This chapter shall be known as the "Lake Forest Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax."
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Except where the context otherwise requires, the definitions given in this section govern the construction of this chapter.
means any structure or any portion of any structure, which is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, and includes, but is not limited to, any hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, studio hotel, bachelor hotel, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or other similar structure or portion thereof, duplex, triplex, single-family dwelling units except any private dwelling house or other individually owned single-family dwelling rented only infrequently and incidental to normal occupancy or any timeshare as set out in California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7280; provided, that the burden of establishing that the facility is not a hotel shall be on the owner or operator thereof.
means the use or possession or the right to the use or possession of any room or rooms or portion thereof, offered for rent for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes.
means the person who is proprietor of the hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee or any other capacity. Where the operator performs his or her functions through a managing agent of any type or character other than an employee, the managing agent also is an operator for the purposes of this chapter and has the same duties and liabilities as his or her principal. Compliance with the provisions of this chapter by either the principal or the managing agent is, however, considered to be compliance by both.
means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, social club, fraternal organization, joint stock company, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver trustee, syndicate or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
means the consideration charged, whether or not received, for the occupancy of space in a hotel valued in money, whether received in money, goods, labor or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits and property, and services of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom whatsoever.
means the City Manager or his or her designee.
means any person who occupies or is entitled to occupy by reason of concession, permit, right of access, license or other agreement for a period of 30 consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days. Any such person so occupying space in a hotel is a transient until the period of 30 days has expired. Occupants remaining in a hotel after the expiration of the 30 days are required to re-register and the 30 day time period shall start anew. In determining whether a person is a transient, an uninterrupted period of time extending both prior and subsequent to the effective date of this chapter may be considered.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
For the privilege of occupancy in any hotel, each transient is subject to and shall pay a tax in the amount of 10% of the rent actually charged or customarily charged by the operator for the rooms and/or facilities occupied by the transient. This tax constitutes a debt owed by the transient to the City which is extinguished only by payment to the operator of the hotel at the time the rent is paid. The unpaid tax is due upon the transient's ceasing to occupy space in the hotel. If, for any reason, the tax due is not paid to the operator of the hotel, the Tax Administrator may require that such tax be paid directly to the Tax Administrator.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
A.
No tax shall be imposed upon:
1.
Any person as to whom, or any occupancy as to which, it is beyond the power of the City to impose the tax herein provided;
2.
Any Federal or State officer or employee when on official business;
3.
Any officer or employee of a foreign government who is exempt by reason of express provision of Federal law or international treaty.
B.
No exemption is granted except upon a claim therefor made at the time rent is collected and under penalty of perjury upon a form prescribed by the Tax Administrator.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Each operator shall collect the tax imposed by this chapter to the same extent and at the same time as the rent is collected from every transient. The amount of tax shall be separately stated from the amount of the rent charged, and each transient shall receive a receipt for payment from the operator. No operator of a hotel shall advertise or state in any manner, whether directly or indirectly, that the tax or any part thereof will be assumed or absorbed by the operator or that it will not be added to the rent or that, if added, any part will be refunded except in the manner hereinafter provided.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Within 30 days after commencing business, each operator of any hotel renting to transients must register the hotel with the Tax Administrator.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Each operator shall, not later than 20 days after the last day of each month, file a return with the Tax Administrator, on forms provided by the Tax Administrator, of the total rents charged and received and the amount of tax collected for transient occupancies during the preceding month. At the time the return is filed, the full amount of the tax collected shall be remitted to the Tax Administrator. Any return and/or tax not received by the Tax Administrator by the twentieth (20th) day after the last day of the month to which such return relates or during which such tax was collected, shall be deemed delinquent pursuant to Section 3.25.080 of this chapter. The Tax Administrator may establish shorter reporting periods for any certificate holder if it is deemed necessary to ensure collection of the tax, and may require further information in the return. Returns and payments are due immediately upon cessation of business for any reason. All taxes collected by operators pursuant to this chapter are held in trust for the account of the City until payment thereof is made to the Tax Administrator.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
A.
Original Delinquency. Any operator who fails to remit any tax imposed by this chapter within the time required shall pay a penalty of 10% of the amount of the tax in addition to the amount of the tax.
B.
Continued Delinquency. For each subsequent 30 day period following the date on which an operator's remittance first becomes delinquent the operator shall pay a delinquency penalty of 10% of the amount of the tax in addition to the amount of the tax and the 10% penalty first imposed, up to a maximum of 50%.
D.
Interest. In addition to the penalties imposed, any operator who fails to remit any tax imposed by this chapter shall pay interest at the rate of 1% per month or fraction thereof on the amount of the tax, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the remittance first became delinquent until paid.
E.
Penalties Merged With Tax. Every penalty imposed and such interest as accrues under the provisions of this section shall become a part of the tax herein required to be paid.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
If any operator fails or refuses to collect the tax and to make, within the time provided in this chapter, any report and remittance of the tax or any portion thereof required by this chapter, the Tax Administrator shall proceed in such manner as he or she deems best to obtain facts and information on which to base an estimate of the tax due. As soon as the Tax Administrator procures such facts and information as he or she is able to obtain upon which to base the assessment of any tax imposed by this chapter and payable by any operator who has failed or refused to collect the same and to make such report and remittance, the Tax Administrator shall proceed to determine and assess against such operator the tax, interest and penalties provided for by this chapter. In case such determination is made, the Tax Administrator shall give a notice of the amount so assessed by serving it personally or by depositing it in the United States mail, postage prepaid, addressed to the operator so assessed at his/her last known place of business. Such operator may within 10 days after the serving or mailing of such notice make application in writing to the Tax Administrator for a hearing on the amount assessed. If application by the operator for a hearing is not made within the time prescribed, the tax, interest and penalties, if any, determined by the Tax Administrator shall become final and conclusive and immediately due and payable. If such application is made, the Tax Administrator shall give not less than five days' written notice in the manner prescribed herein to the operator to show cause at a time and place fixed in the notice why the amount specified therein should not be fixed for such tax, interest and penalties. At such hearing, the operator may appear and offer evidence why such specified tax, interest and penalties should not be so fixed.
After such hearing, the Tax Administrator shall determine the proper tax to be remitted and thereafter give written notice to the person in the manner prescribed herein of such determination and the amount of such tax, interest and penalties. The amount determined to be due shall be payable after 15 days unless an appeal is taken as provided in Section 3.25.100 of this chapter.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Should the Tax Administrator be required to perform an audit of the records of any operator pursuant to Section 3.25.090 of this chapter to determine the proper amount of any tax owed pursuant to this chapter, the entire cost of said audit shall be assessed against the operator. In the event that the books and/or records required to perform an audit are not made available within the City, the assessment shall include the cost of transportation, lodging, meals and portal-to-portal travel time. Said assessment shall be due and payable not more than 30 days after written notice of said assessment is sent, by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the operator. Should the operator fail to pay said assessment within the 30 day time limit, said assessment shall constitute a lien against the property for which the audit was performed. After confirmation of said assessment lien by the City Council, the City Assessor and Tax Collector shall be notified, and shall add the amount of the assessment lien to the next regular tax bill levied against said property for municipal purposes.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Any operator aggrieved by any decision of the Tax Administrator with respect to the amount of such tax, interest and penalties, if any, may appeal the decision in accordance with the procedures set forth in of Chapter 1.12 of this Code. Any amount found to be due is immediately due and payable upon the service of notice.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007; Ord. 167 § 3, 2007)
It is the duty of every operator liable for the collection and payment to the City of any tax imposed by this chapter to keep and preserve, for a period of three years, all records as may be necessary to determine the amount of such tax for which said operator may be or may have been liable. The Tax Administrator shall have the right to inspect all such records at all reasonable times.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
A.
Whenever the amount of any tax, interest or penalty has been overpaid or paid more than once or has been erroneously or illegally collected or received by the City under this chapter it may be refunded as provided in subsections B and C of this section provided a claim in writing therefor, stating under penalty of perjury the specific grounds upon which the claim is founded, is filed with the Tax Administrator within three years of the date of payment. The claim shall be on forms furnished by the Tax Administrator.
B.
An operator may claim a refund or take as credit against taxes collected and remitted the amount overpaid, paid more than once or erroneously or illegally collected or received when it is established in a manner prescribed by the Tax Administrator that the person from whom the tax has been collected was not a transient; provided, however, that neither a refund nor a credit is allowed unless the amount of the tax so collected has either been refunded to the transient or credited to rent subsequently payable by the transient to the operator.
C.
A transient may obtain a refund of taxes overpaid or paid more than once or erroneously or illegally collected or received by the City by filing a claim in the manner provided in subsection A of this section, but only when the tax was paid by the transient directly to the Tax Administrator or when the transient, having paid the tax to the operator, establishes to the satisfaction of the Tax Administrator that the transient has been unable to obtain a refund from the operator who collected the tax.
D.
No refund shall be paid under the provisions of this section unless the claimant establishes his/her right thereto by written records showing entitlement thereto.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Any tax required to be paid by any transient under the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a debt owed by the transient to the City. Any such tax collected by an operator which has not been paid to the City shall be deemed a debt owed by the operator to the City. Any person owing money to the City under the provisions of this chapter is liable to an action brought in the name of the City for the recovery of such amount.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)
Any operator or other person who fails or refuses to register as required herein or to furnish any return required to be made or who fails or refuses to furnish a supplemental return or other data required by the Tax Administrator or who renders a false or fraudulent return or claim, is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to punishment in accordance with Section 1.01.200 et seq. of this Code. Any person required to make, render, sign or verify any report or claim who makes any false or fraudulent report or claim with intent to defeat or evade the determination of any amount due required by this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to punishment in accordance with Section 1.01.200 et seq. of this Code.
(Ord. 165 § 1, 2007)