[Adopted 12-16-1986 as Ord. No. 3101]
This Article shall be known and may be cited
as the "Business Privilege Tax Ordinance."
The following words and phrases, when used in
this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them as set forth
herein, unless the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
Carrying on or exercising, whether for gain,
profit or otherwise, within the City of Bradford, any trade, service,
profession, construction, brokering, communication, consulting or
other commercial activity or service, including but not limited to
financial business, or making sales to persons or rendering services
attributable to activity, an office or other place of business in
the City of Bradford.
"Business" shall not include the business or
service of any political subdivision; any employment for a wage or
salary; or any business or portion thereof upon which the power to
levy a tax is withheld by law.
The City of Bradford.
The service and transactions of banks and bankers, trust,
credit and investment companies, where not prohibited by law, holding
companies, dealers and brokers in money, credits, commercial paper,
bonds, notes, securities and stocks, monetary metals, factors and
commission merchants.
Cash, credits (including but not limited to
legal obligations assigned by contract to another) and property of
every kind and nature received or due from services rendered from
or business transacted in, allocable to or attributable to the City
of Bradford, without deduction therefrom for any expense or cost of
doing business, including but not limited to cost of any property
sold or used, material utilized, labor service, interest paid or any
other cost or expenditure.
"Gross receipts" shall not include:
The amount of any allowance made for goods,
wares or merchandise taken by a dealer as a trade-in or as part payment
for any other goods, wares and merchandise in the usual and ordinary
course of business.
In the case of financial business, the cost
of securities or other property sold, exchanged, paid at maturity
or redeemed; and moneys and credits received in repayment of advances,
loans or credits, but not to exceed the principal amount of such advances,
credits and loans; and any money or security which is characterized
as a deposit owned to a third party; or any property which is held
as security for a loan until such property is sold.
Any commissions paid by one broker to another
on account of a purchase or sales contract initiated, executed or
cleared in conjunction with such other broker.
Receipts by dealers from sales to other dealers
in the same line where the dealer transfers title or possession at
the same price for which he acquired the goods, wares or merchandise,
as long as said dealers have no relation of parent or subsidiary to
one another and have no affiliation or other cooperative association
with each other.
Any receipt which is included as part of the
measure of the mercantile tax imposed by the City of Bradford pursuant
to Ordinance No. 2585 of 1958, as amended.[1]
Receipts or that portion thereof attributable to interstate or foreign commerce or to an office or place of business regularly maintained by the taxpayer outside the City of Bradford for bona fide business purposes and not for the purpose of evading payment of this tax and those receipts which the City is prohibited from taxing by law. Such receipts shall be segregated for reasons of allocation as in § 196-44B of this article.
Any individual human, partnership, limited partnership, joint
venture, corporation, unincorporated association or other entity engaged
in business activity. Whenever used in a provision prescribing a fine
or penalty, the word "person," as applied to partnerships, shall mean
any or all of the partners thereof and, as applied to corporations
and unincorporated associations, shall mean the officers thereof.
Any person, as defined herein, who exercises the privilege
of engaging in business, as defined herein.
The twelve-month period from January 1 through December 31.
Any business conducted at a location in the City for fewer
than 60 consecutive days.
The officer of the City who is responsible for the administration,
collection and enforcement of the business privilege tax.
[Amended 11-26-2013 by Ord. No. 3101.4]
Every person engaging in any business in the
City in the year 1987 and for each and every year thereafter shall
annually pay a tax of 6.0 mills on each dollar of gross receipts generated
by the exercise of that privilege.
A.Â
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby
imposed who has commenced his business at least one full year prior
to the beginning of any tax year shall compute his annual tax upon
the actual receipts generated by that business during the preceding
calendar year.
B.Â
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who commences business less than one full year prior to the current tax year shall compute his tax by multiplying the receipts generated by the first month of business times the number of months remaining in the tax year. He shall compute his tax for the next succeeding tax year by multiplying the same initial month's receipts times 12. In tax years thereafter, the taxpayer will compute the tax for each annual tax year in accordance with the method set forth in Subsection A.[1]
[1]
Editor’s Note: Former Subsection C,
pertaining to temporary, seasonal, or itinerant taxpayers, was repealed
5-8-2007 by Ord. No. 3101.3.
[1]
Editor’s Note: Former § 196-41,
Credits, was repealed 5-8-2007 by Ord. No. 3101.3.
[Amended 2-28-1989 by Ord. No. 3101.1]
A.Â
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this article
shall forthwith register with the Treasurer, setting forth his name,
business address, form of business (sole proprietorship, partnership,
corporation, etc.) and the nature of the taxpayer's business activity.
B.Â
Every return shall be made on a form furnished by
the Treasurer. Failure to receive a return from the Treasurer in any
tax year shall not relieve the taxpayer from the duty of acquiring
one.
D.Â
(Reserved)
E.Â
(Reserved)
F.Â
(Reserved)
G.Â
Contractors. Every contractor performing work in the
City of Bradford shall, before beginning work, at the same time as
the building permit is obtained, file a return and pay the tax due
thereon based upon the amount they are receiving for performing said
contract.
[Amended 9-14-1999 by Ord. No. 3101.2]
Payment of the correct amount of tax is due
at the time the return is filed on the form prescribed by the Treasurer,
regardless of the type of business or the nature of the taxpayer.
A.Â
It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to collect and
receive the taxes, fines, interest and/or penalties due under the
provisions of this article and to keep a full and complete record
of taxpayers, payments, amounts received and the dates of such receipts.
B.Â
The Treasurer or his/her authorized representative/agent
is hereby charged with the administration and enforcement of this
article and is hereby empowered to prescribe, adopt and promulgate
such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the intent
of this enactment, including provision for allocation of receipts
not fully taxable by reason of interstate commerce or operation of
law and for the reexamination and correction of returns and of payments
alleged or found to be incorrect or as to which an overpayment is
claimed or found to have occurred, and to make refunds or give credit,
where necessary.
[Amended 11-26-2013 by Ord. No. 3101.4]
C.Â
The Treasurer or his/her authorized representative/agent
is hereby authorized to compel the production of books, papers and
records of any taxpayer or putative taxpayer and to require the attendance
of any such person or any person believed to have knowledge of such
documents, whether as parties or as witnesses, in order to enforce
the provisions of this article.
[Amended 11-26-2013 by Ord. No. 3101.4]
D.Â
Any person aggrieved by any provision of this article
or by actions of the Treasurer or his/her authorized representative/agent
shall have the right to appeal to court in accordance with the Judicial
Code.
[Amended 11-26-2013 by Ord. No. 3101.4]
If for any reason the tax is not paid when due,
interest at the rate of 6% per annum and penalty at the rate of 1%
of the amount of the unpaid tax shall be added and collected for each
month or fraction of month for which the tax remains unpaid. Where
suit is brought to recover unpaid taxes, the person found liable therefor
shall, in addition, be liable for the costs of collection and the
interest and penalties which have accrued.
[Amended 11-26-2013 by Ord. No. 3101.4]
Any person making any false or fraudulently
incomplete statement on a return or who refuses to permit inspection
of any book, record, paper or other account in his custody or control
which is pertinent to any business which has filed a return or which
has failed to file a return after the Treasurer or his/her representative/agent
has, in accordance with rules and regulations or the provisions of
this article, requested the production of such documents or whoever
fails or refuses to file a return required by this article in the
form furnished by the Treasurer shall, upon conviction by any member
of the minor judiciary, be sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and costs
or, in default of such payment, be imprisoned in the McKean County
jail for period not to exceed 30 days for each offense.
[Amended 2-22-1994 by Ord. No. 3101.1]
In addition to other remedies for nonpayment
of tax provided by this article, the City may file a civil suit to
recover taxes due and unpaid, together with interest, penalty and
costs. Such suit should be filed within three years after the return
was filed or was due, whichever is later, or within three years after
a deficiency assessment is made; except, however, that where no return
was filed where it was required to be filed or where a fraudulent
return was filed, there shall be no limitation of the period during
which suit may be filed. Before actual suit has been instituted, but
where the tax has been certified to the City Solicitor for collection
and/or has been sent to the city's collection agency for collection,
a penalty of 10% shall be added to the amount due, together with any
interest or other penalties or costs which may be recovered.
The City may accept payments under protest in
any case where the taxpayer disputes the validity of the tax or its
applicability to the taxpayer or the amount claimed by the City to
be due. If it is judicially determined thereafter that such tax was
not due or that the amount was incorrect, refund may be made of the
amount collected in error. In the absence of a judicial determination,
no refund may be made except pursuant to the Refund Enabling Act,
72 P.S. § 5566b.
If the tax imposed by this article or any portion
thereof shall be held by the final decision of a court of competent
jurisdiction to be violative of the state or federal constitutional
rights of any taxpayer or taxpayers or illegal when applied to a taxpayer
or taxpayers, the decision of that court shall not impair the city's
right to impose the tax on others for whom the tax is valid.
