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.)