§ 6-15. Due dates and penalties.

(a)

Each person subject to licensure under this chapter shall apply for a license and pay the applicable tax and fee prior to beginning business if he was not subject to licensure in the county on or before January 1 of the license year, or no later than March 1 of the license year if he was subject to licensure in the county prior to January 1 of the license year. In the case of licenses for non-continuous, periodic, or annual events or sales, including those for itinerant merchants, vendor events, performances or amusements (such as public shows, athletic events, or exhibitions, or operation of amusement devices), carnivals, circuses, and going-out-of-business sales, such payment and application for license shall be due prior to beginning operations for the sale or event in the current year, whether or not a license was obtained in a prior year, unless otherwise stated within this chapter. For events for which a promoter is responsible for a vendor event license or other license based on attendance or vendor count, the commissioner shall have discretion to allow payment after start of the event.

(b)

A penalty of ten percent of the unpaid tax and fee or $2.00, whichever is greater, shall be imposed upon the failure to pay the tax and/or fee on or before March 1 if the person was in business prior to January 1 of the license year or began business before February 1 of the license year; or within one month of beginning business if the person began business after January 31 of the license year. In the case of an assessment of additional tax made by the commissioner of the revenue, if the application and, if applicable, the payment were made in good faith and the understatement of the tax was not due to any fraud, reckless or intentional disregard of the law by the taxpayer, there shall be no late payment penalty assessed with the additional tax. If any assessment of tax by the commissioner of the revenue is not paid within 30 days, the treasurer may impose a ten percent late payment penalty. If the failure to file or pay was not the fault of the taxpayer, the penalty shall not be imposed, or if imposed, shall be abated by the commissioner of the revenue. In order to demonstrate lack of fault, the taxpayer must show that he acted responsibly and that the failure was due to events beyond his control.

Acted responsibly means that:

(1)

The taxpayer exercised the level of reasonable care that a prudent person would exercise under the circumstances in determining the filing obligations for the business and

(2)

The taxpayer undertook significant steps to avoid or mitigate the failure, such as attempting to prevent a foreseeable impediment, acting to remove an impediment once it occurred, and promptly rectifying a failure once the impediment was removed or the failure was discovered.

Events beyond the taxpayer's control include, but are not limited to, the unavailability of records due to fire or other casualty; the unavoidable absence (e.g., due to death or serious illness) of the person with the sole responsibility for tax compliance; or the taxpayer's reasonable reliance in good faith upon erroneous written information from the commissioner of the revenue who was aware of the relevant facts relating to the taxpayer's business when he provided the erroneous information.

(c)

Interest shall be charged on the late payment of the tax and fee from the due date until the date paid without regard to fault or other reason for the late payment. For persons who were in business in the county prior to January 1 of the license year, interest shall be assessed on the unpaid balance on April 1 of the license year and thereafter on the first day of each following month on the unpaid balance. For persons who were not in business in the county on January 1 of the license year, interest shall be assessed on the unpaid balance on the first day of the month after the month in which such taxpayer became delinquent, and thereafter on the first day of each following month on the unpaid balance. Whenever an assessment of additional or omitted tax or fee by the commissioner of the revenue is found to be erroneous, all interest and penalty charged and collected on the amount of the assessment found to be erroneous shall be refunded together with interest on the refund from the date of payment or the due date, whichever is later. Interest shall be paid on the refund of any license tax or fee from the date of payment or due date, whichever is later, whether attributable to an amended return or other reason. Interest on any refund shall be paid at the same rate charged under Code of Virginia, § 58.1-3916.

No interest shall be paid on a refund or charged on a late payment, provided the refund or the late payment is made not more than 30 days from the date of the payment that created the refund or the due date of the tax, whichever is later.

(d)

The commissioner of the revenue may, on or before the due date, grant an extension of time, not to exceed 90 days, in which to file an application for a license, for reasonable cause. The extension shall be conditioned upon the timely payment of a reasonable estimate of the appropriate tax, subject to adjustment to the correct tax at the end of the extension together with interest from the due date until the date paid and, if the estimate submitted with the extension is found to be unreasonable under the circumstances, a penalty of ten percent of the portion paid after the original due date.

(e)

No business license shall be issued until the applicant has produced satisfactory evidence that all delinquent business license, personal property, and transient occupancy taxes owed by the business to the county have been paid which have been properly assessed against the applicant by the county, or the business has entered into a payment plan acceptable to the county for the payment of such delinquent taxes and is not delinquent in making payments under such plan. If a business is issued a business license because it has entered into a payment plan, and the business defaults under such payment plan, its license shall be revoked in accordance with section 6-20 of this chapter and a new business license shall not be issued to such business until all properly assessed delinquent taxes owed by the business to the county have been paid.

(Ord. of 4-14-10(3), § (1) ; Ord. of 1-12-11, § (1); Ord. of 8-24-16(6), § 1; Ord. of 12-13-17(1), § 1)

(Ord. of 4-14-10(3), § (1) ; Ord. of 1-12-11, § (1); Ord. of 8-24-16(6), § 1; Ord. of 12-13-17(1), § 1)