This article shall be known as the "Business Privilege and Mercantile
Tax Ordinance."
The following words and phrases, when used in the article, shall
have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the
context clearly indicates a different meaning:
BOROUGH
The Borough of Sharon Hill.
BUSINESS
Any activity carried on or exercised for gain or profit in
the Borough of Sharon Hill, including the sale of merchandise or other
tangible personalty or the performance of services and the rental
of personalty and/or realty, including but not limited to all business,
trades, occupations and professions in which there is offered any
service or services to the general public of a limited number thereof,
including, without limitation, those enterprises engaged in by hotel
operators, motel operators, apartment and rooming house operators,
parking lot and garage operators, warehouse operators, social workers,
consultants, teachers, nurses, health services, therapists, physicians
and surgeons, osteopaths, podiatrists, chiropractors, veterinarians,
optometrists, pharmacists, lawyers, dentists, engineers, architects,
chemists, certified public accountants, public accountants, funeral
directors, promoters, factors, commission merchants, agents, brokers,
manufacturers' representatives, advertising and public relations agencies,
real estate brokers, insurance brokers and agents, cable television
operators, operators of places of amusement providing either passive
or active recreation, vending machine operators, barbershop operators
and beauty shop operators, cleaning, pressing and dyeing establishment
operators, laundry operators, shoe repair shop operators, tailors,
upholsterers, electrical, plastering, bricklaying, carpentry, heat,
ventilating, plumbing and painting contractors engaged in the class
of heavy building or other construction of any kind or in the alteration,
maintenance or repair thereof, repairers of electrical, electronic
and automotive machinery and equipment or other machinery and equipment
and other wares and merchandise, renters or lessors of equipment,
property or real estate and other businesses, trades, occupations
and professions in which there is offered any service or services
to the general public or a limited number thereof.
ESTIMATED RETURN
A tax return to be filed on or before April 15 of the tax
year and based upon the estimated gross receipts of business.
FINAL RETURN
A tax return to be filed on or before April 15 of the year
following the tax year and based upon the actual gross receipts of
business for the tax year.
GROSS RECEIPTS
In general, the "gross receipts" upon which the tax is imposed
is the value of all cash, credits or property received by a person
which is attributable to the carrying on of business in the Borough,
undiminished by any costs of doing business, including the sale of
merchandise at either wholesale or retail and services, labor and
materials entered into or becoming component parts of the services
performed within the Borough. A "receipt" generally will be considered
attributable to the Borough if any part of the transaction or service
giving rise to the receipt takes place within the Borough or is directed
in any part from an office or place of business within the Borough.
The broad reach of this general rule is limited in certain situations
by state and federal law.
LICENSE YEAR
The period from January 1 to December 31, inclusive.
PERSON
Any individual, partnership, limited partnership, association,
firm or corporation. Whenever used in any clause prescribing or imposing
a penalty, the term "person," as applied to associations, shall mean
the partners or members thereof, and as applied to corporations, the
officers thereof.
RETAIL DEALER
Retail vendors of or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise;
that is, those vendors or dealers who are not wholesale vendors or
dealers.
TAXPAYER
A person subject to the payment of the tax imposed by this
article.
TAX YEAR
The period from January 1 to December 31, inclusive.
TREASURER
The Treasurer of the Borough of Sharon Hill.
There is hereby levied for the tax year 1986 and annually thereafter
a tax for general revenue purposes on the privilege of doing business
as herein defined in the Borough of Sharon Hill as follows:
A. Imposition of tax. Effective for the tax year beginning January 1,
2015, and each year thereafter, the rate for the business privilege
tax shall be as follows: 1) one mill on each and every dollar of the
whole or gross volume of business transacted within the territorial
limits of the Borough of Sharon Hill; 2) 1/2 mill on each and every
dollar of the whole or gross volume of business transacted by wholesale
dealers or vendors within the territorial limits of the Borough of
Sharon Hill; 3) one mill on
all non-wholesale whole or gross business of such wholesale dealers
or vendors within the territorial limits of the Borough of Sharon
Hill. In no event shall this article be construed to require that
any taxpayer pay to the Borough of Sharon Hill a tax pursuant to the
Business Privilege Tax Ordinance that is in excess of the amount of
$75,000 annually.
[Amended 8-28-2014 by Ord. No. 1373]
B. Computation of volume of business.
(1) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced his business prior to the full calendar year prior to
the tax year shall compute his annual estimated gross volume of business
upon the actual gross amount of business transacted by him during
said immediately preceding calendar year. (As example, for the tax
year 1986, if a person is in business as of January 1, 1985, and continues
to be in business for the full calendar year, then the figures for
1985 shall be the basis for the computation for his annual estimated
gross volume of business.)
(2) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced or who commences his business before the beginning of
the tax year but after the beginning of the full calendar year prior
to the tax year shall compute his estimated annual gross volume of
business for the tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted
by him during the prior calendar year, taking the monthly average
during said period and multiplying the same by 12. In the event that
he shall be in business fewer than 90 days in the prior calendar year,
he shall be permitted to use sufficient days in the calendar year
in which the tax year begins to equal 90 successive days after the
commencement of his business, to take a monthly average thereon, and
to multiply the average by 12.
(3) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced or commences his business subsequent to the beginning
of the tax year, if there shall be less than three months from the
commencement of his business to the end of the tax year, shall compute
his annual gross volume of business upon the actual gross amount of
business transacted by him during the tax year; if there shall be
more than three months from the commencement of his business to the
end of the tax year, he shall compute his estimated gross volume of
business for such tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted
by him during the period from the commencement of his business to
the end of the tax year, taking the monthly average during the first
three months of business and multiplying the same by the number of
months from the commencement of business to the end of the tax year.
(4) Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
engages in a business temporary, seasonal or itinerant by nature shall
compute his estimated gross amount of business to be transacted by
him for the period said person engages in such temporary, seasonal
or itinerant business within the Borough by a method to be determined
by the Tax Administrator.
(5) The Tax Administrator is hereby authorized to accept payment under
protest of the amount of business privilege tax claimed by the Borough
in any case where the taxpayer disputes the validity or amount of
the Borough's claim for 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. The
provisions of this section shall be applicable to cases in which the
facts are similar to those in a case litigated in a court of competent
jurisdiction.
C. Persons, businesses and receipts exempted.
(1) Persons and businesspersons employed for a wage or salary, nonprofit
corporations or associations organized for religious, charitable or
educational purposes, agencies of the Government of the United States
or of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the business of any political
subdivision or of any authority created or organized under and pursuant
to any act of assembly are exempt from the provisions of this article.
(2) No such tax shall be assessed and collected on a privilege, transaction,
subject or occupation which has been held by the courts of Pennsylvania
to be the basis for the exemption from the imposition of a privilege
tax by a municipality.
(3) Utilities. No such tax shall be assessed and collected on the gross
receipts from utility service of any person or company whose rates
of service are fixed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission or on any public utility service rendered by any such person
or company or on any privilege or transaction involving the rendering
of any such public utility service.
(4) State tax on tangible property. No such tax shall be assessed and
collected on the privilege of employing such tangible property as
is subject to a state tax except on sales of admission to places of
amusement or on sales or other transfers of title or possession of
property.
D. Determination of gross or whole volume of business. The gross or
whole volume of business upon which the tax hereunder is computed
shall include the gross consideration credited or received for or
on account of sales made, rentals and/or services rendered, subject
only to the following allowable deductions and exemptions:
(1) 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 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.
(2) Refunds, credits or allowances given by a taxpayer to a purchaser
on account of defects in goods, wares or merchandise sold or on account
of goods, wares or merchandise returned.
(3) Any commissions paid by a broker to another broker on account of
a purchase or sales contract initiated, executed or cleared with such
other broker.
(4) Bad debts where the deduction is also taken in the same year for
federal income taxation purposes.
(5) Taxes collected as agent for the United States of America, Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania or the Borough of Sharon Hill.
E. Partial exemptions. Where the gross or whole volume of business in
its entirety cannot be subjected to the tax imposed by this article
by reason of the provision of law, the Tax Administrator, with the
approval of the Borough Council of the Borough of Sharon Hill, shall
establish rules and regulations and methods of allocation and evaluation
so that only the part of the gross or whole volume of business which
is properly attributable and allowable to doing business in the Borough
of Sharon Hill shall be taxed hereunder.
F. Records. The taxpayer, to obtain the foregoing enumerated exclusions
and deductions, shall keep books and records of his business so as
to show clearly, accurately and separately the amount of such sales
and services as are excluded from the tax and the amounts of such
sales and services which he is entitled to deduct from the gross volume
of business as hereinbefore provided.
Any information gained by the Tax Administrator or any other
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.
This article is enacted pursuant to the authority of the Local
Tax Enabling Act, 1965, December 31, Pamphlet Law 1257, as amended, and shall become effective January 1, 1992, and shall
continue thereafter unless amended or repealed.