for business purposes;
(3) Such person or person's employee regularly maintains a stock of tangible personal property in the city for sale in the ordinary course of business;
(4) Such person or person's employee regularly conducts solicitation of business within the city; or
(5) Such person or person's employee performs work or renders services in the city.
The foregoing specified activities shall not be a limitation on the meaning of "engaged in business."
(K) "Gross Receipts" except as otherwise specifically provided, means, whether designated a sales price, royalty, rent, slotting fee, commission, dividend, or other designation, the total amount (including all receipts, cash, credits, services and property of any kind or nature) received or payable for sales of goods, wares or merchandise, or for the performance of any act or service of any nature for which a charge is made or credit allowed (whether such service, act or employment is done as part of or in connection with the sale of goods, wares, merchandise or not), without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, losses or any other expense whatsoever. However, the following shall be excluded from "gross receipts":
(1) Cash discounts where allowed and taken on sales;
(2) Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;
(3) Such part of the sale price of any property returned by purchasers to the seller as refunded by the seller by way of cash or credit allowances or return of refundable deposits previously included in gross receipts;
(4) Receipts derived from the occasional sale of used, obsolete or surplus trade fixtures, machinery or other equipment used by the taxpayer in the regular course of the taxpayer's business;
(5) Cash value of sales, trades or transactions between departments or units of the same business located in the city or if authorized by the Tax Administrator in writing in accordance with § 3.38.090;
(6) Whenever there are included within the gross receipts amounts which reflect sales for which credit is extended and such amount proved uncollectible in a subsequent year, those amounts may be excluded from the gross receipts in the period they prove to be uncollectible; provided, however, if the whole or portion of such amounts excluded as uncollectible are subsequently collected they shall be included in the amount of gross receipts for the period when they are recovered;
(7) Receipts of refundable deposits, except that such deposits when forfeited and taken into income of the business shall not be excluded;
(8) Amounts collected for others where the business is acting as an agent or trustee and to the extent that such amounts are paid to those for whom collected. These agents or trustees must provide the Tax Administrator with the names and the addresses of the others and the amounts paid to them. This exclusion shall not apply to any fees, percentages, or other payments retained by the agent or trustees;
(9) Retail sales of t-shirts, sweaters, hats, stickers, key chains, bags, books, posters, rolling papers, cannabis accessories such as pipes, pipe screens, vape pen batteries (without cannabis) or other personal tangible property which the Tax Administrator has excluded in writing by issuing an administrative ruling per § 3.38.090 shall not be subject to the commercial cannabis business tax under this chapter. However, any business activities not subject to this chapter as a result of an administrative ruling shall be subject to the appropriate business tax provisions of Title 5 or any other title or chapter of this code as determined by the Tax Administrator.
(L) "Industrial hemp" means a crop that is limited to types of the plant Cannabis sativa L. having no more than three-tenths of 1% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) contained in the dried flowering tops, whether growing or not; the seeds of the plant; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds or resin produced therefrom.
(M) "Manufacture" or "manufacturing" means to compound, blend, extract, infuse, or otherwise make or prepare a cannabis product.
(N) "Microbusiness" means a person engaged in manufacturing, distribution and the retail sale of cannabis on the same premises.
(O) “Nursery” means a facility or part of a facility that is used only for producing clones, immature plants, seeds, and other agricultural products used specifically for the planting, propagation, and cultivation of cannabis.
(P) "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, limited liability company, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit, whether organized as a nonprofit or for-profit entity, and includes the plural as well as the singular number.
(Q) “Retail sale”, means and includes any retail sale, exchange, or barter. It shall also mean any transaction whereby, for any consideration, title to cannabis and/or cannabis products are transferred from one person to another and includes the delivery of cannabis and/or cannabis products pursuant to an order placed for the purchase of the same, but does not include the return of cannabis or cannabis products to the person or business from whom the cannabis or cannabis product, was purchased.
(R) "State" means the State of California.
(S) "Tax Administrator" means the Director of Finance of the City of Corona or his or her designee.
(T) "Testing laboratory" means a commercial cannabis business that:
(1) Offers or performs tests of cannabis or cannabis products;
(2) Offers no service other than such tests;
(3) Sells no products, excepting only testing supplies and materials;
(4) Is accredited by an accrediting body that is independent from all other persons involved in the cannabis industry in the state; and
(5) Is registered with the Bureau of Cannabis Control or other state agency.
(Ord. 3352 § 1 (part), 2022.)