(a) Due Dates. Each person subject to a license fee or tax shall apply for a business license no later than thirty days after commencing operations in the County if the business was not subject to licensure in the County on or before January 1 of the license year and should pay the license fee on the same date.
For persons with a business license from previous year(s) or who were subject to tax in preceding year(s), the license declarations and taxes or fees, as appropriate, shall become due and payable on or before March 1 of each license year. The declaration shall be on the forms and in the manner prescribed by the Commissioner of the Revenue.
(b) Payment of License Tax by Corporations, Etc. When the business, profession, trade or occupation licensed is conducted by a corporation, partnership, limited liability company or limited liability partnership and the license tax is imposed upon the gross receipts thereof, the license tax shall be imposed upon the gross receipts of the corporation, partnership, limited liability company or limited liability partnership and paid by it. When so paid, and also when paid by an individual employing persons who would otherwise be liable for a license tax, payment of the license tax shall be deemed to discharge the license tax liability of the officers and employees of such corporation and partners, and employees of such limited liability company, and employees of such limited liability partnership, and employees of such partnership, and employees of such persons employed by an employer who would otherwise be liable to such license tax, insofar as the business of such licensed corporation, partnership, limited liability company, limited liability partnership or employer is concerned.
(c) Penalty for Failure to File and Pay When Due. A penalty of ten percent of the tax may be imposed upon the failure to file an application which shall include declared gross receipts, or the failure to pay the tax by the appropriate due date. Only the late filing penalty shall be imposed by the Commissioner of the Revenue if both the application and payment are late. However, both penalties may be assessed if the Commissioner of the Revenue determines that the taxpayer has a history of noncompliance. In the case of assessment of additional tax made by the Commissioner, if the application and, if applicable, the return was made in good faith and the understatement of the tax was not due to fraud or reckless or intentional disregard of the law by the taxpayer, there shall be no late payment penalty assessed with the additional tax. If any assessment of the tax by the Commissioner is not paid within thirty days, the Treasurer or other collecting official may impose a ten percent late payment penalty. If the failure to file or pay was not the fault of the taxpayer, the penalties shall not be imposed or, if imposed, shall be abated by the official who assessed them. In order to demonstrate lack of fault, the taxpayer must show they acted responsibly and the failure was due to events beyond their control.
As used in this subsection:
(1) “Acted responsibly” means that:
A. The taxpayer exercised the level of reasonable care that a prudent person would exercise under the circumstances in determining the filing and payment obligations of the business; and
B. The taxpayer undertook significant steps to avoid or mitigate the failure, such as requesting appropriate extensions (where applicable), attempting to prevent a foreseeable impediment once it occurred and promptly rectifying a failure once the impediment was removed or the failure discovered.
(2) “Events beyond a taxpayer's control” include, but are not limited to, the unavailability of records due to fire or other casualty; the unavoidable absence (e.g. due to death or serious illness) of the person with the sole responsibility for tax compliance; or the taxpayer's reliance in good faith upon erroneous written information from the Commissioner who was aware of the relevant facts relating to the taxpayer's business when the taxpayer provided the erroneous information.
(d) Interest. Interest at the rate of 10 percent per year shall be charged on the late payment of the tax computed monthly from the first day following the date such payment is due until the date paid without regard to fault or other reason for the late payment. Whenever an assessment of additional or omitted tax by the Commissioner is found to be erroneous, whether attributable to an amended return or other reason, the tax, penalty and all interest charged and collected on the amount of the assessment found to be erroneous, shall be refunded, together with interest on the refund computed as provided in section 864.02(d), except as otherwise provided herein.
No interest shall accrue on an adjustment of estimated tax liability at the conclusion of a base year. No interest shall be paid on a refund issued within thirty days from the date of the payment that created the refund.
(Ord. 96-08. Passed 10-16-96; Ord. 04-07. Passed 4-20-04; Ord. 04-10. Passed 6-8-04; Ord. 11-18. Passed 12-12-11; Ord. 22-16. Passed 10-12-22.)