This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Mercantile
License and Tax Ordinance."
This article and tax are passed pursuant to the authority of
the Local Tax Enabling Act, Act No. 511, approved December 31, 1965,
P.L. 1257, and amendments thereto.
The following words and phrases when used in this article shall
have the meanings ascribed to them in this section unless the context
clearly indicates a different meaning:
LICENSE YEAR
The calendar year of 1981 and each calendar year thereafter.
PERSON
Any natural person, partnership, unincorporated association
or corporation, nonprofit or otherwise. Whenever used in any provision
prescribing a fine or a penalty, the word "person," as applied to
partnerships, shall mean the partners thereof, and as applied to corporations
and unincorporated associations, shall mean the officers thereof.
PERSON, WHOLESALE DEALER, WHOLESALE VENDOR, RETAIL DEALER and
RETAIL VENDOR
Shall not include nonprofit corporations organized for religious,
charitable or educational purposes, any association organized for
such purposes, agencies of the Government of the United States or
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or any person vending or disposing
of articles of his own growth, production or manufacture for shipment
or delivery from the place of growth, production or manufacture thereof.
PLACE OF AMUSEMENT
Any place indoors or outdoors where the general public or
a limited or selected number thereof may upon payment of an established
price, attend or engage in any amusement, contest, recreation, including
among other places, theaters, opera houses, motion picture houses,
amusement parks, stadiums, arenas, baseball or football parks or fields,
skating rinks, circus or carnival tents or grounds, fair grounds,
bowling alleys, billiard or pool rooms, nine or ten pin alleys, riding
academies, golf courses, bathing and swimming places, dance halls,
tennis courts, archery, rifle or shotgun ranges and other like places.
The term does not include any exhibition, amusement performances or
contest conducted by a nonprofit corporation or association organized
for religious, charitable or educational purposes.
For the license year 1981 and annually thereafter, the Borough
of Millvale hereby imposes an annual mercantile license tax in the
manner and at the rates hereinafter set forth.
[Amended 12-30-1992 by Ord. No. 1903,]
Beginning in the license year 1981 and annually thereafter,
every person desiring to continue to engage in, or hereafter to begin
to engage in the business of wholesale or retail vendor, or dealer
in goods, wares and merchandise, and any person conducting a restaurant
or other place where food, drink or refreshments are sold, or place
of amusement, whether or not the same be incidental to some other
business or occupation, shall on or before the 15th day of January
of each license year, procure a mercantile license for his place of
business, or if more than one, for each of his places of business
in the Borough, from the Tax Collector as required by law; such license
shall be conspicuously posted at the place of business or each of
the places of business of every person at all times. The license fees
for the following, in such amount as set by resolution of the Borough
Council, shall be paid at the time of filing of the license application:
C. Combined
wholesale and retail.
Every person engaged in any of the following occupations or
businesses in the Borough shall pay an annual mercantile license tax
for each license year at the following rates:
A. Wholesale vendors or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise, at
the rate of one mill on each dollar of the volume of the annual gross
business transacted by them.
B. Retail vendors or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise, at the
rate of 1 1/2 mills on each dollar of the volume of the annual
gross business transacted by them.
C. All persons engaged in conducting restaurants or other places where
food, drink or refreshments are sold, whether or not the same be incidental
to some other business or occupation, and all persons conducting places
of amusement or entertainment, whether or not the same be incidental
to some other business or occupation, at the rate of 1 1/2 mills
on each dollar of the volume of the annual gross business transacted
by them.
D. Wholesale and retail vendors or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise,
at the rate of one mill on each dollar for the annual gross wholesale
business transacted by them, 1 1/2 mills on each dollar of the
volume of the annual gross retail business transacted by them.
E. No tax shall be levied on the dollar volume of business transacted
by wholesale and retail dealers, derived from the resale of goods,
wares, and merchandise taken by any dealer as a trade-in or as part
payment for other goods, wares and merchandise except to the extent
that the resale price exceeds the trade-in allowance.
At the time of filing the return, the person making the same
shall pay the amount of the tax shown as due thereon to the Tax Collector.
Any information gained by the Tax Collector, or any other officer,
official, agent or employee of the Borough, as a result of any returns,
investigations, hearings or verifications, required or authorized
by this article, shall be confidential except in accordance with proper
judicial order or as otherwise provided by law, and divulgence of
any information so gained is hereby declared to be a violation of
this article, which may be punished by dismissal from office or employment.
Whoever makes any false or untrue statement on his return, or
who refuses to permit inspection of the books, records or accounts
of any business in his custody, when the right to make such inspection
by the Tax Collector is requested, and whoever fails or refuses to
pay any amounts due thereunder, and whoever fails or refuses to procure
a mercantile license when so required under this article, or fails
to keep his license conspicuously posted at this place of business
as herein required, shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil
enforcement proceeding commenced by the Borough before a Magisterial
District Judge, pay a fine of not more than $600, plus court costs
and reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by the Borough in the enforcement
proceedings. No judgment shall be imposed until the date of the determination
of the violation by the Magisterial District Judge. If the defendant
neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the Borough may enforce
the judgment pursuant to the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure.
Each day a violation exists shall constitute a separate offense. Further,
the appropriate officers or agents of the Borough are hereby authorized
to seek equitable relief, including injunction, to enforce compliance
herewith. Where the taxpayer is a firm or association, the fine or
penalty may be imposed upon any of the partners or members thereof,
and in case of corporations, upon any of the officers thereof.
The Tax Collector is hereby authorized to except payment under
protest of the amount of mercantile tax claimed by the Borough in
any case with the taxpayer disputes the validity or amount of the
Borough's claim for the tax. If it is thereafter judicially determined
by a court of competent jurisdiction that the Borough has been overpaid,
the amount of the overpayment shall be refunded to the taxpayer without
any accrued interest.
This article and the tax levied hereunder shall continue in
full force, and effect for the license year 1981, and each license
year thereafter without annual reenactment. All dates referred to
herein shall be applicable to each succeeding year.
Any ordinance or part of an ordinance conflicting with the provisions
of this article be and the same is hereby repealed, as of the effective
date of this article, insofar as the same affects this article. Ordinance
No. 853 of the Borough of Millvale, ordained and enacted into law
on the second day of December 1948, is specifically repealed as of
the effective date of this article, subject to the following exception:
A. Section 10 ("Suit on collection; penalty") and Section 11 ("Fine
and penalties") of said ordinance No. 853 are specifically saved from
repeal for purposes of collecting unpaid taxes levied pursuant to
said Ordinance No. 853.
The provisions of this article shall become effective January
1, 1981.