[Amended 5-29-2001 by Ord. No. 14-2001]
There is hereby levied for the tax year 1976 and annually thereafter a tax for general revenue purposes on the privilege of doing business as herein defined in the City as follows:
A. Rate and basis of tax. The rate of the tax on each dollar volume of gross annual receipts of every person engaged in occupations or business in the City shall be 1 1/2 mills; 1 1/2 mills shall mean $1.50 per $1,000 volume of gross annual receipts, except that the rate of the tax on each dollar volume of gross annual receipts by wholesale dealers or wholesale vendors engaged in business in the City shall be one mill. All nonwholesale businesses of such wholesale dealers or wholesale vendors shall be taxed at the general rate of 1 1/2 mills. [Amended 1-22-2007 by Ord. No. 10-2007]
B. Computation of volume of business.
(1) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who has commenced his business prior to the full calendar year prior to the tax year shall compute his annual estimated gross volume of business upon the actual gross amount of business transacted by him during the immediately preceding calendar year.
(2) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who has commenced or who commences his business before the beginning of the tax year but after the beginning of the full calendar year prior to the tax year, shall compute his estimated annual gross volume of business for the tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted by him during prior calendar year, taking the monthly average during such period and multiplying the same by 12. In the event that he shall be in business fewer than 90 days in the prior calendar year, he shall be permitted to use sufficient days in calendar year in which the tax year begins to equal 90 successive days after commencement of business, to take a monthly average thereon, and to multiply the average by 12.
(3) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who has commenced or commences his business subsequent to the beginning of the tax year, if there shall be less than three months from the commencement of his business to the end of the tax year, shall compute his annual gross volume of business upon the actual gross amount of business transacted by him during the tax year; if there shall be more than three months from the commencement of his business to the end of the tax year, he shall compute his estimated gross volume of business for such tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted by him during the period from the commencement of his business to the end of the tax year, taking the monthly average during the first three months of business and multiplying the same by the number of months from the commencement of business to the end of the tax year.
(4) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who engages in a business temporary, seasonal or itinerant by nature, shall compute his estimated gross amount of business to be transacted by him for the period such person engages in such temporary, seasonal or itinerant business within the City by a method to be determined by the Finance Director.
(5) The Finance Director is hereby authorized to accept payment under protest of the amount of business privilege tax claimed by the City in any case where the taxpayer disputes the validity or amount of the City's claim for tax. If it is thereafter judicially determined by a court of competent jurisdiction that the City has been overpaid, the amount of the overpayment shall be refunded to the taxpayer. The provisions of this section shall be applicable to cases in which the facts are similar to those in a case litigated in a court of competent jurisdiction.
(6) Payments made under the mercantile license tax for business to which this tax is applicable shall be credited to this tax and vice versa.
C. Persons, business and receipts exempted.
(1) Persons and businesses. Persons employed for a wage or salary, nonprofit corporations or associations organized for religious, charitable or educational purposes, agencies of the government of the United States or of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the business of any political subdivision, or of any authority created or organized under and pursuant to any act of assembly are exempt from the provisions of this Part.
(2) No such tax shall be assessed and collected on a privilege, transaction, subject, or occupation which is subject to a state tax or license fee, and which tax or license fee has been held by the Courts of Pennsylvania to be the basis for exemption from the imposition of a business privilege tax by a municipality.
(3) Utilities. No such tax shall be assessed and collected on the gross receipts from utility service of any person or company whose rates of service are fixed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; or on any public utility service rendered by any such person or company or on any privilege or transaction involving the rendering of any such public utility service.
(4) State tax on tangible property. No such tax shall be assessed and collected on the privilege of employing such tangible property as is subject to a state tax except on sales of admission to places of amusement or on sales or other transfers of title or possession of property.
(5) Production and manufacture. No such tax shall be assessed and collected on goods, articles and products, or on by-products of manufacture, or on minerals, timber, natural resources and farm products manufactured, produced or grown in the City, or on the preparation or processing thereof for use or market, or on any privilege, act or transaction relating to the business of manufacturing, the production, preparation or processing of minerals, timber and natural resources or farm products, by manufacturers, producers and farmers with respect to the goods, articles and products of their own manufacture, production or growth or any privilege, act or transaction relating to the business of processing by-products of manufacture or on the transportation, loading, unloading, dumping or storage of such goods, articles, products or by-products.
D. Determination of gross or whole volume business. Gross or whole volume of business upon which the tax hereunder is computed shall include the gross consideration credited or received for or on account of sales made, rentals and/or services rendered, subject only to the following allowable deductions and exemptions:
(1) The dollar volume of business transacted by wholesale and retail dealers derived from the resale of goods, wares and merchandise taken by any dealer as trade-in or as part payment for other goods, wares and merchandise, except to the extent that the resale price exceeds the trade-in allowance.
(2) Refunds, credits or allowances given by a taxpayer to a purchaser on account of defects in goods, wares or merchandise sold, or on account of goods, wares or merchandise returned.
(3) Any commissions paid by a broker to another broker on account of a purchase or sales contract initiated, executed or cleared with such other broker.
(4) Bad debts, where the deduction is also taken in the same year for federal income taxation purposes.
(5) Taxes collected as agent for the United States of America, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or the City.
E. Partial exemptions. Where gross or whole volume of business in its entirety cannot be subjected to the tax imposed by this Part by reason of the provisions of the Constitution of the United States or any other provision law, the Finance Director with the approval of Council shall establish rules and regulations and methods of allocation and evaluation so that only that part of the gross or whole volume of business which is properly attributable and allowable to doing business in the City shall be taxed hereunder.
F. Rate when same tax is imposed by two taxing bodies. If any person is liable for the same tax on the same subject imposed under the Local Tax Enabling Act 1965, December 31, P.L. 1257,
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and its amendments, to the City and one or more political subdivisions of the state, then and in that event, the tax shall be apportioned by such percentage as may be agreed upon by such political subdivisions, but, in no event shall the combined taxes of both subdivisions exceed a maximum rate of tax as fixed by the Enabling Act permitting the imposition of such taxes.
G. Records. The taxpayer, to obtain the foregoing enumerated exclusions and deductions, shall keep books and records of his business so as to show clearly, accurately and separately the amount of such sales and services as are excluded from the tax and the amounts of such sales and services which he is entitled to deduct from the gross volume of business as hereinbefore provided.
4. Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 6924.101 et seq.