§ 6-1. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings, unless the context requires a different meaning:

Base year means the calendar year preceding the license year, except for contractors subject to the provisions of Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3715. Businesses who report on a fiscal year basis as of January 1, 2010, may continue to report in that manner for the duration of their business activity.

Biotechnology or biomedical research and development means the use of various processes to develop, improve, modify, or test products for human health care, animal health, food production, food safety, food nutrition, or environmental improvement.

Carnival means the transient operation of a collection of shows, amusements, concessions, eating places or riding devices whether they are owned or operated by different persons or not, and operated on one lot or street or on contiguous lots or streets.

Commission merchant means a person who sells for another any kind of goods, wares, merchandise, or commodities, on commission.

Computer service means a business that provides computer programming, data processing, data base management, storage and retrieval of electronic information, maintenance and development of computer and computer-related automated systems, network services and support, computer security and support, technical support including help-desk and troubleshooting services.

Contractor means any person: (i) accepting or offering to accept any orders or contracts for doing any work on or in any building or structure, requiring the use of paint, stone, brick, mortar, wood, cement, structural iron or steel, sheet iron, galvanized iron, metallic piping, tin, lead, or other metal or any other building material, (ii) accepting or offering to accept contracts to do any paving, curbing or other work on sidewalks, streets, alleys, or highways, or public or private property, using asphalt, brick, stone, cement, concrete, wood or any composition, (iii) accepting or offering to accept an order for or contract to excavate earth, rock, or other material for foundation or any other purpose or for cutting, trimming or maintaining rights-of-way, (iv) accepting or offering to accept an order or contract to construct any sewer of stone, brick, terra cotta or other material, (v) accepting or offering to accept orders or contracts for doing any work on or in any building or premises involving the erecting, installing, altering, repairing, servicing, or maintaining electric wiring, devices or appliances permanently connected to such wiring, or the erecting, repairing or maintaining of lines for the transmission or distribution of electric light and power, (vi) engaging in the business of plumbing and steamfitting, (vii) accepting or offering to accept contracts for fumigation or disinfecting to prevent the spread of disease; or for the eradication or extermination of rats, mice, termites, vermin, or insects or bugs of any kind, (viii) accepting or offering to accept orders or contracts for moving any building, or for drilling, boring or digging a well; or for the installation, maintenance, or repair of neon signs, or (ix) accepting or offering to accept contracts for landscaping services, including grading, seeding, planting of trees or shrubs, mowing, and any other lawn maintenance services. Contractors include speculative builders who build houses or other buildings with the intention to offer the completed buildings for sale. A person who acts as his own prime contractor to build or improve a building which he intends to occupy as his residence, office or place of business shall not be deemed to be a contractor.

Fortune-teller means any person or establishment engaged in the occupation of occult sciences, including a fortune-teller, palmist, astrologist, numerologist, clairvoyant, craniologist, phrenologist, card reader, spiritual reader, tea leaf reader, prophet, psychic or advisor or who in any other manner claims or pretends to tell fortunes or claims or pretends to disclose mental faculties of individuals for any form of compensation. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to apply to a person pretending to act as a fortune-teller in a properly licensed theater as part of any show or exhibition presented therein or as a part of any play, exhibition, fair or show presented or offered in aide of any benevolent, charitable or educational purpose.

Gross receipts means the entire receipts of a business without deduction unless expressly provided for in this chapter or in Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3732, and shall be computed using the same method of accounting as is used by the taxpayer for federal income tax purposes.

Information service means the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications and includes electronic publishing but does not include any use of such capability for the management, control, or operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a telecommunications service.

Itinerant merchant means a retail merchant or person who engages in any temporary or transient business in the county selling goods, wares, and merchandise and who for the purpose of carrying on such business, hires, leases, uses or occupies any space for a period of less than one year. Any merchant who does business within a shopping center and operates pursuant to a lease of at least one year shall not be defined as an itinerant merchant. No person shall be deemed an itinerant merchant solely because the person exhibits or otherwise displays goods or services or information concerning goods or services so long as the person does not sell, contract to sell, or offer to contract to sell, such goods or services. Any itinerant merchant who sells alcohol shall also be subject to relevant laws and license fees described in section 6-38, 6-39, or 6-39.1, in addition to any itinerant merchant license fees imposed in section 6-47.

Merchandise broker means a person who sells or offers to sell goods, wares and merchandise when the terms of the sale stipulate that the goods, wares and merchandise are to be shipped from the person's supplier to such person's customer without the person taking possession of the goods, wares and merchandise.

Nightclub means any commercial establishment which serves alcoholic beverages and has live entertainment and dancing by the public. Live entertainment shall mean entertainment provided by live artists including, but not limited to, musical performances, disk jockeys, public speaking, dramatic performances, dancers or comedy. A nightclub is a dance establishment within the meaning of chapter 3.

Peddler means any person who carries from place to place any goods, wares, and merchandise and offers to sell or barter the same, or actually sells or barters the same, and at the time of such sale or offer for sale, delivers, or offers to deliver, the goods, wares, and merchandise to the buyer. Any delivery on the same day as the day of sale shall be construed as a delivery at the time of sale.

Personal and business services means services other than repair, professional, financial or real estate services rendered for compensation either upon or for businesses, professions, persons, animals, or personal effects, including all activities not otherwise subject to licensure pursuant to other provisions of this chapter, and includes, but is not limited to, the following businesses:

Accountants (except certified public accountants).

Advertising agents and agencies.

Airports (including, but not limited to, tie-down fees, charter services, and flying lessons).

Ambulance service.

Analytical laboratories.

Appraisal or evaluation of personal property or damage to the same.

Artist's representatives.

Auctioneers.

Auditors.

Automatic washing machines (renting or furnishing).

Barbershops.

Beauty parlors.

Billiard or pool parlors.

Boarder or keeper of horses or mules.

Boat landings or boat basins.

Bondsmen.

Booking agents or concert managers.

Bookkeepers.

Bowling alleys.

Business research services.

Cable TV or sound track music.

Canvassers.

Caterers.

Check cashing establishment.

Chemists.

Claims adjusters.

Cleaner of motor vehicles.

Cleaner of chimneys.

Cleaner of furnaces.

Cleaner of the outside of buildings.

Cleaner of windows.

Cogeneration business (based only on gross receipts from capacity payments).

Collection agents or agencies.

Commercial or graphic artists.

Conductor of funerals.

Consulting service.

Court reporters or stenographers.

Credit bureaus.

Daycare service.

Detective service.

Dry cleaning.

Electrolysists.

Embalmers.

Furnisher of clean diapers.

Furnisher of clean linen, towels, work clothes, coats, aprons, etc.

Furnisher of domestic or clerical help, labor, or employment.

Geologists.

Golf courses.

Golf driving ranges.

Homes for the elderly.

Hospitals.

Hotels.

House cleaning services.

Impoundment lots.

Interior decorators.

Janitorial services.

Kennels.

Letter writing.

Locksmiths.

Manicurists.

Massage therapists and massage clinic operators.

Merchandise brokers.

Messenger services.

Miniature golf courses.

Motels.

Motion picture theaters.

Nurses' registries.

Nursing homes.

Packing, crating, shipping, cutting, hauling, or moving goods or chattels for others.

Parking lots for the storage of vehicles or other personal property.

Passenger motor bus terminals.

Passenger motor vehicles for hire with chauffeur.

Pawnbrokers and pawnshops (for lending services only).

Photographers.

Physicians' registries.

Picture framing or gilding.

Plating metals or any other materials.

Preparing bodies for burial.

Press clipping services.

Professional athletes (e.g., bowlers, fishermen, golfers, race car owners and drivers, tennis pros, etc.).

Protective agents or agencies.

Public motor rinks (go-cart or motorcycle).

Public pools or baths (for admission charges, membership fees, and dues).

Public relations or publicity services.

Public skating rinks.

Pumping out or otherwise emptying septic tanks.

Reducing salons or health clubs.

Refuse service (hauling).

Renting any kind of personal property (except certified short-term rental property as defined in chapter 9).

Renting or furnishing horses or ponies for riding within a limited area, field, park or other enclosure.

Sanitariums.

Small animal hospitals (for grooming, boarding, laboratory services, administration of drugs, and cremation services only, and excluding radiography, vaccinations, and euthanasia).

Statistical services.

Tattoo artists.

Tax preparation services (when not performed by a certified public accountant).

Taxidermists.

Telephone answering services.

Theaters.

Ticket, transportation, travel, and tour agents or brokers.

Towing motor vehicles.

Undertakers.

Warehouses for the storage of any personal property or inventory.

Zoos.

Purchases means all goods, wares and merchandise received for sale at each definite place of business of a wholesale merchant. The term shall also include the cost of manufacture of all goods, wares and merchandise manufactured by any wholesale merchant and sold or offered for sale. A wholesale merchant may elect to report the gross receipts from the sale of manufactured goods, wares and merchandise if it cannot determine the cost of manufacture or chooses not to disclose the cost of manufacture. For recycling businesses, purchases shall include the cost of obtaining the commodities to be recycled, together with the cost of processing the commodities for sale to a commercial, industrial, or institutional user, or to others for resale.

Real estate services means services with respect to the purchase, sale, lease, rental, or appraisal of real property. For purposes of this definition, a real estate agent who is licensed with the state real estate board through a real estate broker is not deemed to be engaged in a real estate service in his own right provided the real estate broker has included such agent's gross receipts in the basis for calculating the real estate broker's license tax.

Repair service means services rendered for compensation where tangible personal property is renovated, restored to working order or returned to sound condition. For purposes of this definition, gross receipts from the sale of parts used in the repair or maintenance of tangible personal property as well as from preventive maintenance services for or upon such property shall be included.

Research and development means the application of procedures within one of the following four areas: (1) basic research, (2) applied research, (3) development, and (4) systems and other concept formulation studies. Research and development does not include market research, research in social services, psychology, or other non-technical activities; routine product testing; service activities; sales; or research and development of a public utility. "Basic research", "applied research", "development", and "systems and other concept formulation studies" shall have the meaning attributed in Section 31.205-18 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Retail merchant means a person who sells goods, wares, and merchandise for any purpose other than resale, but not including sales at wholesale to institutional, commercial, and industrial users. In addition, the term "retail merchant" shall include every person who is engaged in a short-term rental business as defined in this Code.

Vendor event means an event at a single location, whether inside or outside, consisting of a group of five or more persons selling or offering for sale goods, wares or merchandise such as hobby crafts, antiques, art works, new or secondhand articles, souvenirs, meats, fruits and vegetables, prepared foods or drinks, or any combination of these. This definition shall include, but not be limited to, flea markets, craft shows, trade shows, bazaars, farm markets, art shows, festivals, sporting events, and yard sales where such vendors are present. Vendor events conducted by nonprofit organizations that are exempt from federal taxes by the Internal Revenue Service may elect to be excluded from this definition, in which case any and all vendors at the event would be responsible for their own license as an individual itinerant or other retail merchant; otherwise such nonprofit organizations may elect to obtain the vendor event license as the promoter.

Wholesale merchant means a person who (i) sells to other persons for the purpose of resale only, or to commercial, industrial, or institutional users, or (ii) is engaged in the business of collecting and recycling metal, alloys, glass, plastic, paper, or other commodities.

(Ord. of 12-10-97, § 1; Ord. of 10-28-98, § 1; Ord. of 8-23-00, § 1; Ord. of 9-26-01, § 1; Ord. of 9-26-01, § 1; Ord. of 12-14-05(3), § 1; Ord. of 4-14-10(3), § (1); Ord. of 12-13-17(1), § 1)

Cross reference— Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.

(Ord. of 12-10-97, § 1; Ord. of 10-28-98, § 1; Ord. of 8-23-00, § 1; Ord. of 9-26-01, § 1; Ord. of 9-26-01, § 1; Ord. of 12-14-05(3), § 1; Ord. of 4-14-10(3), § (1); Ord. of 12-13-17(1), § 1)

Cross reference

Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.