(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article 12-A-1, a “small business enterprise,” as hereinafter defined for purposes of this Article, shall be exempt from payment of the gross receipts tax, nevertheless, a small business enterprise shall pay the annual registration fee pursuant to Section 855 of Article 12.
(b) For purposes of this Article 12-A-1, the term “small business enterprise” shall mean:
(1) For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 and ending on or before December 31, 2020, any person or combined group, except for a lessor of residential real estate, whose gross receipts within the City did not exceed $1,000,000, adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31 of the preceding year, beginning with December 31, 2014.
(2) For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2021, any person or combined group, except for a lessor of residential real estate, whose gross receipts within the City did not exceed $2,000,000, adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31 of the preceding year, beginning with December 31, 2021.
(c) For purposes of this Article 12-A-1, and notwithstanding any other provision of this Section 954.1, a lessor of residential real estate is a “small business enterprise” if and only if the lessor leases fewer than 4 units in any individual building. “Residential real estate” means real property where the primary use of or right to use the property is for the purpose of dwelling, sleeping or lodging other than as part of the business activity of accommodations. For purposes of this Article 12-A-1 and Article 12, a lessor of residential real estate is treated as a separate person with respect to each individual building in which it leases residential real estate units, notwithstanding Section 6.2-15 of Article 6, or Section 956.3 of this Article 12-A-1. The provisions of this subsection (c) apply only to leasing residential real estate units within a building, and not to any business activity related to other space, either within the same building or other buildings, which is not residential real estate. The Tax Collector is authorized to determine what constitutes a separate building and the number of units in a building.
(Added by Proposition E, App. 11/6/2012, Oper. 1/1/2014; amended by Ord. 222-14
, File No. 140798, App. 11/7/2014, Eff. 12/7/2014; Ord. 10-18, File No. 171133, App. 2/1/2018, Eff. 3/4/2018; amended by Proposition F, 11/3/2020, Eff. 12/29/2020, Oper. 1/1/2021)