[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council
of the City of Crisfield as indicated in article histories. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Inventory and related taxes — See Ch. 11.
[Adopted 5-12-1987 by Ord. No. 420[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also cited § 14-702
of the Tax-Property Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland as its
authority and provided that it shall be effective January 1, 1988,
on all taxes in default on January 1, 1988.
Taxes levied pursuant to §§ C6-13 et seq. of the Charter which are in default on the first day of January after they are first due and payable shall bear a penalty at the rate of 1% per month for every month or fraction of a month the payment shall remain in default, which penalty shall be collected and paid at the same time and in the same manner as the taxes and accrued interest.
[Adopted 5-25-2016 by Ord. No. 660]
The following words and phrases when used in this article shall
have the following meanings:
The City Clerk or his or her designee.
Any public or private hotel, inn, hostelry, tourist home
or house, motel, cottage, apartment, rooming house or other lodging
place within the municipal limits of the City of Crisfield that, for
compensation, offers 10 or more sleeping rooms which furnish sleeping
accommodations to any transient as defined in the definition of "transient"
in this section.
The total charge made by any hotel for sleeping accommodations
or space furnished to any transient for a period not exceeding four
consecutive months. Room rental does not include any hotel charge
for services or for accommodations other than sleeping accommodations.
If the charge made by a hotel includes any charge for services or
accommodations in addition to a room rental charge for the use of
sleeping space, then the portion of the total charge that represents
only room rental shall be distinctly set out and billed by the hotel
as a separate item. In the absence of any separate billing or identification,
all charges shall be presumed to be a room rental charge for the use
of sleeping accommodations.
Any person who pays room rental for occupancy of sleeping
accommodations in a hotel.
A.
There is levied and imposed on each and every transient a hotel rental tax at the rate of 2% of the total amount paid for room rental to any hotel, by or for a transient, for sleeping accommodations, except as provided in § 100-5.
B.
Every hotel that receives any payment for room rental with respect
to which a hotel rental tax is levied under this article shall collect
the amount of such hotel rental tax when payment for the room rental
is made. The hotel rental tax required to be collected by a hotel
under this article shall be deemed to be held in trust by the hotel
required to collect the hotel rental tax until remitted to the City
as required by this article.
C.
Whenever a hotel that is required to collect and pay to the City
a hotel rental tax under this article ceases doing business, or otherwise
disposes of its business, any hotel rental tax payable under this
article to the City shall become immediately due and payable, and
the hotel shall immediately make a report to the City Clerk and pay
the hotel rental tax due.
A.
The City shall administer the hotel rental tax imposed under this article to provide for the orderly, systematic and thorough administration of the hotel rental tax and, subject to the provisions of Subsections B and C of this section, may adopt regulations that are consistent with this article and conform to the applicable provisions and regulations for the sales and use tax under Title 11 of the Tax-General Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
B.
A hotel that collects a hotel rental tax imposed under this article
shall submit a report upon the forms, and set forth the information
as the City Clerk may prescribe and require, showing the amount of
room rental charges collected, and the hotel rental tax required to
be collected, and shall sign and deliver the report to the City Clerk
with a remittance of the hotel rental tax. The reports and remittances
shall be made on or before the last day of each calendar month and
shall cover the amount of hotel rental tax collected during the preceding
calendar month.
C.
It shall be the duty of each and every hotel liable for the collection
and payment to the City of any hotel rental tax imposed by this article
to keep and preserve, for a period of three years, such records as
may be necessary to determine the amount of the hotel rental tax the
hotel was liable to collect and pay to the City. The City Clerk may
inspect any such records at all reasonable times.
No hotel rental tax shall be payable under this article on a
room rental:
A.
In any hospital, medical clinic, nursing home, rest home, convalescent
home, or home for aged persons.
B.
From a private nonprofit educational organization that:
(1)
Is not organized or operated for the purpose of carrying on or promoting
a trade, business, or religious philosophy; but
(2)
Principally houses groups of young people exclusively for the purpose
of developing leadership and citizenship skills and promotion of the
general public welfare; or
(3)
From a nonprofit charitable, religious, educational, recreational
or literary organization, other than a country club, when the primary
use of the facility is other than housing overnight guests.
A.
If a hotel does not remit to the City Clerk the hotel rental tax
required to be collected and paid under this article, or does not
make a proper report to the City Clerk within the time and in the
amount specified by this article, the City Clerk shall add interest
of 1%, per month, on the amount of the unpaid hotel rental tax for
each month or portion of a month from the date upon which the hotel
rental tax is due and until the hotel rental tax, including all interest
and penalties incurred thereon, is paid in full to the City.
B.
If a hotel does not remit to the City Clerk the hotel rental tax
required to be collected and paid under this article, or does not
make a proper report to the City Clerk within the time and in the
amount specified by this article, within one month after such payment
or report is due, the City Clerk shall add a penalty of 5% of the
unpaid hotel rental tax for each and every month or portion of a month
the hotel rental tax remains unpaid, or the proper report to the City
Clerk is not made; provided, however, that any such penalty imposed
under this subsection shall not exceed 25% of the hotel rental tax
due by the hotel under this article.
C.
If a hotel fails or refuses to collect the hotel rental tax within
the time required by this article, or if a hotel fails or refuses
to make any report or remittance required by this article, the City
Clerk shall proceed in a manner as he or she may deem best to obtain
the facts and information on which to base his or her estimate of
the hotel rental tax due under this article, including, but not limited
to, the historical occupancy rates of the hotel. As soon as the City
Clerk obtains the facts and information to base the assessment of
any hotel rental tax payable by a hotel that has failed or refused
to collect the same, or has failed or refused to make the report and
remittance required by this article, the City Clerk shall determine
and assess against the hotel the amount of the hotel rental tax, interest
and penalties due under this article, and the City Clerk shall notify
the hotel, by mail sent to its principal place of business or its
last known address if no longer in business, of the total amount of
the hotel rental tax, interest and penalties due to the City and that
such total amount shall be payable within 10 days from the date of
the notice.
D.
Any violation of this article shall constitute a municipal infraction and shall be enforceable pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 10 of this Code. Each and every violation of this article shall constitute a separate offense. A conviction of a municipal infraction under this article shall not relieve any hotel or transient from the payment, collection or remittance of the hotel rental tax, interest and penalties due under this article.
E.
In addition to any other enforcement or penalties, the City may institute
injunctive, mandamus or any other appropriate civil proceeding to
enforce the provisions of this article or to abate any violation of
the provisions of this article.
F.
Hotel rental taxes levied under this article, until remitted to the
City, are a lien against all real and personal property of the hotel
liable for the collection of the hotel rental tax imposed by this
article. The hotel rental tax imposed by this article is collectible
in the same manner, and bears the same rights and priorities as the
City property tax under the Tax-Property Article of the Annotated
Code of Maryland.
The City shall distribute the hotel rental tax collected by
the City under this article to the general fund of the City.
