For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows:
(a) “Arcade” shall mean a general enclosure in which is conducted the business of operating or exhibiting any phonograph, graphophone, talking machine, kinetoscope, biography, projectoscope, or any other instrument or machine of like character and exhibiting, showing, or letting the use of any microscope, lung tester, muscle tester, galvanic battery, weighing machine, or machine of like character.
(b) “Business” shall mean and include professions, trades, vocations, enterprises, establishments, occupations, and all and every kind of calling, any of which are conducted and/or carried on for the purpose of earning in whole or in part a profit or livelihood, whether or not a profit or livelihood actually is earned thereby, whether paid in money, goods, labor, or otherwise.
(c) “Business tax certificate” shall mean the same as business license and shall be that document issued as evidence of payment of business taxes as provided in this chapter.
(d) “City” shall mean the City of Thousand Oaks, a municipal corporation of the State, in its present incorporated form or in any later reorganized, consolidated, enlarged, or reincorporated form.
(e) “Collection agency” shall mean an establishment for the collection of accounts, notes,
obligations, or debts for others for a compensation or fee; provided, however, this definition shall not include attorneys-at-law.
(f) “Collector” shall mean the Director of Finance or other City officer charged with the administration of the provisions of this chapter.
(g) “Construction” shall mean any undertaking to construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, improve, move, wreck, or demolish any building, highway, road, excavation, or other structure, project, development, or improvement, or any part thereof, including the erection of scaffolding or other structures or works in connection therewith.
(h) “Contractor” shall mean those persons defined as contractors by the provisions of Section 7026 of the Business and Professions Code of the State, as amended, and shall also include specialty contractors and any person who contracts to hire out trucks, tractors, or excavating, or other equipment in connection with a construction project, whether at rates by the hour or day or for a contract amount.
(i) “Fixed place of business” shall mean a location within the City where the licensee maintains or conducts his business for a continuous period of at least sixty (60) days and intends to remain permanently in business. A person does not have a fixed place of business within the meaning of this subsection when he establishes a business within the intention and determination to remain in business for a short period of time only, whether such period is a definite or indefinite one, such as a period of one or more weeks or months, or until a particular stock of merchandise is disposed of, or until the local market for the commodity has been exhausted.
(j) “Gross receipts” shall mean and include the total amounts actually received or receivable from sales and the total amounts actually received or receivable for the performance of any act or service, of whatever nature it may be, for which a charge is made or credit allowed, whether or not such act or service is done as a part of, or in connection with, the sale of materials, goods, wares, or merchandise. “Gross receipts” shall include all receipts, cash credits, and property of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of the material used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, or losses or other expenses whatsoever.
“Gross receipts” shall not include:
(1) Cash discounts 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 property returned by purchasers upon rescission of the contract of sale as is refunded either in cash or by credit;
(4) Amounts collected for others where the business is acting as an agent or trustee to the extent that such amounts are paid to those for whom collected provided the agent or trustee has furnished the Collector with the names and addresses of the others and the amounts paid to them;
(5) Receipts of refundable deposits, except that refundable deposits forfeited and taken into the income of the business shall not be excluded;
(6) As to a real estate agent or broker, the sales price of real estate sold for the account of others except that portion which represents commission or other income to the agent or broker;
(7) As to a retail gasoline dealer, a portion of his receipts from the sale of the motor vehicle fuels equal to the motor vehicle fuel license tax imposed by and previously paid pursuant to the provisions of Part 2 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code of the State;
(8) As to a retail gasoline dealer, the special motor fuel tax imposed by Section 4041 of Title 26 of the United States Code if paid by the dealer or collected by him from the consumer or purchaser; and
(9) As to a person who breeds and sells animals, all receipts from sales of animals contained within the first litter of any animal owned or controlled by the taxpayer; and provided, further, that the license tax herein shall only be applicable to persons who breed animals for the purpose of selling part or all of its litter.
(k) “Itinerant merchant” shall mean and include all persons, both principals and agents, who engage in a temporary and transient business for a period less than three (3) months in the City selling goods, wares, or merchandise and who, for the purpose of carrying on such business, hire, lease, or occupy any room, building, structure, lot, or premises for the exhibition or sale of such goods, wares, and merchandise; provided, however, this definition shall not apply to commercial travelers or selling agents selling their goods to merchants, dealers, or traders where such goods are to become a part of said merchants’, dealers’, or traders’ stock-in-trade in their regular place of business, whether selling for present or future delivery, by sample or otherwise, as the same are defined in this section.
(l) “Junk dealer” shall mean any person having a fixed place of business in the City who engages in the business of buying, selling, or otherwise dealing in or acquiring, old bottles, scraps, pieces of metal, rags, old rope, or any old or used article not to be used in its former state or condition.
(m) “Newspaper, daily” shall mean daily newspapers with wire service and news gathering media and with distribution principally to paid subscribers.
(n) “Personal loan by other than a pawnbroker” shall mean every person who engages in the business of lending money, either for himself or for any other person, upon personal security, evidences of debt, assignments of salary, salary warranties, salary demands, automobiles, or any other personal property and is required to be licensed by the State pursuant to the provisions of those acts known as “California Small Loan Act” or the “Personal Property Brokers Act.”
(o) “Person” shall mean and include all domestic and foreign corporations, associations, syndicates, joint stock corporations, partnerships of every kind, clubs, Massachusetts businesses or common law trusts, societies, and individuals transacting and carrying on any business in the City other than as an employee.
(p) “Purchaser of commercial paper or factors” shall mean every person who engages in the business of purchasing for himself, or any other person, automobile contracts, commercial paper, evidences of debt, assignments of salary, salary warranties, salary demands, time checks, or other evidences of salary or to become due, where such person or the person he represents was not a party to the originator of the loan document or in any way a contributor to the original obligation.
(q) “Sale” shall include the transfer, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, of title to property for a consideration; the serving, supplying, or furnishing for a consideration of any property; and a transaction whereby the possession of property is transferred and the seller retains the title as security for the payment of the price. The definitions set forth in this subsection shall not be deemed to exclude any transaction which is or which in effect results in a sale within the contemplation of law.
(r) “Savings and loan association” shall mean any institution incorporated to conduct, or conducting, the business of receiving and lending money in accordance with the laws of the State or United States regulating savings and loan associations.
(s) “Secondhand furniture dealer” shall mean any person dealing in, buying, selling, or exchanging secondhand household furniture or household goods only; provided, however, this definition shall not include any person, firm, or corporation who handles or deals in secondhand household furniture or household goods only as an incident to his regular business or one who conducts or maintains a furniture store and whose principal business consists of buying, selling, or dealing in new and unused household furniture or household goods.
(t) “Solicitor” shall mean any person who goes from place to place or from house to house taking or attempting to take orders for the sale of, or seeking to make concurrent sales and delivery of, goods, wares, and merchandise of any nature whatsoever or for services to be furnished or performed, whether or not such person has a sample or is collecting advance payments. “Solicitor” shall include peddlers, hawkers, drummers, and canvassers. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to children under the age of sixteen (16) years engaged in the solicitation or obtaining of subscriptions or advertising for, or sales of newspapers or magazines published for the dissemination of local or telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character and printed or published at regular intervals.
(u) “Principal solicitor” shall mean a person who controls, employs, supervises, manages, or otherwise exercises authority over one or more persons engaged in activities which make them subject to the license tax. If a principal solicitor should elect, the individual solicitor need not pay a license tax but shall obtain a permit, and the principal solicitor shall pay a license tax.
(v) “Sworn statement” shall mean an affidavit sworn before a person authorized to take oaths or a declaration or certification made under penalty of perjury.
(§ 2, Ord. 176-NS, eff. December 4, 1970, as amended by § 12, Ord. 496-NS, eff. October 10, 1974, and §§ 2 and 3, Ord. 1374-NS, eff. April 26, 2001)