Cross Reference — As to business license tax imposed on billboards, §535.085.
[CC 1997 §27-1; Ord. No. 435 §2, 6-10-1991; Ord. No. 555 §1(27-1(c)), 3-9-1998]
For the purposes of this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this Section:
ANNUAL GROSS RECEIPTS
Gross receipts during the license year.
ASSOCIATION
Partnership or other unincorporated affiliation of persons or group of partnerships or unincorporated affiliations.
BUSINESS OR OCCUPATION
Any person, firm, association or corporation, their lessees and their trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, engaged in any pursuit, calling, enterprise, profession, trade or engaged in keeping or maintaining any institution, commercial or profit-making establishment, article, utility or commodity specified in this Chapter or in any other provision of this Code or in any ordinance of the City within the City but excluding those "home occupations" governed by Chapter 405 of this Code but not excluding those home occupations in existence prior to the effective date of Ordinance number 444 (12-9-91), the Zoning Ordinance; and except as may be otherwise provided by ordinance or this Code.
CORPORATION
Incorporated entity or group of the same.
FEE
Amounts necessary to acquire a license that is levied on or required to be paid, as herein provided, by any merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation.
FIRM
Entity composed of a group of persons with the purpose of engaging in a specific or particular business activity.
GROSS RECEIPTS
The aggregate amount of all sales and shall include the receipt of cash, credits and property of any kind or nature without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of any items sold, the cost of any materials used or of any labor, service costs, interest paid or payable or any losses or any other expenses whatsoever; provided that the following shall be excluded from any computation of gross receipts if the books of account segregate the amounts so as to reflect such exclusions:
1. 
Receipts of taxes levied by State and Federal Governments and collected by the seller.
2. 
Sales for delivery outside the State to non-residents of the State.
3. 
Receipts of traded merchandise recorded as cash receipts and resold and recorded as a sale upon such resale.
4. 
Interdepartmental sales within the organization of the seller.
5. 
Such part of the sales price of property returned by the purchaser as is refunded either in cash or by credit.
6. 
Receipts of refundable deposits; except that portion of refundable deposits forfeited and taken into the gross receipts of the seller.
LICENSE
Document manifesting decision of Board of Aldermen that particular merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation may conduct its operations within the City of Oakland.
LICENSE YEAR
Shall begin on July first (1st) or, in the case of those newly established, at the beginning of doing business and shall end on the June thirtieth (30th) next; except, that any merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation whose license fee is computed on the basis of annual gross receipts may, but only upon prior approval by the City Clerk, elect a license year which shall coincide with the merchant's, manufacturer's, business' or occupation's accounting and Federal tax fiscal year.
LICENSEE
Every merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation required to have a current license and holding such a license.
MANUFACTURER
Every person, firm, association or corporation, their lessees and their trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, engaged in treating, processing, refining, improving, combining, fabricating, assembling or otherwise adding to the usability, value or appearance of commodities and other personal property, whether done on order or for sale upon expected or anticipated demand or orders for the manufactured goods.
MERCHANT
Every person, firm, association or corporation, their lessees and their trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, engaged in the retail or wholesale selling of any goods, wares or merchandise or who renders any services in connection with any such sale at any store, stand or place occupied for that purpose within the City.
PERSON
Individual or group of individuals.
SALE
Rendering any service or supplying any commodity, thing, use, facility or right or doing any other thing or permitting anything to be done or used, for which a price, fee, commission, admission, rental or other cost, profit or revenue is charged or derived.
[CC 1997 §27-2]
Every merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation, before operating as such or, if not now licensed, before continuing as such, shall make application for, procure and pay for a license from the City Clerk pursuant to the provisions set forth in this Chapter or as otherwise provided by ordinance or this Code.
[Ord. No. 879, 10-14-2019]
All marijuana-related uses shall obtain a business license under the requirements of Chapter 605 of the Municipal Code. With regard to the existing classification of uses for business license purposes, the Board of Aldermen hereby determines that a medical marijuana dispensary facility should be considered similarly to a pharmacy for business licensing purposes, a medical marijuana-infused products manufacturing facility should be considered in the same manner as general manufacturing facilities for business licensing purposes, and that medical marijuana cultivation facilities and medical marijuana testing facilities shall be considered an exceptional use for business licensing purposes.
A. 
No person following for a livelihood the profession or calling of minister of the gospel, duly accredited Christian Science practitioner, teacher, professor in a college, priest, lawyer, certified public accountant, dentist, chiropractor, optometrist, chiropodist, or physician or surgeon in this City shall be taxed or made liable to pay any municipal or other corporation tax or license fee of any description whatever for the privilege of following or carrying on such profession or calling, and after December 31, 2003, no investment funds service corporation as defined in Section 143.451, RSMo., may be required to pay any such license fee in excess of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00) annually, any law, ordinance or Charter to the contrary notwithstanding.
B. 
No person following for a livelihood the profession of insurance agent or broker, veterinarian, architect, professional engineer, land surveyor, auctioneer, or real estate broker or salesman in this City shall be taxed or made liable to pay any municipal or other corporation tax or license fee for the privilege of following or carrying on his/her profession unless that person maintains a business office within the City of Oakland.
[CC 1997 §27-3]
Application for a license under this Chapter shall be made on a written application blank furnished by the City Clerk, which shall include, but is not limited to: the name and address of the applicant, including the business address, home and business telephone number; the type of business which the applicant proposes to conduct in the City; the name of the company that the applicant is representing, if any; the length of time that the applicant proposes to conduct the business in the City; the type of sales program that the applicant will propose to the citizens of the City or the solicitation that the applicant will make upon the citizens of the City; and the names and addresses of two (2) references. The applicant shall set forth truly all information required by the application.
[CC 1997 §27-4]
A. 
If the approval of any City Officer or State office is required prior to the issuance of any license or permit, such approval must be presented to the City Clerk before any such license or permit is issued (i.e., a license for an establishment selling liquor).
B. 
No license or permit shall be approved by any City Officer or issued by the City Clerk if it appears that the conduct of an activity for which a license or permit is sought will be contrary to the health, safety or welfare of the public or will be contrary to any regulation, law or ordinance applicable to such activity. If application does not contravene the above and is in the best interest of the City, the application shall be approved.
C. 
The Board of Aldermen shall make such a determination and approve the issuance of any license. Notice of approval or denial of an application will be made in writing to the party requesting the license within two (2) months of the date of the application. If denied, the writing will state the reason therefore.
[CC 1997 §27-5; Ord. No. 429 §1, 12-10-1990; Ord. No. 755 §2, 5-12-2008]
Every merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation in the City, except as otherwise provided by Code or ordinance, shall pay within one (1) month after the beginning of the license year an annual license fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) or one-tenth of one percent (.10%) of gross receipts for the foregoing year, whichever is greater; and the foregoing license fees shall be prorated for less than a full year. In the case of billboards as defined Chapter 530 of this Code, the annual license fee shall be two percent (2%) of the gross annual revenue produced by the billboard and shall be due on December thirty-first (31st). Such fees shall be due and payable at the time of the commencing of operation of business in the City by any business or occupation and thereafter within one (1) month after the beginning of the license year, except in 1991 when fees shall be due and payable for one-half (½) year as of July 1, 1991 and delinquent after August 1, 1991.
[CC 1997 §27-6]
A. 
A licensing fee shall be paid at the office of the City Clerk before the granting of the license. Upon approval of the license application and payment of the requisite fee, the City Clerk shall issue the license to the applicant. Unless otherwise provided, an annual licensing fee shall become due and payable on the first (1st) day of the fiscal year and shall become delinquent thirty (30) days thereafter.
B. 
Licensing fees shall be prorated for the portion of the year to which they are applicable.
[CC 1997 §27-7]
A. 
Every person or organizational entity defined to be a merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation by the provisions of this Code shall, before doing or offering to do business as such, procure from the City Clerk a license under the provisions of this Code; and if such person or entity shall do any business or manufacturing or make any sales as a merchant, manufacturer or business or occupation without first complying with the provisions of this Section or shall otherwise violate or fail to comply with any of the provisions of this Code, he/she shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, be fined as provided in Section 100.220. Every day such person shall continue in business, after demand for payment of the proper license is made by said Clerk, shall constitute a separate offense.
1. 
Agent liability. Any manager, corporation officer, partner or agent who conducts the business of a merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation without having procured a license and upon conviction of violating this Section, such manager, corporation officer, partner or agent shall be fined as provided in Section 100.220.
2. 
Employee liability. After notice by the Clerk to any employee of a merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation that his/her principal has not procured a license to engage in such business, it shall be unlawful for such employee to continue to assist in the conduct of the business of such merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation and upon conviction of violating this Section, such employee shall be fined as provided in Section 100.220.
3. 
Delay in payment. All license fees provided in this Chapter or elsewhere in this Code, by ordinance, shall be deemed delinquent if not paid by the delinquency date and any merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation so delinquent shall be required to pay to the City Clerk an additional ten percent (10%) of the amount due for the first (1st) month of the delinquency and one percent (1%) for each month or part thereof that the delinquency shall thereafter continue, in addition to any other penalty prescribed therein.
4. 
False statements causing reduction in payments. Any merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation which shall make a false statement, which shall cause a reduction in any license fee, shall be required to pay to the City Clerk the additional amount due, plus a penalty of twenty-five percent (25%) of such additional amount, plus one percent (1%) interest per month or fraction thereof of such additional amount from the date originally due and be fined as provided in Section 100.220.
5. 
Revocation. Any failure to comply with or any violation of any provision of this Chapter by any licensed merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation shall be cause for revocation of such license by the Board of Aldermen upon recommendation of the City Administrator and the revocation shall be in addition to any of the penalties prescribed herein.
[CC 1997 §27-8]
License renewals shall be issued in the same manner and be subject to the same conditions as the original licenses with the exception that the application is to be one for renewal and need only state information that has changed in the preceding year.
[CC 1997 §27-9]
No license shall be assignable or transferable.
[CC 1997 §27-10]
A separate license shall be obtained for each stand, store or place of business conducted, operated or maintained by every merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation for which a license is required. The City Clerk should be notified of any change of address within seven (7) days after such change.
[CC 1997 §27-11]
The City Clerk shall prescribe the form of all licenses and applications and shall receive the applications and issue the licenses; however, except as otherwise provided by ordinance or this Code, no license shall be valid for any purpose unless signed by the City Clerk and the Mayor or other designated administrative officer of the City.
[CC 1997 §27-12]
The City Clerk shall keep a complete record of all licenses issued showing the nature of the license, its date of issuance, to whom issued and the address for which issued.
[CC 1997 §27-13]
All licenses granted by the City shall be carefully preserved at the address for which issued as shown thereon and be available for examination during normal business hours by any duly authorized agent of the City.
[CC 1997 §27-14]
The City Clerk, or any deputy or agent or certified public accountant employed by him/her, shall have the right at all reasonable times during regular business hours to audit or examine the books and records of the applicant for any license for the purpose of determining the truthfulness and accuracy of the statements made by the applicant in his/her application for license or in the payment of his/her license fee.
[CC 1997 §27-15]
No license or permit shall be issued to any merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation so long as the merchant, manufacturer, business or occupation shall have failed to pay any other obligation then due and owing to the City.
[CC 1997 §27-16; Ord. No. 435 §§2 — 17]
The City reserves the right to terminate a license upon recommendation by the City Administrator for good cause and for the benefit of the public. In such cases, any license fee paid will be returned on a prorated basis unless termination is for false statements or fraud on the part of the licensee.