A. Application Procedure:
1. Application for a business license shall be made by submitting a completed master business application and any appropriate addenda forms, and remitting all fees due, including handling fees established in Revised Code of Washington 19.02.075, to the Washington State Department of Licensing's master license service, in coordination with the City.
2. The annual business license fee shall be established by Council resolution.
3. A license shall be issued after the application has been fully completed and all applicable requirements have been fully complied with. In addition, any business requiring a State or Federal license shall obtain said licenses and provide the City with proof of their issuance prior to the issuance of a City business license or any renewal thereof.
4. Neither the filing of a new or renewal application for a license shall authorize a person to engage in or conduct a business until such license has been granted or renewed.
5. Any business relocating to another address in the City shall reapply to have a new business license reissued to reflect the new address.
6. If more than one business is conducted on a single premises a separate license shall be required for each separate business conducted, operated, engaged in or practiced.
7. The license shall expire on the date established by the master license service and must be renewed on or before the expiration in order to continue conducting business in the City. The license term and fee may be prorated to accommodate the expiration date established by the master license service.
8. A single (master) business license will be issued to the owner of a business complex which has dealers/stations utilizing a common single cashiering function. The owner shall provide a list of the State Department of Revenue tax numbers for all tenants.
B. General Qualifications Of Licensees:
1. No license shall be issued, nor shall any license be renewed, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter to:
a. An applicant who is under eighteen (18) years of age at the time of the application, unless he/she shall obtain the written consent of said applicant's parent or guardian to make said application;
b. An applicant who has had a similar license revoked or suspended, or its predecessor;
c. An applicant who seeks such a license in order to practice some illegal act or some act injurious to the public health or safety.
2. Any person, including City officials, may submit written complaints or objections to the City License Officer regarding the application for any license, and that the City License Officer is additionally authorized to request and receive information from all City departments as will tend to aid her/him in determining whether to issue or deny the license. Such information shall be confidential unless a hearing is requested on the application, or if the applicant shall request the information in writing. All information, complaints or objections shall be investigated and considered by the City License Officer prior to issuing, denying or renewing any license.
C. License Nontransferable: Said license shall be personal and not transferable.
D. Multiple Locations: If business is transacted at two (2) or more separate locations by the same person, a separate business license will be required for each location.
E. Posting Of License: Each license shall at all times be conspicuously posted in each place of business.
F. Allowing Another To Use License: No person to whom a license has been issued shall suffer or allow any other person for whom a separate business license is required to operate under or display his license.
G. Fundraising Activities: Fundraising activities such as car washes that are conducted for not for profit organizations, to include schools, shall not require a business license, provided the service provided is offered on a donation only basis.
H. Rebate: No rebate is allowed.
I. License Transactions - Public Record: The City Finance Director shall keep a record of each person licensed to transact and carry on a business within the City. The records shall include appropriate information concerning the action of the City Finance Director in rejecting an application for a license, or in postponing the issuance of a license, and the action of the hearing examiner regarding a license. All such records are public records to the extent consistent with State and Federal law.
J. Limitations On License: Notwithstanding any provisions to the contrary, a license issued under this chapter shall not be issued to any person who uses or occupies or proposes to use or occupy any real property or otherwise conducts or proposes to conduct any business in violation of the provisions of an ordinance of the City of Long Beach, specifically including the City's zoning laws, or of the laws of the State of Washington. The granting of a business license shall in no way be construed as permission or acquiescence in a prohibited activity or other violation. Because the issuance of a license under this chapter specifically denies the applicant authority to violate any law or regulation, the City shall not be held liable for the actions of any licensed business by virtue of having issued a license to conduct business.
K. Engaging In Business:
1. The term "engaging in business" means commencing, conducting, or continuing in business, and also the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, as well as liquidating a business when the liquidators thereof hold themselves out to the public as conducting such business.
2. This subsection K sets forth examples of activities that constitute engaging in business in the City, and establishes safe harbors for certain of those activities so that a person who meets the criteria may engage in de minimus business activities in the City without having to pay a business license fee. The activities listed in this subsection K are illustrative only and are not intended to narrow the definition of "engaging in business" in subsection K1 of this section. If an activity is not listed, whether it constitutes engaging in business in the City shall be determined by considering all the facts and circumstances and applicable law.
3. Without being all inclusive, any one of the following activities conducted within the City by a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on its behalf constitutes engaging in business and requires a person to register and obtain a business license.
a. Owning, renting, leasing, maintaining, or having the right to use, or using, tangible personal property, intangible personal property, or real property permanently or temporarily located in the City.
b. Owning, renting, leasing, using, or maintaining, an office, place of business, or other establishment in the City.
c. Soliciting sales.
d. Making repairs or providing maintenance or service to real or tangible personal property, including warranty work and property maintenance.
e. Providing technical assistance or service, including quality control, product inspections, warranty work, or similar services on or in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf.
f. Installing, constructing, or supervising installation or construction of, real or tangible personal property.
g. Soliciting, negotiating, or approving franchise, license, or other similar agreements.
h. Collecting current or delinquent accounts.
i. Picking up and transporting tangible personal property, solid waste, construction debris, or excavated materials.
j. Providing disinfecting and pest control services, employment and labor pool services, home nursing care, janitorial services, appraising, landscape architectural services, security system services, surveying, and real estate services including the listing of homes and managing real property.
k. Rendering professional services such as those provided by accountants, architects, attorneys, auctioneers, consultants, engineers, professional athletes, barbers, baseball clubs and other sports organizations, chemists, consultants, psychologists, court reporters, dentists, doctors, detectives, laboratory operators, teachers, veterinarians.
l. Meeting with customers or potential customers, even when no sales or orders are solicited at the meetings.
m. Training or recruiting agents, representatives, independent contractors, brokers or others, domiciled or operating on a job in the City, acting on its behalf, or for customers or potential customers.
n. Investigating, resolving, or otherwise assisting in resolving customer complaints.
o. In-store stocking or manipulating products or goods, sold to and owned by a customer, regardless of where sale and delivery of the goods took place.
p. Delivering goods in vehicles owned, rented, leased, used, or maintained by the person or another acting on its behalf.
4. If a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on the person's behalf, engages in no other activities in or with the City but the following, it need not register and obtain a business license.
a. Meeting with suppliers of goods and services as a customer.
b. Meeting with government representatives in their official capacity, other than those performing contracting or purchasing functions.
c. Attending meetings, such as board meetings, retreats, seminars, and conferences, or other meetings wherein the person does not provide training in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf. This provision does not apply to any board of directors member or attendee engaging in business such as a member of a board of directors who attends a board meeting.
d. Renting tangible or intangible property as a customer when the property is not used in the City.
e. Attending, but not participating in a "trade show" or "multiple vendor events". Persons participating at a trade show shall review the City's trade show or multiple vendor event ordinances.
f. Conducting advertising through the mail.
g. Soliciting sales by phone from a location outside the City.
5. A seller located outside the City merely delivering goods into the City by means of common carrier is not required to register and obtain a business license, provided that it engages in no other business activities in the City. Such activities do not include those in subsection K4 of this section.
The City expressly intends that engaging in business includes any activity sufficient to establish nexus for purposes of applying the license fee under the law and the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Washington. Nexus is presumed to continue as long as the taxpayer benefits from the activity that constituted the original nexus generating contact or subsequent contacts. (Ord. 958, 9-4-2018)