This article shall be known as the "Transient
Retail Business Ordinance" and is enacted pursuant to § 85-a
of the General Municipal Law.
As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
TEMPORARY PERIOD
If the contract for the rental or lease of the place in which
a transient retail business is conducted is for a period of six months
or less, such fact shall be presumptive evidence that the business
carried on therein is a transient business.
TRANSIENT RETAIL BUSINESS
One conducted in any store, hotel, house, building or structure
which is exempt from the payment of property taxes for the sale at
retail of goods, wares and merchandise and which is intended to be
conducted for a temporary period of time and not permanently.
The following activities, which would otherwise
be considered transient retail businesses, are exempt from the requirements
of this article:
A. The sale of food products.
B. Rummage sales conducted by charitable, not-for-profit
or religious corporations or associations where the proceeds of the
sale are going directly to charitable, not-for-profit or religious
purposes.
C. The sale of only creative, handmade or artistic products
which are original and are made or created by the artisan who is selling
them.
Each applicant, before receiving a permit to
conduct such transient business, shall file with the City Clerk a
bond in the penal sum of $1,000, executed by a surety company or by
two responsible fee-holders residing in the State of New York, or,
in lieu thereof, a cash deposit of equal amount, conditioned that
such person will make a full, complete and true report of the gross
amount of sales made in such transient retail business in the City
and will comply in good faith with the provisions of this article
and that he/she or it will pay the amount of tax fixed. Said bond
shall be approved by the City Attorney as to form and by the City
Clerk as to its sufficiency.
A permit granted hereunder shall be conspicuously
displayed by the transient merchant in the place of business conducted
by him/her during the conduct of such business.
Every person permitted to conduct a transient
business within the City shall file a verified report with the City
Clerk on or before 12:00 noon on Monday of each week. Such report
shall contain a statement of the gross amount of sales of the previous
week made by such merchant within the City up to the close of business
on the preceding Saturday, and at the same time such transient merchant
shall pay to the City Clerk the amount of tax levied upon such sales.
No person shall transact a transient retail
business within the City without first obtaining a permit therefor
and without first filing a bond or making a cash deposit as herein
provided.
Any person failing to pay said tax or failing
to obey the provisions of this article shall be guilty of a violation
and, upon being convicted of such violation, shall be punished by
a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $250 for each day on which
the violation shall exist or by imprisonment for not more than 10
days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.