EDITOR'S NOTE: Chapter 840 was re-enacted in its entirety by Ordinance 96-08, passed October 16, 1996.
840.01 Definitions.
840.02 Application of chapter; interpretation.
840.03 Licensing generally.
840.035 Licensing for special events.
840.04 Payment of tax; penalty for failure to file and pay when due.
840.05 Situs of gross receipts.
840.06 Extensions; limitations.
840.07 Administrative appeals of local license tax.
840.075 Judicial review of determination of Tax Commissioner.
840.08 Application for correction of assessment to the commissioner of the revenue; local tax ruling requests.
840.09 Recordkeeping; audits.
840.10 Prohibited tax basis.
840.11 Exclusions; deductions.
840.12 Compliance required.
840.13 Declaration required; exemptions; fee.
840.14 Calculation of tax.
CROSS REFERENCES
Authority to impose - see Code of Va. § 58.1-3700 et seq.
Commissioner of the Revenue - see ADM. Ch. 222
Treasurer - see ADM. Ch. 224
Payment of taxes by credit card - see ADM. 224.01
Exemptions from penalty and interest - see B.R. & T. 864.01
Erroneously assessed levies - see B.R. & T. 864.02
As used in this chapter:
(a) “Affiliated group” means:
(1) One or more chains of corporations subject to inclusion, connected through stock ownership with a common parent corporation, which is a corporation subject to inclusion if:
A. Stock possessing at least eighty percent of the voting power of all classes of stock and at least eighty percent of each class of the nonvoting stock of each of the corporations subject to inclusion, except the common parent corporation, is owned directly by one or more of the other corporations subject to inclusion; and
B. The common parent corporation directly owns stock possessing at least eighty percent of the voting power of all classes of stock and at least eighty percent of each class of the nonvoting stock of at least one of the other corporations subject to inclusion.
As used in this subsection, the term “stock” does not include nonvoting stock which is limited and preferred as to dividends; the phrase “corporation subject to inclusion” means any corporation within the affiliated group, irrespective of the state or country of its incorporation; and the term “receipts” includes gross receipts and gross income.
(2) Two or more corporations if five or fewer persons who are individuals, estates or trusts own stock possessing:
A. At least eighty percent of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or at least eighty percent of the total value of shares of all classes of the stock of each corporation; and
B. More than fifty percent of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or more than fifty percent of the total value of shares of all classes of stock of each corporation, taking into account the stock ownership of each such person only to the extent that such stock ownership is identical with respect to each such corporation.
When one or more of the corporations subject to inclusion, including the common parent corporation, is a nonstock corporation, the term “stock,” as used in this paragraph, shall refer to the nonstock corporation membership or membership voting rights, as is appropriate to the context.
(b) “Assessment” means a determination as to the proper rate of tax, the measure to which the tax rate is applied and, ultimately, the amount of tax, including additional or omitted tax, that is due. An assessment shall include a written assessment made pursuant to notice by the Commissioner of the Revenue or a self-assessment made by a taxpayer upon the filing of a return or otherwise not pursuant to notice. Assessments shall be deemed made by the Commissioner of the Revenue when a written notice of assessment is delivered to the taxpayer by the Commissioner of the Revenue or an employee of the Commissioner of the Revenue or mailed to the taxpayer at their last known address. Self-assessments shall be deemed made when a return is filed, or if no return is required, when the tax is paid. A return filed or tax paid before the last day prescribed by this chapter for filing or payment thereof shall be deemed to be filed or paid on the last day specified for the filing of a return or the payment of the tax, as the case may be.
(c) “Appealable event” means an increase in the assessment of a license tax payable by a taxpayer, the denial of a license tax refund, or the assessment of a local license tax where none previously was assessed, arising out of the Commissioner of the Revenue’s (i) examination of records, financial statements, books of account, or other information for the purpose of determining the correctness of an assessment; (ii) determination regarding the rate or classification applicable to the licensable business; (iii) assessment of a local license tax when no return was filed by the taxpayer; or (iv) denial of an application for correction of erroneous assessment attendant to the filing of an amended application for license.
An appealable event also includes a determination by the Commissioner of the Revenue of a classification or subclassification applicable to the business, regardless of whether the determination is in conjunction with an assessment, examination, audit, or any other action taken by the Commissioner of the Revenue.
(d) “Assessing official”, “Commissioner of the Revenue” or “Commissioner” means the Loudoun County Commissioner of the Revenue.
(e) “Base year” means the calendar year preceding the license year, except for contractors subject to the provisions of section 58.1-3715 of the Code of Virginia, as amended.
(f) “Business” means a course of dealing which requires the time, attention and labor of the person so engaged for the purpose of earning a livelihood or profit. It implies a continuous and regular course of dealing, rather than an irregular or isolated transaction. A person may be engaged in more than one business. The following acts shall create a rebuttable presumption that a person is engaged in a business:
(1) Advertising or otherwise holding oneself out to the public as being engaged in a particular business; or
(2) Filing tax returns, schedules and documents that are required only of persons engaged in a trade or business.
(g) “Computer information online services” means a person who provides connectivity to the Internet on an end-user subscriber basis, and/or other related services such as web and virtual hosting via modem dial-up, DSL, broadband, or other means of Internet access.
(h) “Contractor” means a person accepting or offering to accept orders or contracts for doing any of the work described in Section 58.1-3714 (D) of the Code of Virginia and shall include any person who contracts to perform or regularly performs or engages others to perform any of such work - on buildings, structures or real estate owned by them with the intent to offer them for sale, or, if they contract to perform, regularly perform, or engage others to perform, any of such work on buildings, structures or real estate owned by others. Contractors shall also include any persons who subdivide and improve real estate, and speculative builders who build houses or other buildings with the intention to offer the subdivided lots or completed buildings for sale, even if the real estate is temporarily leased until it can be sold or is leased with an option to purchase.
(i) “County” means the County of Loudoun, Virginia.
(j) “Definite place of business” means an office or a location at which a regular and continuous course of dealing occurs over a period of thirty consecutive days or more. A definite place of business for a person engaged in business may include, by way of illustration and not limitation, a location leased or otherwise obtained from another person on a temporary or seasonal basis and real property leased to another. A residence of a person engaged in business shall be deemed to be a definite place of business if there is no definite place of business maintained elsewhere and the person is not licensable under this chapter as a peddler or itinerant merchant.
(k) “Entity” means a business organization, other than a sole proprietorship, that is a corporation limited liability company, limited partnership, or limited liability partnership duly organized under the laws of the Commonwealth or another state or territory.
(l) “Financial service” means the buying, selling, handling, managing, investing and providing of advice regarding money, credit, securities or other investments.
(m) “Frivolous” means a finding, based upon specific facts, that the party asserting the appeal is unlikely to prevail upon the merits because the appeal is (i) not well grounded in fact; (ii) not warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law; (iii) interposed for an improper purpose, such as to harass, to cause unnecessary delay in the payment of tax or a refund, or to create needless cost from the litigation; or (iv) otherwise frivolous.
(n) “Gross receipts” means the whole, entire, total receipts attributable to the licensed privilege, without deduction, except as may be limited by the provisions of Chapter 37, Title 58.1, of the Code of Virginia, as amended.
(o) “Itinerant vendor” means any person who does or transacts any temporary or transient Merchant Business in the County and who, for the purpose of carrying on such business occupies any location for a period of less than one year. This term shall not include persons who sell meats, milk, butter, eggs, poultry, game, vegetables, fruits or other family supplies or farm products of a perishable nature grown or produced by them, and not purchased by them for re- sale.
(p) “Jeopardized by Delay” means a finding, based upon specific facts, that a taxpayer designs to (i) depart quickly from the locality, (ii) remove their property therefrom, (iii) conceal themselves or their property therein, or (iv) do any other act tending to prejudice, or to render wholly or partially ineffectual, proceedings to collect the tax for the period in question.
(q) “License year” means the calendar year for which a license is issued for the privilege of engaging in business.
(r) The term “Merchant business” includes the offering for sale or barter, and/or the actual sale or barter of, any goods, wares, services, merchandise or products of any description, including food and beverages.
(s) “Peddler” means any person who carries from place to place any goods, wares, merchandise or products of any description, including food and beverages, and offers to sell or barter the same, or actually sells or barters the same. This term shall not include persons who sell meats, milk, butter, eggs, poultry, game, vegetables, fruits or other family supplies or farm products of a perishable nature grown or produced by them, and not purchased by them for re- sale.
(t) “Person” means any individual, firm, co-partnership, corporation, company, association or joint stock corporation, and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof carrying on or continuing a business, profession, trade or occupation, but shall not include a trustee, receiver or other representative duly appointed by a court to liquidate assets for immediate distribution, or a sheriff or any deputy selling under the authority of process or writ of a court of justice, nor shall it include any organization that has qualified for exemption under 26 USC 501(c)(6), to the extent that the receipts of such organization, which by reason of the organization's purposes or activities, are exempt from United States income tax.
(u) “Professional services” means services provided by architects, attorneys-at-law, certified public accountants, dentists, engineers, land surveyors, surgeons, veterinarians, practitioners of the healing arts (the art and science dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure or alleviation of human physical or mental ailments, conditions, diseases, pain or infirmities) and such other occupations as the Department of Taxation may list in Title 23 Agency 10 Chapter 500 of the Administrative Code of Virginia, or promulgated pursuant to section 58.1-3701 of the Code of Virginia, as amended. The Department shall identify and list each occupation or vocation in which a professed knowledge of some Department of learning, gained by a prolonged course of specialized instruction and study, is used in its practical application to the affairs of others, whether advising, guiding or teaching them, and in serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art or science founded on it. The word “profession” implies attainment in professional knowledge, as distinguished from mere skill, and the application of knowledge to uses for others rather than for personal profit.
(v) “Purchases” means all goods, wares and merchandise received for sale at each definite place of business of a wholesale merchant. The term shall also include the cost of manufacture of all goods, wares and merchandise manufactured by any wholesale merchant and sold or offered for sale. A wholesale merchant may elect to report the gross receipts from the sale of the manufactured goods, wares or merchandise if the taxpayer is unable to determine the cost of manufacture or chooses not to disclose the cost of manufacture.
(w) “Real estate service” means rendering a service for compensation as lessor, buyer, seller, agent or broker and providing a real estate service, unless the service is otherwise specifically provided for in this chapter.
(x) “Special Event” means a temporary commercial, cultural, sporting or festive activity, event or promotion conducted in the County at a specific location that is planned or reasonably expected to attract large assemblies of persons and at which the provision of space for temporary business, exhibit or sales transactions has been established. “Special Events” include, but are not limited to, carnivals, festivals, circuses, music fairs or concerts, art shows, craft shows, rodeos, civil war re-enactments, equestrian shows and events, animal shows, and antique shows and sales.
(y) “Special Event Itinerant Vendor” or “Special Event Vendor” means an Itinerant Vendor who, in person or by employees or agents, conducts or transacts temporary Merchant Business in the County at a Special Event; and for the purpose of conducting such business occupies a space designated by the Special Event Organizer. This term shall not include persons who sell meats, milk, butter, eggs, poultry, game, vegetables, fruits or other family supplies or farm products of a perishable nature grown or produced by them, and not purchased by them for re-sale.
(z) “Special Event Organizer” means any person or entity who organizes or manages a Special Event, or who leases, assigns or designates space at a Special Event to Special Event Itinerant Vendors for the purpose of conducting or transacting temporary Merchant Business in the County during the Special Event. The term “Special Event Organizer” implies substantial and major active participation in the operation and control of the Special Event. The sponsoring of a Special Event, coupled with selling tickets, assisting with publicity, sharing in revenues generated, and ownership of the property on which the Special Event is located, shall not - without more - constitute “organizing or managing” a Special Event.
(aa) “Special Event Sponsor” means any person or entity that allows its name to be used in connection with promoting a Special Event and that may share in the revenue from such Special Event.
(bb) “Tax Commissioner” means the Virginia Tax Commissioner.
(Ord. 96-08. Passed 10-16-96; Ord. 04-13. Passed 10-12-04; Ord. 11-18. Passed 12-12-11; Ord. 22-16. Passed 10-12-22.)
(a) Except as may be otherwise provided by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and notwithstanding any other current ordinances or resolutions enacted by the Board of Supervisors, whether or not compiled in these Codified Ordinances, to the extent of any conflict, the following provisions, effective since January 1, 1997, as amended, shall be applicable to the levy, assessment and collection of taxes imposed on, and to licenses required of, businesses, trades, professions and callings and upon the persons, firms and corporations engaged therein within this locality.
(b) The requirements of this chapter shall be in addition to those regulating the issuance of permits to conduct specialized occupations in the County or licenses which may be required by the County, State or lawful authority.
(Ord. 96-08. Passed 10-16-96; Ord. 22-16. Passed 10-12-22.)
(a) License Required. Every person shall apply for a license for each business or profession when engaging in a business in this jurisdiction if:
(1) The person has a definite place of business in this jurisdiction;
(2) There is no definite place of business anywhere and the person resides in the County; or
(3) There is no definite place of business in the County, but the person operates amusement machines in the County or is classified as an itinerant merchant, peddler or carnival or circus contractor pursuant to section 58.1-3717 of the Code of Virginia, as amended, or a public service corporation. (Ord. 96-08. Passed 10-16-96.)
(4) The person is a contractor conducting business in the County for less than thirty days without a definite place of business in the Commonwealth of Virginia and where the amount of business done by such person in the County exceeds or will exceed the sum of twenty- five thousand dollars ($25,000) for the license year.
(Ord. 99-16. Passed 12-1-99.)
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Chapter, a person shall not be required to pay a business license fee for any license year when the business is home-based and has gross receipts of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) or less.
(b) Separate Licenses for Each Place of Business. A separate license shall be required for each definite place of business and for each business, except that a person engaged in two or more businesses or professions carried on at the same place of business may elect to obtain one license for all such businesses and professions if all of the following criteria are satisfied:
(1) Each business or profession is licensable at the location and has satisfied any requirements imposed by State law or other provisions of the Loudoun County Codified Ordinances;
(2) All of the businesses or professions are subject to the same tax rate or, if subject to different tax rates, the licensee agrees to be taxed on all businesses and professions at the highest applicable rate; and
(3) The taxpayer supplies such information as the Commissioner of the Revenue may require concerning the nature of the businesses and their gross receipts.
(c) Application for License. Every person, when engaging in a business or profession in the County shall make application for licenses to the Commissioner of the Revenue in accordance with this chapter. The business shall submit the necessary filing and other requirements, as the Commissioner may require. The Commissioner shall compute the amount of license tax and, after payment has been received by the County Treasurer, the business license shall be issued; provided, however, that a business license may not be issued until the applicant has produced satisfactory evidence that all delinquent business license, real estate, personal property, meals, transient occupancy, severance and admission taxes owed by the business to the County have been paid. Applications for renewal of the business license shall be done by reporting annual receipts to the Commissioner annually.
(d) Required Information; Failure to Provide Information. Every applicant for a license to conduct any business, profession, trade or occupation under the provisions of this chapter shall furnish the Commissioner of the Revenue, with the correct name and trade name, if any, of the applicant, the correct physical address of the business applicant, the mailing address of the business, the nature of the business, profession, trade or occupation to be pursued, the place where it is to be pursued, and a record of gross receipts and documentation supporting any exclusions or deductions for the year, verified by oath, as well as such information as may be required by law. Allowable exclusions and deductions are included under section 840.11
of this chapter as authorized in section 58.1-3732 et seq. of the Code of Virginia, as amended, or Title 23 Agency 10 Chapter 500 of the Administrative Code of Virginia. In the event of a failure or refusal to file with the Commissioner of the Revenue the information necessary to enable the Commissioner to assess the correct amount of license tax as provided by law, the Commissioner of the Revenue shall assess such license tax upon the best information obtainable, adding thereto the penalty prescribed by law.
(e) License for Persons Beginning Business, Etc. Every person beginning a business, profession, trade or occupation which is subject to license tax under the provisions of this chapter shall estimate and report to the Commissioner the amount of the gross receipts the business will receive between the date of beginning such business and the end of the then current calendar year.
(f) Licensing Basis. As to businesses, professions, trades or occupations for which a gross receipts license tax is levied on persons having a definite place of business in the County, all gross receipts derived from the business, profession, trade or occupation shall be included in their licensing basis, provided that in cases where their business, profession, trade or occupation requires the performance of certain activities outside of the County and they would be liable for a similar tax in the other taxing jurisdiction based on gross receipts derived from activities conducted within the other taxing jurisdiction, they shall be permitted to deduct such gross receipts taxed or taxable by the other taxing jurisdiction in arriving at their licensing basis. In all cases, such amounts attributable to a definite place of business in any other locality must be disclosed when filing their gross receipts to the County.
(Ord. 96-08. Passed 10-16-96; Ord. 06-02. Passed 2-7-06; Ord. 11-18. Passed 12-12-11; Ord. 14-11. Passed 12-10-14; Ord. 22-16. Passed 10-12-22.)
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