The following words and phrases shall have the meanings set forth below when used in this Chapter:
A. "Business" shall include all activities engaged in or caused to be engaged in within the City, including any commercial or industrial enterprise, trade, profession, occupation, vocation, calling, or livelihood, whether or not carried on for gain or profit, bu shall not include the services rendered by an employee to his or her employer.
B. "Cannabis" means all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa Linnaeus, Cannabis indica, or Cannabis ruderalis, whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin, whether crude or purified, extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds, or resin. "Cannabis" also means the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from cannabis. "Cannabis" also means marijuana as defined by Section 11018 of the California Health and Safety Code and is not limited to medical cannabis.
C. "Cannabis product" means raw cannabis that has undergone a process whereby the raw agricultural product has been transformed into a concentrate, an edible product, or a topical product. "Cannabis product" also means marijuana products as defined by Section 11018.1 of the California Health and Safety Code and is not limited to medical cannabis products.
D. "Canopy" means all areas occupied by any portion of a cannabis plant whether contiguous or noncontiguous on any one site. When plants occupy multiple horizontal planes (as when plants are placed on shelving above other plants) each plane shall be counted as a separate canopy area.
E. "Cannabis business" means any business activity involving cannabis, including but not limited to cultivating, transporting, distributing, manufacturing, compounding, converting, processing, preparing, storing, packaging, delivering, testing, dispensing, retailing and wholesaling of cannabis, of cannabis products or of ancillary products and accessories, whether or not carried on for gain or profit.
F. "Cannabis business tax" or "business tax," means the tax due pursuant to this Chapter for engaging in cannabis business in the City.
G. "Commercial cannabis cultivation" means cultivation in the course of conducting a cannabis business.
H. "City permit" means a permit issued by the City to a person to authorize that person .to operate or engage in a cannabis business.
I. "Cultivation" means any activity involving the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, curing, grading, or trimming of cannabis and includes, but is not limited to, the operation of a nursery.
J. "Employee" means each and every person engaged in the operation or conduct of any business, whether as owner, member of the owner's family, partner, associate, agent, manager or solicitor, and each and every other person employed or working in such business for a wage, salary, commission, barter or any other form of compensation.
K. "Engaged in business as a cannabis business" means the commencing, conducting, operating, managing or carrying on of a cannabis business, whether done as owner, or by means of an officer, agent, manager, employee, or otherwise, whether operating from a fixed location in the City or coming into the City from an outside location to engage in such activities. A person shall be deemed engaged in business within the City if:
1. Such person or person's employee maintains a fixed place of business within the City for the benefit or partial benefit of such person;
2. Such person or person's employee owns or leases real property within the City for business purposes;
3. Such person or person's employee regularly maintains a stock of tangible personal property in the City for sale in the ordinary course of business;
4. Such person or person's employee regularly conducts solicitation of business within the City; or
5. Such person or person's employee performs work or renders services in the City.
The foregoing specified activities shall not be a limitation on the meaning of "engaged in business."
L. "Evidence of doing business" means evidence such as, without limitation, use of signs, circulars, cards or any other advertising media, including the use of internet or telephone solicitation, or representation to a government agency or to the public that such person is engaged in a cannabis business in the City.
M. "Calendar year" means the twelve consecutive month period from the first day of January through the last day of the following December, inclusive.
N. "Gross Receipts," except as otherwise specifically provided, means, whether designated a sales price, royalty, rent, commission, dividend, or other designation, the total amount (including all receipts, cash, credits, services and property of any kind or nature) received or payable for sales of goods, wares or merchandise or for the performance of any act or service of any nature for which a charge is made or credit allowed (whether such service, act or employment is done as part of or in connection with the sale of goods, wares, merchandise or not), without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, losses or any other expense whatsoever. However, the following shall be excluded from the definition of Gross Receipts:
1. Cash discounts where allowed and taken on sales;
2. Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;
3. Such part of the sale price of any property returned by purchasers to the seller as refunded by the seller by way of cash or credit allowances or return of refundable deposits previously included in gross receipts;
4. Receipts derived from the occasional sale of used, obsolete or surplus trade fixtures, machinery or other equipment used by the taxpayer in the regular course of the taxpayer's business;
5. Cash value of sales, trades or transactions between departments or units of the same business;
6. Whenever there are included within the gross receipts amounts which reflect sales for which credit is extended and such amount proved uncollectible in a subsequent year, those amounts may be excluded from the gross receipts in the year they prove to be uncollectible; provided, however, if the whole or portion of such amounts excluded as uncollectible are subsequently collected they shall be included in the amount of gross receipts for the period when they are recovered;
7. Receipts of refundable deposits, except that such deposits when forfeited arid taken into income of the business shall not be excluded when in excess of one dollar;
8. Amounts collected for others where the business is acting as an agent or trustee and to the extent that such amounts are paid to those for whom collected. These agents or trustees must provide the City's department of finance and management services with the names and the addresses of the others and the amounts paid to them. This exclusion shall not apply to any fees, percentages, or other payments retained by the agent or trustees.
9. Retail sales of t-shirts, sweaters, hats, stickers, key chains, bags, books, posters, rolling papers, cannabis accessories such as pipes, pipe screens, vape pen batteries (without cannabis) or other personal tangible property which the Tax Administrator has excluded in writing by issuing an administrative ruling per Section 5.18.140 shall not be subject to the cannabis business tax under this chapter. However, any business activities not subject to this Chapter as a result of the administrative ruling shall be subject to the appropriate business tax provisions of Chapter 5.04 or any other Chapter or Title as determined by the Tax Administrator.
O. "Lighting" means a source of light that is primarily used for promoting the biological process of plant growth. Lighting does not include sources of light that primarily exist for the safety or convenience of staff or visitors to the facility, such as emergency lighting, walkway lighting, or light admitted via small skylights, windows or ventilation openings.
P. "Nursery" means a facility or part of a facility that is used only for producing clones, immature plants, seeds, and other agricultural products used specifically for the planting, propagation, and cultivation of cannabis.
Q. "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, limited liability company, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit, whether organized as a nonprofit or for-profit entity, and includes the plural as well as the singular number.
R. "Sale" means and includes any sale, exchange, or barter. "State" means the State of California.
T. "State license," "license," or "registration" means a state license issued pursuant to California Business & Professions Code Sections 26050, et seq. or other applicable state law.
U. "Tax Administrator" means the Director of Finance and Management Services of the City of San Bernardino or his or her designee.
V. "Testing Laboratory" means a cannabis business that (i) offers or performs tests of cannabis or cannabis products, (ii) offers no service other than such tests, (iii) sells no products, excepting only testing supplies and materials, (iv) is accredited by an accrediting body that is independent from all other persons involved in the cannabis industry in the state and (v) is registered with the Bureau of Cannabis Control.
(Ord. MC-1625, 2-21-24; Ord. MC-1501, 11-06-18)