[Adopted 1-9-1984]
A.
GROSS VOLUME OF BUSINESS
LICENSE YEAR
MERCANTILE TAX COLLECTOR
PERSON
RETAIL DEALER OR RETAIL VENDOR
WHOLESALE DEALER OR WHOLESALE VENDOR
The following words and phrases, when used in this
Article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them:
Includes both cash and credit transactions. "Gross volume
of business" shall not include the dollar volume of business derived
from the resale of goods, wares and merchandise, taken by any dealer
as a trade-in or as part payment for other goods, wares and merchandise,
except to the extent that the resale price exceeds the trade-in allowance.
"Gross volume of business" shall not include the dollar value of business
attributable to sales taxes and excise taxes, including liquid fuels
taxes, the amounts of which are shown in the sale price of any article,
and which are in fact paid by the dealer or manufacturer of the article
to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or the United States of America.
That period of time beginning January 1 and ending December
31 of each year.
The Mercantile Tax Collector shall be the person or agency
properly appointed by resolution of the Municipal Council to collect
the tax imposed by this Article.
Any individual, partnership, limited partnership, association
or corporation conducting or operating a business or engaged in the
conduct or operation of a business within the Municipality of Kingston,
as hereinafter more particularly defined.
Any person who is a dealer in or vendor of goods, wares and
merchandise who is not a wholesale dealer or vendor.
Any person who sells to dealers in or vendors of goods, wares
and merchandise and to no other persons.
B.
The terms "person," "wholesale dealer," "wholesale
vendor," "retail dealer," and "retail vendor" shall not include nonprofit
corporations organized for religious, charitable or educational purposes;
any association organized for such purposes; clubs; agencies of the
Government of the United States or of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
or any person vending or disposing of articles of his own growth,
production or manufacture for shipment or delivery from the place
of growth, production or manufacture thereof.
The Municipality of Kingston hereby imposes
an annual mercantile license tax in the manner and at the rates hereinafter
set forth.
Beginning on the first day of January each year
and for the balance of the calendar year, every person desiring to
continue to engage in, or hereafter to begin to engage in, the business
of wholesale or retail vendor or dealer in goods, wares or merchandise
and any person conducting a restaurant or other place where food,
drink or refreshments are sold, whether or not the same is incidental
to some other business or occupation, shall, on or before the first
day of January each year, procure a mercantile license for his place
of business or, if more than one for each of his places of business,
in the Municipality of Kingston, from the Mercantile Tax Collector
as required by law. Such license shall be conspicuously posted at
the place of business or businesses of every person at all times.
Every person engaged in any of the following
occupations or businesses in the Municipality of Kingston shall pay
an annual mercantile license tax, for the calendar year, at the rates
herein set forth:
A.
Wholesale vendors or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise:
at the rate of one mill on each dollar of the volume of the annual
gross business transacted by him, or at the rate of $1 per $1,000
of gross volume of business.
B.
Retail vendors or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise
and all persons engaged in conducting restaurants or other places
where food, drink or refreshments are sold: at the rate of 11/2 mills
on each dollar of the volume of the annual gross business transacted
by him, or at the rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of gross volume of business.
C.
Wholesale and retail vendors or dealers in goods,
wares and merchandise: at the rate of one mill on each dollar of the
volume of the annual gross wholesale business transacted by him and
11/2 mills on each dollar of the volume of the annual gross retail
business transacted by him.
D.
Each person engaged in a business temporary, seasonal
or itinerant by its nature: at the rate of 11/2 mills on each dollar
of the gross volume of business, as that term is herein defined, transacted
within the territorial limits of the municipality during each license
year.
A.
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby
imposed who has commenced his business at least one year prior to
the beginning of the license year shall compute his annual gross volume
of business upon the actual gross amount of business transacted by
him during the preceding calendar year.
B.
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby
imposed who has commenced or who commences his business less than
one full year prior to the beginning of the license year shall compute
his annual gross volume of business for such license year upon the
gross volume of business transacted by him during the first month
in business multiplied by 12.
C.
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby
imposed who commences his business subsequent to the beginning of
the license year shall compute his annual gross volume of business
for such license year upon the gross volume of business transacted
by him during the first month of his engaging in business multiplied
by the number of months he engages in business in such license year.
D.
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby
imposed who engages in a business temporary, seasonal or itinerant
by its nature shall compute his annual gross volume of business upon
the actual gross amount of business transacted by him during the license
year.
E.
The Mercantile Tax Collector is hereby authorized
to accept payment under protest of the amount of mercantile tax claimed
by the municipality in any case where the taxpayer disputes the validity
or amount of the municipality's claim for tax. If it is thereafter
judicially determined by a court of competent jurisdiction that the
municipality has been overpaid, the amount of the overpayment shall
be refunded to the taxpayer. The provisions of this subsection shall
be applicable to cases in which the facts are similar to those in
a case litigated in a court of competent jurisdiction.
A.
Every return shall be made upon a form furnished by
the Mercantile Tax Collector. Every person making a return shall certify
the correctness thereof by affidavit, under penalty of perjury.
B.
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this Article
who commenced his business at least one full year prior to the beginning
of any license year shall, on or before the 15th day of March of each
year, file with the Mercantile Tax Collector a return, setting forth
his name, his business and business address and such other information
as may be necessary in arriving at the actual gross amount of business
transacted by him during the preceding calendar year and the amount
of the tax due.
C.
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this Article
who has commenced his business less than one full year prior to the
beginning of any license year shall, on or before the 15th day of
March of each year, file with the Mercantile Tax Collector a return,
setting forth his name, his business, business address and such other
information as may be necessary in arriving at the actual gross amount
of business transacted by him during the first month of business and
the amount of tax due, multiplied by the number of months in business
to the end of the license year.
D.
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this Article
who commences business subsequent to the beginning of any license
year shall, within 40 days from date of commencing such business,
file a return with the Mercantile Tax Collector, setting forth his
name, his business and business address and such information as may
be necessary in arriving at the actual gross amount of business transacted
by him during his first month of business and the amount of the tax
due.
E.
Every person subject to the payment of the tax imposed
by this Article who engages in a business temporary, seasonal or itinerant
by its nature shall, within seven days from the day he completes such
business, file a return with the Mercantile Tax Collector, setting
forth his name, his business address and such information as may be
necessary in arriving at the actual gross amount of business transacted
by him during such period and the amount of tax due.
At the time of filing the return, the person
making the same shall pay the amount of tax shown as due thereon to
the Mercantile Tax Collector.
A.
It shall be the duty of the Mercantile Tax Collector
to collect and receive the taxes, fines and penalties imposed by this
Article. It shall also be his duty to keep a record showing the amount
received by him from each person paying the tax and the date of each
receipt thereof.
B.
The Mercantile Tax Collector is hereby charged with
the administration and enforcement of the provisions of this Article
and is hereby empowered to prescribe, adopt, promulgate and enforce
rules and regulations relating to any matter pertaining to the administration
and enforcement of this Article, including provisions for the reexamination
and correction of returns and payments alleged or found to be incorrect
or as to which an overpayment is claimed or found to have occurred.
Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Mercantile Tax Collector
shall have the right to appeal to a court or courts of competent jurisdiction
as in other cases provided.
C.
The Mercantile Tax Collector is hereby authorized
on behalf of the Municipality of Kingston to examine the books, papers
and records of any taxpayer or supposed taxpayer in order to verify
the accuracy of any return made or, if no return was made, to ascertain
the tax due. Every such taxpayer, or supposed taxpayer, is hereby
directed and required to give to the Mercantile Tax Collector reasonable
means, facilities and opportunity for such examinations and investigations
as are hereby authorized.
D.
In the event that the person to be assessed neglects
or refuses to make a return, then in such case the Tax Administrator
or his duly appointed deputy or deputies shall assess said person
or persons on such an amount of whole or gross volume of business
as the said Tax Administrator or his deputy or deputies deem reasonable
and appropriate. In all cases of assessment, the Tax Administrator
or his duly appointed deputy or deputies shall give the parties assessed
a notice in which shall be stated the trade, business or class and
the amount of the mercantile tax imposed and levied.
Any information gained by the Mercantile Tax
Collector, or any other officer, official, agent or employee of the
municipality, as a result of any returns, investigations, hearings
or verifications required or authorized by this Article, shall be
confidential except in accordance with proper judicial order or as
otherwise provided by law; and divulgence of any information so gained
is hereby declared to be a violation of this Article, which may be
punished by dismissal from office or employment.
A.
The Mercantile Tax Collector may sue for the recovery
of taxes imposed by this Article whenever any of said taxes remain
due and unpaid.
B.
If for any reason the tax is not paid when due in
each year, interest at the rate of 6% per annum on the amount of said
tax and an additional penalty of 1% per month of the amount of the
unpaid tax for each month or fraction thereof during which the tax
remains unpaid shall be added and collected. Where suit is brought
for the recovery of any such tax, the person liable therefor shall,
in addition, be liable for the costs of collection and interest and
penalties herein imposed.
C.
Whoever fails or refuses to pay any tax required under
this Article at the times required under this Article shall, upon
conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $300 or be
imprisoned at the Luzerne County Jail for a period not exceeding 30
days, or both.
Whoever makes any false or untrue statements
on his return or who refuses to permit reasonable inspection of the
books, records or accounts of any business in his custody or control,
when the right to make such reasonable inspection by the Mercantile
Tax Collector is requested, and whoever fails or refuses to file a
return required by this Article and whoever fails or refuses to procure
a mercantile license when so required under this Article or fails
to keep his license conspicuously posted at his place of business
as herein required shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine
of not more than $300 or be imprisoned in the Luzerne County Jail
for a period not exceeding 30 days, or both. Each day on which said
person violates this Article may be considered as a separate offense
and punishable as such as aforeprovided.
A.
Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed
to empower the municipality to levy and collect the taxes hereby imposed
on any person or any business or any portion of any business not within
the taxing power of the municipality under the Constitution of the
United States and the laws and Constitution of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
B.
If the tax, or any portion thereof, imposed upon any
person under the provisions of this Article shall be held by any court
of competent jurisdiction to be in violation of the Constitution of
the United States or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the decision
of the court shall not affect or impair the right to impose the taxes
so imposed upon other persons as herein provided.
