ARTICLE II. BUSINESS LICENSE TAX SCHEDULES AND CLASSIFICATIONS

Sec. 14-27. Classification of business.

The classification of any particular business for the purpose of imposing a license tax shall be made in accordance with the guidelines set forth in this section:

(a) Contractors.

(1) A contractor, for the purposes of this classification, shall be any person who accepts or offers to accept:

a. Orders or contracts for doing any work on or in any building or structure, requiring the use of paint, stone, brick, mortar, wood, cement, structural iron or steel, sheet iron, galvanized iron, metallic piping, tin, lead, or other metal or any building material;

b. Contracts to do any paving, curbing or other work on sidewalks, streets, alleys or highways, on public or private property, using asphalt, brick, stone, cement, concrete, wood or any composition;

c. Any order for or contract to excavate earth, rock or other material for foundation or any other purpose, or for cutting, trimming or maintaining rights-of-way;

d. An order or contract to construct any sewer of stone, brick, terra cotta or other material;

e. Orders or contracts for doing any work on or in any building or premises involving the erecting, installing, altering, repairing, servicing or maintaining of electric wiring devices or appliances permanently connected to such wiring, or the erecting, installing, repairing or maintaining of lines for the transmission or distribution of electric light or power;

f. An order or contract to remodel, repair, wreck or demolish a building;

g. An order to contract to bore or dig a well;

h. An order to contract to install, maintain or repair air-conditioning apparatus or equipment.

(2) Contracting generally includes, but is not limited to, persons engaged in the following occupations, businesses or trades:

Air-conditioning
Brick contracting and other masonry
Building
Cementing
Dredging
Electrical contracting
Elevator installation
Erecting signs which are assessed as realty
Floor scraping or finishing
Foundations
House moving
Paint and paper decorating
Plastering
Plumbing, heating, steamfitting
Refrigeration
Road, street, bridge, sidewalk or curb and gutter construction
Roofing and tinning
Sewer installation and well digging
Sign painting
Structural metal work
Tile, glass, flooring and floor covering
installation
Wrecking, moving or excavating

(3) A person is not a contractor if he is engaged in the business of selling and installing air-conditioning units that are placed in windows or other openings with frames and require no ducts. The permanent installation of a unit in the wall of the building is contracting.

(4) Any person engaged in the business of selling and erecting or erecting tombstones is not a contractor, but is engaged in either retail or wholesale sales.

(5) Any person engaged in the business of wrecking or demolishing a building and who then sells the materials obtained is engaged in retail or wholesale sales as to the sale of the materials.

(6) Soliciting business for a contractor is not contracting but is a business service.

(7) Every contractor, whether a general contractor or a subcontractor, is a contractor for the purposes of local license taxation. The imposition of a license on the gross receipts of a general contractor and also a subcontractor is not double taxation. Each is engaged in business in his own right and licensable accordingly.

(8) A person who merely sells a prefabricated building or structure is not a contractor, but if the person or a subcontractor for that person erects the building or structure, then the seller is a contractor.

(9) Any person who sells floor coverings and furnishes and installs the floor covering under a contract with a general contractor (whether the covering be carpet, linoleum, tile or other covering) is a contractor. If floor coverings are sold at retail and installed as part of or incidental to the sale, then the transaction is not contracting but a retail sale.

(10) If the installation of an appliance requires the running of electrical, water or gas lines or service outlets, or the performance of any other function previously defined as contracting, then the installation is contracting.

(11) The mere hauling of sand, gravel and dirt is not contracting but is a business service.

(12) Whether a person is a contractor or employed as a laborer depends on the facts in each case. The elements to be considered in making the distinction include, but are not limited to, the method of compensation, who supplies the materials and primarily who has the right to control.

(13) Persons constructing for their own account for sale shall be included in the contracting category for the purpose of calculating the business license tax and this category shall include speculative builders and developers.

(14) A contractor who has his principal office outside the county, and conducts business exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00) in the county, shall obtain a business license and shall pay the tax based on receipts from business conducted in the county.

(b) Retail sales.

(1) Definitions:

a. Retail sales. The sale of goods, wares and merchandise for any purpose other than resale.

b. Retail merchant. Any person who makes retail sales.

c. Peddler. Any person who carries from place to place any goods, wares or merchandise and offers to sell or actually sells and delivers at the same time is a peddler. Any person who does not keep a regular place of business, whether it be a house or vacant lot or elsewhere, with regular business hours, but at that place offers to sell goods, wares and merchandise, is a peddler. Any person who keeps a regular place of business, with regular business hours at the same place, who other than at the regular place of business, personally or through agents offers for sale or sells and, at the time of such offering for sale, delivers goods, wares and merchandise is a peddler.

d. Itinerant merchant. Any person who engages in, does or transacts any temporary or transient business in Virginia, either in one locality or in traveling from place to place in the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise and who for the purpose of carrying on such business hires, leases, uses or occupies any building or structure, motor vehicle, tent, car, boat or public room or any part thereof, including rooms in hotels, lodging houses, or house of private entertainment, or in any street, alley or public place in any city or town, or any public road in any county, for a period of less than one (1) year, for the exhibition of or sale of goods, wares or merchandise.

(2) Any peddler or itinerant merchant who sells goods, wares or merchandise at retail is engaged in retail sales and shall be subject to local license taxation as such but in an amount not to exceed the rate set forth in section 14-28.

(3) Any person engaged in repair service who sells parts in addition to or as part of the repair service, is engaged in retail or wholesale sales as to the sales of the repair parts.

(4) Banks and savings and loan associations that sell promotional items are engaged in retail sales as to the sales of the promotional items and are not exempt from local license taxation as to those sales.

(5) In the sale of blank checks, a bank is not engaged in retail sales as to the sales of blank checks if the customer places an order for the checks directly with the printer and authorizes the bank to collect for the printer by charging his account, and the bank is not obligated to pay for the checks except insofar as it honors the customer's authorization. If, however, the customer places his order with the bank, and the bank contracts with the printer and is liable to the printer, whether or not the bank actually collects from the customer, then the bank is engaged in retail sales.

(6) A charitable institution or other not-for-profit organization that engages in the business of buying and selling merchandise may be subject to a local license tax as a retail or wholesale merchant, even though the proceeds are subsequently used for charitable purposes.

(7) A lunch counter operated by an organization open to members only, the proceeds from which are used to maintain the organization, may be subject to local license tax.

(8) Any hotel, motel, boardinghouse or lodging house which also furnishes or sells food or merchandise for compensation is engaged in retail sales as to the sales of the food or merchandise.

(9) A person is not subject to a local license tax if his business in this state is limited solely to the solicitation of orders by catalogs mailed from outside this state to mail-order buyers in this state and who fills orders from outside this state. However, if the catalogs are distributed by a Virginia resident by mail or in person or if the person engaged in the mail-order business has a definite place of business in this state at which mail orders are received or filled, the mail order business may be treated the same as any other retail or wholesale business for purposes of local license taxes.

(10) Any person who merely fills prescriptions for or fits corrective lenses and eyeglass frames is a retail merchant. However, any practitioner who examines eyes is engaged in rendering a professional service.

(11) Any practitioner of a profession who sells goods, wares or merchandise in connection with the practice of the profession may be engaged in making retail sales, depending on the nature of the products sold and the service performed. Examples in this area are as follows:

a. A medical doctor who engages in the sale of drugs or other goods, wares or merchandise as well as the practice of medicine is a merchant as to those sales. However, a medical doctor is not a merchant as to the drugs used in giving an immunization to a patient.

b. A chiropodist who sells shoes in connection with his practice is a retail merchant as to such sales.

(12) A job printer is a manufacturer and is engaged in either retail or wholesales sales as to the sales of the items printed.

(13) The sales price alone is not determinative of whether the sale is at retail or wholesale. The fact that a person sells goods, wares or merchandise at wholesale prices, at cost or at less than cost does not prevent the person from being classified as a retail merchant if the sales fall within the definition of a retail sale.

(14) Any person who purchases rough stone already cut and who then polishes, glazes and cuts lettering in the stone is not a manufacturer and is engaged in either retail or wholesale sales.

(15) Any person who sells goods at retail through a commission merchant may be held liable for a local license tax as to such sales.

(16) Any person engaged in the short-term rental business, as defined in section 21-120.

(c) Financial, real estate and professional services.

(1) Financial service. Any person rendering a service for compensation in the form of a credit agency, an investment company, a broker or dealer in securities and commodities or a security or commodity exchange is providing a financial service, unless such service is specifically provided for under another section.

(2) Those engaged in rendering financial services include, but are not limited to the following:

Buying installment receivables
Chattel mortgage financing
Consumer financing
Credit card services
Credit unions
Factors
Financing accounts receivable
Industrial loan companies
Installation financing
Inventory financing
Loan or mortgage brokers
Loan or mortgage companies
Safety deposit box companies
Security and commodity brokers and services
Stockbrokers
Working capital financing

(3) Any person other than a national bank or a bank or trust company organized under the laws of this state, or a duly licensed and practicing attorney at law, that engages in the business of buying or selling for others on commission or for other compensation, shares in any corporation, bonds, notes or other evidences of debt is a stockbroker. The fact that orders are taken subject to approval by a main office does not relieve the broker from local license taxation. Also, an insurance company engaged in selling mutual funds is a broker as to that portion of its business.

(4) Any person rendering a service for compensation as lessor, buyer, seller, agent or broker is providing a real estate service, unless the service is specifically provided for under another section.

(5) Those rendering real estate services include, but are not limited to, the following:

Appraisers of real estate
Escrow agents, real estate
Fiduciaries, real estate
Lessors of real property
Real estate agents, brokers and managers
Real estate selling agents
Rental agents for real estate

(6) A person is engaged in providing a professional service if engaged in rendering any service specifically enumerated below or engaged in any occupation or vocation in which a professed knowledge of some department of science or learning, gained by a prolonged course of specialized instruction and study, is used by its practical application to the affairs of others, either advising, guiding, or teaching them, and in serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art or science founded on it. The word profession implies attainment in professional knowledge as distinguished from mere skill, and the application of knowledge to uses for others as a vocation.

(7) Those engaged in rendering a professional service include, but are not limited to the following:

Architects
Attorneys-at-law
Certified public accountants
Dentists
Engineers
Land surveyors
Pharmacists Practitioners of the healing arts (as defined in
Virginia Code section 54.1-2900).

(8) The performing of services dealing with the conduct of business itself, including the promotion of sales or services of such business and consulting services, do not constitute the practice of a profession, even though the services involve the application of a specialized knowledge.

(9) Certification as a professional by itself is not sufficient to establish liability for local license taxation. Also, the fact that a professional is compensated by means of a salary is not sufficient by itself to relieve that professional from local license tax liability.

(10) Gross receipts for purposes of local license taxation as a professional include only those gross receipts obtained from the practice of that profession as a business, whether it be on a full or part-time basis, in corporate, partnership, sole proprietorship or association form.

(d) Repair, personal, business and other services.

(1) The repairing, renovating, cleaning or servicing of some article or item of personal property for compensation is a repair service, unless the service is specifically provided for under another section.

(2) Any service rendered for compensation either upon or for persons, animals or personal effects is a personal service, unless the service is specifically provided for under another section.

(3) Any service rendered for compensation to any business, trade, occupation or governmental agency is a business service, unless the service is specifically provided for under another section of these guidelines.

(4) Those rendering a repair, personal or business service or other service include, but are not limited to the following:

Advertising agencies
Airports
Ambulance services
Amusements and recreation services (all types)
Animal hospitals, grooming services, kennels or stables
Auctioneers and common criers
Automobile driving schools
Barber shops, beauty parlors, and hairdressing
establishments, schools and services
Bid or building reporting service
Billiard or pool establishments or parlors
Blacksmiths or wheelwrights
Bondsman^**
Booking agents or concert managers
Bottle exchanges
Bowling alleys
Brokers and commission merchants other than real estate or
financial brokers
Business research and consulting services
Cable television services
Chartered clubs
Child care attendants or schools
Collection agents or agencies
Commercial photography, art and graphics
Commercial sports
Dance halls, studios and schools
Data processing, computer and systems development services
Developing or enlarging photographs
Drafting services
Engraving
Erecting, installing, removing or storing awnings
Freight traffic bureaus
Fumigating or disinfecting
Funeral services and crematories
Golf courses, driving ranges and miniature golf courses
Hauling of sand, gravel or dirt
Hotels, motels, tourist courts, boarding and rooming houses
and trailer parks and campsites
House cleaning services
Impounding lots
Information bureaus
Instructors, tutors, schools and studios of music, ceramics,arts, sewing, sports and the like
Interior decorating
Janitorial services
Landscape services and yard maintenance services
Laundry cleaning and garment services including laundries,
dry cleaners, linen supply, diaper service, coin-operated
laundries, and carpet and upholstery cleaning
Mailing, messenger and correspondent services
Marinas and boat landings
Massage parlors
Movie theaters and drive-in theaters
Nickel plating, chromizing and electroplating
Nurses and physician registries
Nursing and personal care facilities including nursing homes,
convalescent homes, homes for the retarded, old age homes and rest homes.
Packing, crating, shipping, hauling or moving goods or
chattels for others
Parcel delivery service
Parking lots, public garages and valet parking
Pawnbrokers
Personnel services, labor agents and employment bureaus
Photographers and photographic services
Piano tuning
Picture framing and gilding
Porter services
Press clipping services
Public hospitals
Promotional agents or agencies
Public relations services
Realty multiple listing services
Renting or leasing any items of tangible personal property
Reproduction services
Secretarial services
Seamstress services
Septic tank cleaning
Shoe repair, shoe shine and hat repair shops
Sign painting
Solid waste collection services
Storage, all types
Swimming pool maintenance and management
Tabulation services
Tailor services
Taxidermist
Telephone answering services
Theaters
Theatrical performers, bands and orchestras
Towing services
Transportation services including buses and taxis
Travel bureaus
Tree surgeons, trimmers and removal services
Turkish, Roman or other like baths or parlors
Wake-up services
Washing, cleaning or polishing automobiles

________________________
**No license shall be issued to any bondsman unless and until the applicant shall have first obtained a bail bondsman license from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.  If a professional bondsman has a license granted by any other county or city, he shall be authorized to enter into bonds within the County of York.  

(5) Any person buying or selling any kinds of goods, wares or merchandise for another on commission is a commission merchant and is engaged in a business service.

(6) Photographers who have no place of business in Virginia may be subject to local license taxation as imposed by section 14-28 of this chapter.

(7) Sign painting is a service unless the sign is painted on the side of a building or any other structure assessed as realty in which case the sign painting is contracting.

(8) An amusement is a type of entertainment or show for which compensation is received and that is not specifically provided for under another section.

(9) As used in this subsection, the term "renting or leasing any items of tangible personal property" shall not include persons engaged in the short-term rental business, as defined in section 21-120.
(Ord. No. 05-23, 9/20/05)
 

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