[Added 8-8-1995 by Bill No. 95-11]
(a)
Imposition and rate; exemptions.
(1)
Imposition and rate, other provision.
A.
The Board of County Commissioners may impose a tax within Ocean
City on the sale of food and also on beverages. This tax, if imposed,
shall be at the rate as a per centum of the taxable price of the sale
of food and beverages as the Board may, by resolution, determine,
but may not be imposed at a rate in excess of one percent.
B.
The Board of County Commissioners shall set forth, by resolution,
the date on which the tax shall first be collected, which may be on
any date following the effective date of this Subtitle.
C.
The Board of County Commissioners may also set forth, by resolution,
any other matters necessary or desirable in connection with the imposition
or collection of the tax.
(2)
Exemptions. The food and beverage sales tax does not apply to:
A.
A sale of food or beverages for consumption off the premises
by a person who operates a substantial grocery or market business
at the same location where the food or beverage is sold;
B.
A sale of food or beverage from a vending machine; or
C.
A sale of food or beverage that is exempt from any sales and
use tax imposed by the Tax-General Article of the Annotated Code of
Maryland, as amended from time to time.
(b)
BEVERAGE
FOOD
MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
OCEAN CITY
PERSON
PREMISES
SUBSTANTIAL GROCERY OR MARKET BUSINESS
TAXABLE PRICE
Definitions. In this Subtitle, the following
words and phrases have the meanings indicated, unless the context
clearly indicates a different meaning:
Any liquid for human consumption except an alcoholic beverage
as defined in § 5-101 of the Tax General Article of the
Annotated Code of Maryland which is sold for off-premises consumption.
Food for human consumption, including the following foods
and their products: beverages, including coffee, coffee substitutes,
cocoa, fruit juices and tea; condiments; eggs; fish, meat and poultry;
fruit, grain and vegetables; milk, including ice cream; and sugar.
"Food" includes food that a person serves for consumption on the premises
of the buyer or of a third party; food for immediate consumption;
and snack food, including, by way of example, potato chips and sticks;
corn chips; pretzels; cheese puffs and curls; pork rinds; extruded
pretzels and chips; popped popcorn; nuts and edible seeds; and snack
mixtures that contain any one or more of the foods listed in this
sentence. "Food" does not include alcoholic beverage as defined in
§ 5-101 of the Tax-General Article of the Annotated Code
of Maryland, as amended from time to time; a soft drink or carbonated
beverage; or candy or confectionery.
The Mayor and City Council of the Town of Ocean City, Maryland,
a body politic and corporate and a municipal corporation of the state.
The corporate limits of the Town of Ocean City, Maryland.
Any individual, corporation, company, association, firm,
copartnership or any group of individuals acting as a unit and includes
any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof.
Any building, grounds, parking lot or other area that a person
owns or controls or that another person makes available primarily
for the use of the patrons of one or more persons.
A business at which at least ten percent of all sales of
food and beverages are sales of grocery or market food items, not
including food and beverages normally consumed on the premises even
though it is packaged to carry out.
The value, in money, of the consideration of any kind that
is paid, delivered, payable or deliverable by a buyer to a person
in the consummation and complete performance of a sale of food or
beverage without deduction for any expense or cost, including the
cost of any labor or service rendered, any material used or any property
sold.
(c)
Collection. Every person receiving any payment
for food or beverage on which a tax is levied under this Subtitle
shall collect the amount of tax imposed from the buyer on whom it
is levied at the time payment is made. The taxes required to be collected
hereunder shall be deemed held in trust by the person required to
collect them until remitted as hereinafter required.
(d)
Reports and remittances. The person collecting
the tax shall make out a report, upon forms and setting forth information
the Board of County Commissioners prescribes and requires, showing
the amount of taxable sales that have been collected and the tax required
to be collected; and he shall sign and deliver the report to the Board,
with a remittance of the tax required hereunder. The reports and remittances
shall be made on or before the twenty-first day of each month, covering
the sales and the amount of tax collected during the preceding calendar
month. If the reports and remittances are mailed to the Board of County
Commissioners, a postmark on the eighteenth day of the month is deemed
to be evidence of timely payment. A person responsible for collection
of the tax shall keep a complete set of records of all sales, taxable
and non-taxable, in such form as the Board of County Commissioners
may require. Such records shall be available for inspection and audit
by the Board of County Commissioners and preserved for a period of
four years.
(e)
Processing fee retained by remitter. The person
collecting the tax may apply and credit against the amount of tax
payable by him an amount equal to one and one-half percent of the
gross tax to be remitted by him to the Board of County Commissioners,
to cover his expense in the collection and remittance of the tax.
However, nothing in this subsection applies to any person who fails
or refuses to file his return with the Board of County Commissioners
within the time prescribed within this Subtitle.
(f)
Failure to report and remit; personal liability; criminal
offense. If any person fails or refuses to remit to the
Board of County Commissioners the tax required to be collected and
paid under this Subtitle within the time and in the amount specified
in this Subtitle, there shall be added to the tax by the Board of
County Commissioners interest at the rate of one and one-half percent
per month on the unpaid tax for each month or portion thereof from
the date upon which the tax is due, as provided in this Subtitle;
and if the tax remains delinquent and unpaid for a period of thirty
days from the date it is due and payable, there shall be added thereto
by the Board of County Commissioners a penalty of ten percent of the
unpaid tax, and an additional ten percent for each additional ninety
days that such tax is not paid. The Board of County Commissioners
may proceed to collect delinquent and unpaid taxes by suit or distraint.
Intentional failure to pay collected tax funds shall constitute theft
pursuant to Article 27, Section 342 of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
A person or persons responsible for collection of the food and beverage
tax shall be individually, personally, jointly and severally liable
for any tax collected. "Persons" in this context shall include, by
way of example, all corporate officers and directors and all general
partners of partnerships and managers of limited liability companies.
(g)
Distribution of proceeds; liability for improper collection.
(1)
From the total proceeds collected from the tax by the Board
of County Commissioners from time to time for the sale of food or
beverages, the Board shall deduct a reasonable sum or percentage,
not to exceed five percent, for the cost of imposing and collecting
the tax and credit this deduction to the general funds of the County.
The remaining portion of the total proceeds shall be distributed to
the Mayor and City Council to be deposited in a sinking fund maintained
by the Mayor and City Council to be used for the sole purpose of paying
the principal and interest on bonds as well as reimbursement for prepaid
principal and interest issued relating to the convention center facility.
(2)
Distribution of these several payments shall be made by the
Board of County Commissioners by the tenth day of each month with
respect to all tax revenue received during the immediately preceding
month.
(3)
The Mayor and City Council shall be liable to the Board of County
Commissioners for any refunds legally required to be made by the Board
of County Commissioners of any food or beverage tax proceeds as well
as for the cost, including attorneys fees, expended in defending such
tax collection.
(h)
State administrative fee. The Retail Sales
Tax Division of the Comptroller's office shall supply to the Board
of County Commissioners information in aid of verification of liability
for the tax. The Retail Sales Tax Division may make a reasonable charge
for this assistance, which shall be paid by the Board of County Commissioners
and treated as a part of the reasonable costs of collecting the tax.
(i)
Amendments to laws and procedures. The Board
of County Commissioners may promulgate and from time to time change
or repeal rules and regulations not inconsistent with this Subtitle
and deemed necessary to provide for an orderly, systematic and thorough
collection and distribution of the tax imposed in this Subtitle. If
and as applicable, the laws and the regulations in effect as to the
sales and use tax in Maryland shall be adopted and followed by the
Board of County Commissioners in promulgating or changing a rule or
regulation.
(j)
Surety bond of Treasurer. The surety bond
of the Treasurer of the County may be increased by the Board of County
Commissioners in relation to the moneys collected and distributed
under this Subtitle. The premium for any increase in the surety bond
shall be deemed part of the cost of imposing and collecting the tax
imposed in this Subtitle.
(k)
Bond.
(1)
The Board of County Commissioners, in order to protect the revenues
to be obtained under this Subtitle, may require any person collecting
the tax to file with the Board a surety bond issued by a surety company
authorized to do business in this state and approved by the State
Insurance Commissioner as to solvency and responsibility, in such
amount or amounts from time to time as the Board of County Commissioners
may fix, to secure the payment of the tax due or which may become
due from the person collecting the tax. If the Board determines that
the person is to file such a bond, the Board shall give notice to
the person to that effect, specifying the amount of bond required.
The person collecting the tax shall file the bond within five days
after receiving the notice unless, within that period, the person
requests, in writing, a hearing before the Board, at which hearing
the necessity, propriety and amount of the bond shall be determined
by the Board of County Commissioners. This determination is final
and shall be complied with within fifteen days after the person collecting
the tax receives notice thereof.
(2)
In lieu of the bond required by Subsection (k)(1), securities
approved by the Board of County Commissioners or cash in such amount
as the Board prescribes may be deposited, which shall be kept in the
custody of the Board. The Board, at any time, without notice to the
depositor of the securities or cash, may apply them to any tax due,
and for that purpose the securities may be sold by the Board at public
or private sale without notice to the depositor of the securities.
(l)
Termination of tax. This tax shall terminate
at the end of the month in which sufficient total taxes have been
generated to pay in full the maturing principal of and interest on
any bonds issued by the Mayor and City Council relating to the convention
center facility or such later date as may be provided by state law.
The Board of County Commissioners shall notify the Comptroller of
the State as to the month in which the tax shall terminate.
(m)
Applicability. The procedures under Title
9, Subtitle 7, Article 24 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, as amended
from time to time, apply to this Subtitle.
