[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:
COUNTY
Buchanan County, Virginia.
HOTEL
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]
PERSON
Individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, corporation, persons acting in representative capacity and combinations of individuals of whatever form and character.
ROOM RENTAL
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.
TRANSIENT
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.
TREASURER
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.