Unless the provision or context otherwise require, the following definitions contained in this Article shall govern the construction of this Chapter.
Number of employees shall mean and include the total number of full time and part time employees engaged or to be engaged within this City in the applicant's business during the license period, whether as owner, partner, spouse or employee and any others who may work without charge. The Finance Director may require the applicant to submit information concerning the number of employees engaged in applicant's business including but not limited to a copy of the relevant sections of the State Employment Development Department Quarterly Report (DE-3) form(s) as verification of the number of employees when this information is used to calculate a business license fee as specified in Article 5 of this Chapter.
Business shall mean any profession, trade, occupation or activity conducted, including but not limited to regular delivery of goods within the City, having a fixed place of business located in the City, taking orders from clients located within the City, manufacture of products within the City, or processing orders within the City for sale elsewhere, whether or not carried on for profit, except as defined in Section 2-2-720.
Business classification shall mean the following general business categories:
(a)
Automobile Wrecking. Any person engaged in the business of buying or trading used or wrecked motor vehicles and reselling the parts thereof or the building of motor vehicles from the salvaged parts of such motor vehicles.
(b)
Bingo shall mean a game of chance in which prizes are awarded on the basis of designated numbers or symbols on a card which conform to numbers or symbols selected at random.
(c)
Carnival. Any person engaged in the business of operating a carnival, circus or other itinerant amusement concession, excluding an activity for which a permit has been obtained pursuant to the Zoning Code of the City of San Leandro and which is:
(1)
An incidental part of an overall business promotional activity conducted by an organized group of merchants licensed to do business within the City.
(2)
Carried on, by, or on behalf of a civic, religious, cultural, benevolent or similar nonprofit organization with a minimum of 40% of the gross receipts of such activity to be received by such organization.
(3)
A neighborhood carnival, exhibit, celebration or festival sponsored by an organized group of residents in the vicinity, provided that no mechanical rides are a part of such activity.
(4)
A booth for charitable, welfare or patriotic purposes.
(d)
Christmas Tree and Pumpkin Sales. Christmas tree and pumpkin sales shall mean the selling of Christmas trees and pumpkins at retail, excluding such sales by a licensee from a permanently established licensed place of business within the City.
(e)
Coin-Operated Device. Coin-operated device shall mean laundry machine, video game machine, pinball machine, juke box, vending machine or other similar coin-operated electrical or mechanical device.
(f)
Commercial Advertising. Commercial advertising shall mean the distribution of commercial advertising material, excluding distribution of such material advertising a permanently established licensed business within the City by the owner or employees of such business.
(g)
Contractors. Any person who is licensed as a contractor by the State of California and who undertakes or offers to undertake or submits a bid to construct, alter, repair, improve, move, wreck or demolish any building, highway, excavation or other structure, project, development or improvement, or to do any part thereof. The term contractor includes subcontractor and specialty contractor.
(h)
Dance Hall shall mean any establishment where dancing is permitted with or without charge, whether or not in conjunction with any other business.
(i)
Firearms Dealer shall mean a person whose business substantially consists of the selling, transferring, or leasing, or advertising for sale, transfer, or lease, or offering or exposing for sale, transfer, or lease, any firearm capable of being concealed upon the person as defined by the Penal Code of the State of California.
(j)
Fortunetelling. Any person engaged in the business of telling fortunes, forecasting futures or furnishing any information not otherwise obtainable by the ordinary process of knowledge.
(k)
Itinerant Merchant. Any person engaged in the temporary business of exhibiting, selling and delivering goods, wares or merchandise and who for the purpose of carrying on such business hires, leases, uses or occupies any building, room, motor vehicle, tent or other place within the City.
(l)
Second Hand Dealer. Any person engaged in the business of buying, selling, exchanging, trading, accepting for sale or consignment, secondhand personal property of whatever kind or description.
(m)
Manufacturing. Any person conducting, managing or carrying on a business consisting mainly of manufacturing any goods, wares, merchandise or produce.
(n)
Miscellaneous. Any person engaged in a business not specifically defined by other provisions of this Chapter and not otherwise exempt.
(o)
Parking Lot means and includes, but is not limited to:
(1)
Any outdoor space or uncovered plot, place, lot, parcel, yard or enclosure, or any portion thereof, where motor vehicles may be parked, stored housed or kept, for which any charge is made;
(2)
Any building or structure, or any portion thereof, in which motor vehicles may be parked, stored, housed or kept, for which a charge is made.
(p)
Pawnbroker. Any person engaged in the business of receiving goods in pledge as security for a loan.
(q)
Peddler. Any person conveying or transporting goods, wares, merchandise, or provisions from place to place, from house to house or from street to street, offering and exposing the same for sale or making sales and delivering articles to purchasers.
(r)
Public Utilities. Any person engaged in the business of providing utility services (whether or not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission) to the general public including, but not limited to, electricity, telephone, gas, cable television services, cellular phone service, and data transmission.
(s)
Professional. Any person engaged in a profession or vocation requiring a period of specialized training such as, but not limited to the following:
Architect
Attorney-at-Law
Certified Public Accountant
Chiropractor
Dentist
Engineer (Chemical, Civil, Electrical, etc.)
Environmental Consultant
Geologist
Optician
Optometrist
Osteopath
Physician
Podiatrist
Psychologist
Public Accountant
Veterinarian
(t)
Recreation and Entertainment. Any person engaged in the business of providing entertainment, recreation or amusement services.
(u)
Nonresidential Property Rental. Any person engaged in the business of renting or letting a building or structure of any kind, including warehouses, mini-storage, industrial, commercial, and office buildings to a tenant for purposes other than dwelling, sleeping or lodging. For the purposes of calculating fees, when combining nonresidential and residential property rentals, all property must be under the same ownership.
(v)
Residential Property Rental. Any person engaged in the business of conducting or operating an apartment house, single-family house rental, duplex, condominium, townhouse, hotel/motel, mobile home park, rooming or boarding house having one or more residential units, excluding for purposes hereof the unit, if any, occupied by the taxpayer. For the purposes of calculating fees, when combining nonresidential and residential property rentals, all property must be under the same ownership.
(w)
Retailing. Any person providing or carrying on a business consisting mainly of selling at retail any goods, including restaurants and establishments where meals or refreshments may be procured.
(x)
Services. Any person providing services, repairs, or improvements to or on real and personal property; renting or leasing personal property to businesses or persons; providing services to persons such as, but not limited to:
Ambulance
Appraiser
Assayer
Bail Bond Broker
Barber and Beauty Shops
Bookkeeping Service
Claims Adjuster
Cleaning and Dyeing
Collection Agency
Commercial Artist
Consultant
Delivery of Goods
Designer or Decorator
Detective or Detective Agency
Draftsman
Employment Agency
Escrow Company
Finance/Loan Company
Gardener
Health Studio
Instruction (Dance, etc.)
Insurance Adjuster/Broker
Investment Advisor
Landscape Designer
Laundries
Locksmith
Manufacturer's Representative
Messenger
Mortician
Notary Public
Outdoor Advertising
Photographer
Photographic Processing
Photographic Studios
Physio-Therapist
Public Stenographer
Real Estate Broker/Agent
Repair Shops (Automobile, Machine, Tools, etc.)
Shoe Repair
Stock/Bond Broker
Surveyor
Tax Counselor
Taxicabs
Taxidermist
Travel Agency
X-Ray Laboratory
(y)
Solicitor. Any person taking or attempting to take orders from place to place, from house to house or from street to street, for sale of goods, wares and merchandise, personal property or services of any nature whatsoever for future delivery.
(z)
Towing. Any person engaged in the business of towing or transporting any motorized or non-motorized vehicle.
(aa)
Warehousing/Storage. Any person or firm engaged in providing and/or operating warehousing facilities primarily used for the storage and/or consolidating of items such as raw materials, private goods, and the intermediary storage of bulk goods intended for further distribution. This classification includes moving and furniture storage companies.
(ab)
Waste Disposal Site. Any person engaged in the business of conducting or operating a landfill, transfer station or collection center for the receipt and processing of household, commercial and industrial solid waste materials.
(ac)
Wholesaling/Distribution—General. Any person or firm primarily engaged in selling merchandise to retailers; to other wholesalers for resale to individual consumers; or to industrial users for their own consumption or resale to individual consumers. This classification includes order-processing fulfillment centers, logistics businesses, and other facilities that provide for the repackaging and/or shipment of an on-site inventory of goods and products directly to retail/wholesale customers or retail stores. This classification also includes truck terminals, whose purpose is to provide for the consolidation, division and/or distribution of bulk goods through the use of large trucks and trailers, including cross-dock trucking uses.
(ad)
Wholesaling/Distribution—Large Local Seller. Any person or firm which meets the parameters of Wholesaling/Distribution—General and contributes more than Fifty thousand dollars in sales tax payable to the City of San Leandro during the prior July 1 through June 30 time period.
Employee charge shall mean a fee, based upon the total number of full time and part time employees, including owners and any others who may work without charge. The number of employees shall not be less than one.
When any person, by the use of advertising mediums, including but not limited to radio, television, signs, circulars, cards, telephone books, facsimile, or newspapers, shall advertise, hold out, or represent that he or she is in business in the City, or when any person holds an active license or permit issued by a governmental agency indicating that he or she is in business in the City, or when any person makes a sale, takes an order, renders a commercial service, or performs any other similar act within the City, whether operating from a fixed location in the City or coming into the City from an outside location to engage in such activity, then such facts shall be considered prima facie evidence that he or she is conducting a business in the City.
(a)
Gross receipts shall include the total of amounts actually received or receivable from all sales and services. Gross receipts shall include the total amount of compensation actually received or receivable for the performance of any act or service, of whatever nature it may be, for which a charge is made or credit allowed, whether or not such act or service is done as part of or in connection with the sale of materials, goods, wares, or merchandise; and gains realized from trading in stocks or bonds, interest income, carrying charges, rents, royalties, fees, commissions, dividends, or other emoluments, however designated.
(b)
Included in "gross receipts" shall be all receipts, cash, credits and property of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, or losses or other expenses whatsoever, except that the following shall be excluded therefrom:
(1)
Cash discounts allowed and taken on sales;
(2)
Such part of the sale price of property returned by purchases upon rescission of the contract of sale as is refunded in either cash or by credit;
(3)
Amounts received or receivable by persons for goods produced or acts or services performed outside the City, but only to the extent a business license fee has been paid to the City or County where the goods were produced or acts or services were performed;
(4)
Any fee required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;
(5)
Receipts of refundable deposits, except that refundable deposits forfeited and taken into the income of the business shall not be excluded;
(6)
As to a real estate agent or broker, the sales price of real estate sold for the account of others, except that portion which represents commission or other income to the agent or broker;
(7)
Cash value of sales, trades or transactions between departments or units of the same business, commonly called interdepartmental transfers;
(8)
That portion of the receipts of a general contractor which represents payments to subcontractors; provided the general contractor furnishes the Finance Director with the names and addresses of the subcontractors and the amounts paid each subcontractor. All subcontractors shall be required to be licensed under this title.
(9)
Anything which the City may not lawfully include by virtue of the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the State of California.
(10)
The amount paid for wages, benefits and payroll taxes for employees of an employment agency providing full or part-time employees to another business or firm and being responsible for the wages, benefits and payroll taxes.
(11)
For retail sales of motor vehicles (including trucks and industrial or construction vehicles) the value of the motor vehicle taken in trade for the sale of a new or used motor vehicle, or an amount equal to 33% of the total gross receipts of such retail motor vehicle sale whichever is less.
(c)
The Finance Director may demand proof of gross receipts and require such applicant to submit a copy of the State Sales and Use Tax Returns or other formal documentation relative to such business. As specifically provided in Article 5 of this Chapter, when gross receipts are used as a business license unit fee measure, the appropriate number will be ascertained as follows:
(1)
If an application is for an original license, the applicant shall estimate the gross receipts attributable to the business activities to be conducted within the City to be received during the license period, which estimate shall be used in determining the appropriate fee to be levied.
(2)
If an application is for a renewal, but the prior year was not a full 12 months, the renewal will be calculated on the average month (gross receipts multiplied by 12).
(3)
If an application is for a renewal, the applicant shall report the gross receipts directly attributable to the business activities conducted within the City received during the previous license period, which figure shall be used in determining the appropriate fee to be levied.
Person shall mean any individual, agent, association, group, partnership, representative, firm, corporation or any agent or representative thereof.
Space shall mean each location in a mobile home park that is rented or intended to be rented.
For persons or firms within the nonresidential property rental classification, square feet shall mean all of the space within the exterior walls of the building regardless of use that is rented or intended to be rented. For persons or firms within the warehousing/storage or wholesaling/distribution classifications, square feet shall mean all of the space within the exterior walls of the building leased or owned by the business regardless of use as substantiated by a lease document, floor plan/blueprint, or other form of documentation approved by the Director of Finance. No business shall be deemed to be less than one unit fee.
Unit shall mean each residential dwelling that is rented or intended to be rented. No business shall be deemed to be less than one unit fee.