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 unincorporated area of the County, including any commercial or industrial enterprise, trade, profession, occupation, vocation, calling, or livelihood, whether or not carried on for gain or profit, but shall not include the services rendered by an employee to his or her employer.
b) "Cannabis", or “marijuana”, shall have the same definition as “cannabis” as set forth in California Business and Professions Code section 26001 as it now reads or as amended.
c) “Commercial cannabis business” or “cannabis business” means any commercial business activity relating to cannabis, including but not limited to cultivating, transporting, distributing, manufacturing, compounding, converting, processing, preparing, storing, packaging, delivering, and selling (wholesale and/or retail sales) of cannabis and any ancillary products and accessories in the unincorporated area of the County, whether or not carried on for gain or profit.
d) “Commercial cannabis business tax,” “cannabis business tax”, “business tax,” or “commercial cannabis tax” means the tax due pursuant to this Chapter for engaging in cannabis business in the unincorporated area of the County.
e) “Commercial cannabis cultivation” means cultivation conducted by, for, as part of a cannabis business.
f) "Cultivate" or "cultivation" means any activity involving the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, curing, grading, or trimming of cannabis.
g) “Delivery” shall have the same definition as “delivery” as set forth in California Business and Professions Code section 26001 as it now reads or as amended.
h) “Dispensary” means a facility where cannabis, cannabis products, or devices for the use of cannabis or cannabis products are offered, either individually or in any combination, for retail sale, including a person that delivers cannabis and cannabis products as part of a retail sale. Where a dispensary performs its functions through a technology platform of any type or character, the technology platform shall also be deemed a dispensary for purposes of this Chapter, and shall have the same duties and liabilities as the principal. Compliance with the provisions of this Chapter by either the principal or the technology platform shall, however, be considered compliance by both.
i) “Distributor” or “distribution” or “distribution facility” shall have the same definition as “distribution” as set forth in California Business and Professions Code section 26001 as it now reads or as amended.
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” means the commencing, conducting, operating, managing or carrying on of a cannabis business and the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, whether done as owner, or by means of an officer, agent, manager, employee, or otherwise, whether operating from a fixed location in the unincorporated area of the County or coming into the unincorporated area of the County from an outside location to engage in such activities. A person shall be deemed engaged in business within the County if:
1) Such person or person’s employee maintains a fixed place of business within unincorporated area of the County for the benefit or partial benefit of such person;
2) Such person or person’s employee owns or leases real property within the unincorporated area of County for business purposes;
3) Such person or person’s employee regularly maintains a stock of tangible personal property in the unincorporated area of County for sale in the ordinary course of business;
4) Such person or person’s employee regularly conducts solicitation of business within the unincorporated area of County;
5) Such person or person’s employee performs work or renders services in the unincorporated area of County; and
6) Such person or person’s employee utilizes the streets within the unincorporated area of County in connection with the operation of motor vehicles for business purposes.
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 unincorporated area of County.
m) “Fiscal year” means July 1 through June 30 of the following calendar year.
n) “Gross receipts,” except as otherwise specifically provided, means the total amount actually received or receivable from all sales, transactions or transfers, or the cash value thereof; the total amount or compensation
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; discounts, rents, royalties, fees, commissions, dividends, and gains realized from trading in stocks or bonds, however designated. Included in "gross receipts" shall be all receipts, cash, credits and property of any kind or nature, whether or not evidenced by sales registers or any transaction recording devices, 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, or losses or other expenses whatsoever, except that the following shall be excluded therefrom:
1) Cash discounts where allowed and taken on sales;
2) Credit allowed on property accepted as part of the purchase price and which property may later be sold, at which time the sales price shall be included as gross receipts;
3) Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;
4) 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;
5) Receipts from investments where the holder of the investment receives only interest and/or dividends, royalties, annuities and gains from the sale or exchange of stock or securities solely for a person's own account, not derived in the ordinary course of a business;
6) 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;
7) Cash value of sales, trades or transactions that occur entirely within the County of Yolo between departments or units of the same business;
8) 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;
9) Transactions between a partnership and its partners that occur entirely within the County of Yolo;
10) Receipts from services or sales in transactions that occur entirely within the County of Yolo between affiliated corporations. An affiliated corporation is a corporation:
a. The voting and non-voting stock of which is owned at least eighty percent by such other corporation with which such transaction is had; or
b. Which owns at least eighty percent of the voting and non- voting stock of such other corporation; or
c. At least eighty percent of the voting and non-voting stock of which is owned by a common parent corporation which also has such ownership of the corporation with which such transaction is had.
11) Transactions between a limited liability company and its member(s) that occur entirely within the County of Yolo, provided the limited liability company has elected to file as a Subchapter K entity under the Internal Revenue Code and that such transaction(s) shall be treated the same as between a partnership and its partner(s) as specified in Subsection (9) above;
12) Receipts of refundable deposits, except that such deposits when forfeited and taken into income of the business shall not be excluded when in excess of one dollar;
13) 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 Treasurer-Tax Collector 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.
o) "County License" means a license issued by the County of Yolo to a person to authorize that person to operate or engage in a cannabis business.
p) “Manufacturer” shall have the same definition as “manufacturer” as set forth in California Business and Professions Code section 26001 as it now reads or as amended.
q) “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 cannabis products as defined by Section 11018.1 of the California Health and Safety Code and is not limited to medical cannabis products.
r) “Nursery” means a facility that produces only clones, immature plants, seeds, and other agricultural products used specifically for the propagation and cultivation of cannabis.
s) “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.
t) “Personal cannabis cultivation” means cultivation pursuant to Section 5-20.04(A)(1) of the Yolo County Code.
u) “Processing” means to harvest, dry, cure, grade, trim, or package for transport cannabis.
v) “Sale” means and includes any sale, exchange, or barter.
w) “State” means the State of California.
x) “State license,” “license,” or “registration” means a state license issued pursuant to California Business & Professions Code Sections 19300, et seq. or other applicable state law.
y) “Testing laboratory” means a facility, entity, or site in the state that offers or performs testing of cannabis or cannabis products and that is both of the following:
1) Accredited by an accrediting body that is independent from all other persons involved in the cannabis industry in the state; and
2) Registered with the California State Department of Public Health.
z) “Treasurer-Tax Collector” means the Treasurer-Tax Collector of the County of Yolo, his or her deputies or any other County officer charged with the administration of the provisions of this Chapter.
(§ 1, Ord. 1496, operative July 1, 2018, if approved by voters)