[Adopted 6-10-1999, effective 6-10-1999 (Ch. II, § 8, 2-08-08, of the 1991 Code)]
The Tax Assessor is hereby authorized to phase out, over a ten-year period, the stock-in-trade or inventory tax of wholesalers and retailers. The rate schedule to be implemented by the Tax Assessor is set forth in § 247-29 of this article.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
INVENTORY
A. 
As it refers to wholesalers, shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-29.
B. 
As it refers to retailers, shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-40.
RETAILER
Shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-40.
STOCK-IN-TRADE
A. 
As it refers to wholesalers, shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-29.
B. 
As it refers to retailers, shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-40.
WHOLESALER
Shall have the same meaning as defined in R.I.G.L. § 44-3-29.
The rate schedule for the ten-year phase out of the wholesale and retail inventory tax shall be as follows:
Year
Maximum Tax Rate
FY 1999
Present tax rate
FY 2000
Ninety percent (90%) of FY 1999 rate
FY 2001
80% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2002
70% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2003
60% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2004
50% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2005
40% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2006
30% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2007
20% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2008
10% of FY 1999 rate
FY 2009
No tax
In the event that a wholesaler sold inventory or stock-in-trade both at wholesale and retail in the preceding calendar year, the Tax Assessor shall assess on the same basis as a retailer's inventory or stock-in-trade as of December 31 of that year, to the extent permitted by applicable law, notwithstanding any freeze of assessed valuation or exemption permitted pursuant to R.I.G.L. § 44-5-12(c), that proportion of inventory or stock-in-trade of the wholesaler which shall be equal to the percentage of the wholesaler's total sales during the preceding calendar year that were at retail. For the purposes of this section, sales at retail shall not include sales to employees of the wholesaler or to employees of its affiliates. If retail sales are less than 1% of total sales during the year, it shall be deemed that no sales were made at retail during the year. All sales of a wholesaler to a customer which is an affiliated entity shall be deemed to be retail sales for the purposes of this section if more than half the dollar volume of the sales of the affiliated entity is made within the Town of Glocester. For purposes of this section, a wholesaler shall be considered affiliated with customers if it controls, or is under common control with, the customers.
In the event that a wholesaler or retailer subject to the inventory tax commences operations within the Town of Glocester after fiscal year 1999, the Tax Assessor shall determine what would have been the value of the inventory as of December 1998, adjusting the inventory value to fiscal year 1999 using the changes in the Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers (CPI-UC) published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor.
This article shall also apply to automobile dealers as defined in R.I.G.L. § 31-5-5.