[Adopted 10-3-1988]
For the purposes of this article, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to
them by this section:
Buchanan County, Virginia.
Any public or private hotel, inn, apartment hotel, hostelry,
tourist home or house, motel, rooming house, boarding house, travel
campground or other lodging place within the county and the owner
and operator thereof, who, for compensation, furnishes lodging to
any transients as hereinafter defined.
[Amended 4-7-1997]
Individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, corporation,
persons acting in representative capacity and combinations of individuals
of whatever form and character.
The total charge made by any such hotel for lodging and/or
space furnished any such transient. If the charge made by such hotel
to such transient includes any charge for services or accommodations
in addition to that of lodging and/or the use of space, then such
portion of the total charge as represents only room and/or space rental
shall be distinctly set out and billed to such transient by such hotel
as a separate item.
Any person who, for any period of not more than 29 consecutive
days, either at his own expense or at the expense of another, obtains
lodging or the use of any space in any hotel as hereinabove defined
for which lodging or use of space a charge is made.
The Treasurer of Buchanan County, Virginia, or any of his
duly authorized deputies or agents.
In addition to all other takes of every kind
now or hereafter imposed by law, there is hereby imposed and levied,
beginning on the first day of November 1988, on each and every transient,
a tax equivalent to 2% of the total amount paid for room rental by
or for any such transient to any hotel.
[Amended 4-7-1997]
No tax shall be payable hereunder on room rental
paid to any hospital, medical clinic, convalescent home, foster care
home or facility or home for the aged.
Every person receiving any payment for room
rental with respect to which a tax is levied under this article shall
collect the amount of tax hereby imposed from the transient on whom
the same is levied or from the person paying for such room rental
at the time payment for such room rental is made. The taxes required
to be collected under this article shall be deemed to be held in trust
by the person required to collect such taxes until remitted as required
in this article.
A.
The person collecting any such tax shall make out
a report upon such forms and setting forth such information as the
Treasurer may prescribe and require, showing the amount of room rental
charges collected and the tax required to be collected, and shall
sign and deliver the same to the Treasurer with a remittance of such
tax.
B.
Such reports and remittances shall be made on or before
the last day of the month following each quarter and covering the
amount of tax collected during the preceding quarter, the first report
and remittance hereunder being due on or before January 31, 1989,
covering the amount of tax collected during November and December
1988. Such quarterly reports and remittances shall be made on or before
the last day of April, July, October and January in each year. If
the remittance is by check or money order, it shall be payable to
the county, and all remittances received hereunder by the Treasurer
shall be promptly paid into the county general fund. Any person operating
a hotel may make reports and remittances on a monthly basis in lieu
of the quarterly basis hereinbefore provided.
[Amended 4-7-1997]
If any person shall fail or refuse to remit
to the Treasurer the tax required to be collected and paid under this
article within the time and in the amount specified in this article,
there shall be added to such tax by the Treasurer a penalty as provided
in § 58.1-3916 of the Code of Virginia, as amended.
If any person required to collect and remit
the tax imposed by this article fails to file a statement and a remittance
or if the Treasurer has reasonable cause to believe that an erroneous
statement has been filed, the Treasurer may proceed to determine the
amount due to the county and, in connection therewith, shall make
such investigations and take such testimony and other evidence as
may be necessary, provided that notice and opportunity to be heard
be given to any person who may become liable for the amount owing
prior to any determination by the Treasurer.
Whenever any person required to collect and
pay to the county a tax under this article shall quit or otherwise
dispose of his business, any tax payable under the provisions of this
article to the county shall become immediately due and payable, and
such person shall immediately make a report and pay the tax due.
It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to ascertain
the name of every person operating a hotel in the county liable for
the collection of the tax levied by this article. The Treasurer shall
have the power to adopt rules and regulations not inconsistent with
the provisions of this article for the purpose of carrying out and
enforcing the payment, collection and remittance of the tax herein
levied, and a copy of such rules and regulations shall be on file
and available for public examination in the Treasurer's office. Failure
or refusal to comply with any rules and regulations promulgated under
this section shall be deemed a violation of this article.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Original Section X, Penalty
for violation of this Ordinance, which immediately followed this section,
was deleted 4-7-1997.
