[Adopted 12-12-1991 by Ord. No. 1213 (Ch. 110, Art. IV, of
the 1972 Code)]
This article shall be known as the "Business Privilege and Mercantile
Tax Ordinance."
The following words and phrases, when used in the article, shall
have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the
context clearly indicates a different meaning:
The Borough of Sharon Hill.
Any activity carried on or exercised for gain or profit in
the Borough of Sharon Hill, including the sale of merchandise or other
tangible personalty or the performance of services and the rental
of personalty and/or realty, including but not limited to all business,
trades, occupations and professions in which there is offered any
service or services to the general public of a limited number thereof,
including, without limitation, those enterprises engaged in by hotel
operators, motel operators, apartment and rooming house operators,
parking lot and garage operators, warehouse operators, social workers,
consultants, teachers, nurses, health services, therapists, physicians
and surgeons, osteopaths, podiatrists, chiropractors, veterinarians,
optometrists, pharmacists, lawyers, dentists, engineers, architects,
chemists, certified public accountants, public accountants, funeral
directors, promoters, factors, commission merchants, agents, brokers,
manufacturers' representatives, advertising and public relations agencies,
real estate brokers, insurance brokers and agents, cable television
operators, operators of places of amusement providing either passive
or active recreation, vending machine operators, barbershop operators
and beauty shop operators, cleaning, pressing and dyeing establishment
operators, laundry operators, shoe repair shop operators, tailors,
upholsterers, electrical, plastering, bricklaying, carpentry, heat,
ventilating, plumbing and painting contractors engaged in the class
of heavy building or other construction of any kind or in the alteration,
maintenance or repair thereof, repairers of electrical, electronic
and automotive machinery and equipment or other machinery and equipment
and other wares and merchandise, renters or lessors of equipment,
property or real estate and other businesses, trades, occupations
and professions in which there is offered any service or services
to the general public or a limited number thereof.
The period January 1 to December 31, inclusive.
A tax return to be filed on or before April 15 of the tax
year and based upon the estimated gross receipts of business.
A tax return to be filed on or before April 15 of the year
following the tax year and based upon the actual gross receipts of
business for the tax year.
In general, the "gross receipts" upon which the tax is imposed
is the value of all cash, credits or property received by a person
which is attributable to the carrying on of business in the Borough,
undiminished by any costs of doing business, including the sale of
merchandise at either wholesale or retail and services, labor and
materials entered into or becoming component parts of the services
performed within the Borough. A "receipt" generally will be considered
attributable to the Borough if any part of the transaction or service
giving rise to the receipt takes place within the Borough or is directed
in any part from an office or place of business within the Borough.
The broad reach of this general rule is limited in certain situations
by state and federal law.
The period from January 1 to December 31, inclusive.
Any individual, partnership, limited partnership, association,
firm or corporation. Whenever used in any clause prescribing or imposing
a penalty, the term "person," as applied to associations, shall mean
the partners or members thereof, and as applied to corporations, the
officers thereof.
Retail vendors of or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise;
that is, those vendors or dealers who are not wholesale vendors or
dealers.
The person or firm contracted with to collect said tax.
A person subject to the payment of the tax imposed by this
article.
The period from January 1 to December 31, inclusive.
The Treasurer of the Borough of Sharon Hill.
Any person who sells to dealers in or vendors of goods, wares
and merchandise for sale.
There is hereby levied for the tax year 1986 and annually thereafter
a tax for general revenue purposes on the privilege of doing business
as herein defined in the Borough of Sharon Hill as follows:
A.ย
Imposition of tax. Effective for the tax year beginning January 1,
2015, and each year thereafter, the rate for the business privilege
tax shall be as follows: 1) one mill on each and every dollar of the
whole or gross volume of business transacted within the territorial
limits of the Borough of Sharon Hill; 2) 1/2 mill on each and every
dollar of the whole or gross volume of business transacted by wholesale
dealers or vendors within the territorial limits of the Borough of
Sharon Hill; 3) one mill on
all non-wholesale whole or gross business of such wholesale dealers
or vendors within the territorial limits of the Borough of Sharon
Hill. In no event shall this article be construed to require that
any taxpayer pay to the Borough of Sharon Hill a tax pursuant to the
Business Privilege Tax Ordinance that is in excess of the amount of
$75,000 annually.
[Amended 8-28-2014 by Ord. No. 1373]
B.ย
Computation of volume of business.
(1)ย
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced his business prior to the full calendar year prior to
the tax year shall compute his annual estimated gross volume of business
upon the actual gross amount of business transacted by him during
said immediately preceding calendar year. (As example, for the tax
year 1986, if a person is in business as of January 1, 1985, and continues
to be in business for the full calendar year, then the figures for
1985 shall be the basis for the computation for his annual estimated
gross volume of business.)
(2)ย
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced or who commences his business before the beginning of
the tax year but after the beginning of the full calendar year prior
to the tax year shall compute his estimated annual gross volume of
business for the tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted
by him during the prior calendar year, taking the monthly average
during said period and multiplying the same by 12. In the event that
he shall be in business fewer than 90 days in the prior calendar year,
he shall be permitted to use sufficient days in the calendar year
in which the tax year begins to equal 90 successive days after the
commencement of his business, to take a monthly average thereon, and
to multiply the average by 12.
(3)ย
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
has commenced or commences his business subsequent to the beginning
of the tax year, if there shall be less than three months from the
commencement of his business to the end of the tax year, shall compute
his annual gross volume of business upon the actual gross amount of
business transacted by him during the tax year; if there shall be
more than three months from the commencement of his business to the
end of the tax year, he shall compute his estimated gross volume of
business for such tax year upon the gross volume of business transacted
by him during the period from the commencement of his business to
the end of the tax year, taking the monthly average during the first
three months of business and multiplying the same by the number of
months from the commencement of business to the end of the tax year.
(4)ย
Every person subject to the payment of the tax hereby imposed who
engages in a business temporary, seasonal or itinerant by nature shall
compute his estimated gross amount of business to be transacted by
him for the period said person engages in such temporary, seasonal
or itinerant business within the Borough by a method to be determined
by the Tax Administrator.
(5)ย
The Tax Administrator is hereby authorized to accept payment under
protest of the amount of business privilege tax claimed by the Borough
in any case where the taxpayer disputes the validity or amount of
the Borough's claim for tax. If it is thereafter judicially determined
by a court of competent jurisdiction that the Borough has been overpaid,
the amount of the overpayment shall be refunded to the taxpayer. The
provisions of this section shall be applicable to cases in which the
facts are similar to those in a case litigated in a court of competent
jurisdiction.
C.ย
Persons, businesses and receipts exempted.
(1)ย
Persons and businesspersons employed for a wage or salary, nonprofit
corporations or associations organized for religious, charitable or
educational purposes, agencies of the Government of the United States
or of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the business of any political
subdivision or of any authority created or organized under and pursuant
to any act of assembly are exempt from the provisions of this article.
(2)ย
No such tax shall be assessed and collected on a privilege, transaction,
subject or occupation which has been held by the courts of Pennsylvania
to be the basis for the exemption from the imposition of a privilege
tax by a municipality.
(3)ย
Utilities. No such tax shall be assessed and collected on the gross
receipts from utility service of any person or company whose rates
of service are fixed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission or on any public utility service rendered by any such person
or company or on any privilege or transaction involving the rendering
of any such public utility service.
(4)ย
State tax on tangible property. No such tax shall be assessed and
collected on the privilege of employing such tangible property as
is subject to a state tax except on sales of admission to places of
amusement or on sales or other transfers of title or possession of
property.
D.ย
Determination of gross or whole volume of business. The gross or
whole volume of business upon which the tax hereunder is computed
shall include the gross consideration credited or received for or
on account of sales made, rentals and/or services rendered, subject
only to the following allowable deductions and exemptions:
(1)ย
The dollar volume of business transacted by wholesale and retail
dealers derived from the resale of goods, wares and merchandise taken
by any dealer as 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.
(2)ย
Refunds, credits or allowances given by a taxpayer to a purchaser
on account of defects in goods, wares or merchandise sold or on account
of goods, wares or merchandise returned.
(3)ย
Any commissions paid by a broker to another broker on account of
a purchase or sales contract initiated, executed or cleared with such
other broker.
(4)ย
Bad debts where the deduction is also taken in the same year for
federal income taxation purposes.
(5)ย
Taxes collected as agent for the United States of America, Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania or the Borough of Sharon Hill.
E.ย
Partial exemptions. Where the gross or whole volume of business in
its entirety cannot be subjected to the tax imposed by this article
by reason of the provision of law, the Tax Administrator, with the
approval of the Borough Council of the Borough of Sharon Hill, shall
establish rules and regulations and methods of allocation and evaluation
so that only the part of the gross or whole volume of business which
is properly attributable and allowable to doing business in the Borough
of Sharon Hill shall be taxed hereunder.
F.ย
Records. The taxpayer, to obtain the foregoing enumerated exclusions
and deductions, shall keep books and records of his business so as
to show clearly, accurately and separately the amount of such sales
and services as are excluded from the tax and the amounts of such
sales and services which he is entitled to deduct from the gross volume
of business as hereinbefore provided.
A.ย
Forms; certification. Every return shall be made upon a form furnished
by the Tax Administrator. Every person making a return shall certify
the correctness thereof by affidavit.
B.ย
Estimated returns; final returns. Every person subject to the tax
imposed by this article shall be required to file an estimated return
and a final return unless otherwise provided for in this article.
Each time an estimated return is required to be filed, the final return
shall be filed the following year. If it is determined that the amount
of tax paid in the estimated return was greater than required by the
final return, the taxpayer shall be entitled to either apply the overpayment
to the estimated return for the year in which the final return in
question is being filed or, in the alternative, is entitled to a refund.
In the event that the estimated tax was less than the amount finally
determined to be owed in the final return, the taxpayer shall be liable
to pay said tax upon the filing of the final return.
(1)ย
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this article who commenced
his business on or before January 1 of the full calendar year previous
to the beginning of any tax year shall, on or before the 15th day
of April of the tax year, file with the Tax Administrator an estimated
return setting forth his name, his business, his 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 tax due.
(2)ย
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this article who has commenced his business before the beginning of the tax year but after January 1 of the full calendar year previous to the beginning of the tax year shall, on or before the 15th day of April of the tax year, file with the Tax Administrator as estimated return setting forth his name, his business, business address and such other information as may be necessary in arriving at the estimated gross amount of business transacted by him as calculated under ยงย 332-36B(2) hereof in the amount of tax due.
(3)ย
Every person subject to the tax imposed by this article who commenced business subsequent to the beginning of any tax year shall, within 100 days from the date of commencing said business, file with the Tax Administrator either an estimated return or a final return, in accordance with ยงย 332-36B(3) hereof, setting forth his name, his business and business address and such other information as may be necessary in arriving at the estimated or actual gross amount of business transacted by him as calculated under ยงย 332-36B(3) hereof in the amount of tax due.
(4)ย
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 at the time application is made for the business privilege license file a return with the Tax Administrator setting forth his name, his business, his business address and such other information as may be necessary in arriving at the estimated gross amount of business to be transacted by him as calculated in accordance with ยงย 332-36B(4).
(5)ย
Any person going out of or ceasing to do business shall, within seven
days from the date of ceasing to do business, file a return showing
the actual gross volume of business conducted and done by such person
during the tax year in which said person ceased doing business and
pay the tax due as computed thereon at the rate herein provided for
at the time of filing said return. If such tax has been previously
paid based upon estimated gross receipts, the taxpayer shall be entitled
to a refund, without interest, of any excess tax paid for the tax
year in which business was terminated.
C.ย
Payment of tax and penalties for late payment. The business privilege
tax and mercantile tax levied pursuant to this article shall be due
and payable on the date on which the taxpayer is required to file
a return as set forth above, and if the same is not paid on said date,
10% shall be added thereto, plus an additional 1% for each month and
any fractional part of a month until paid.
A.ย
After the effective date of this article, any person desiring to
conduct or to continue any business as herein defined within the Borough
of Sharon Hill shall file with the Tax Administrator an application
for a business license and shall pay a fee as set from time to time
by resolution of Borough Council for the license and for each annual
renewal thereof.
[Amended 5-24-2012 by Ord. No. 1359]
B.ย
The license shall be conspicuously posted in the place of business
for which such license is issued and shall remain in effect for the
license year or fraction of year for which said license was issued.
In cases where more than one place of business is conducted, a separate
license shall be issued for each place of business. Any taxpayer who
is in default in payment of tax due hereunder shall be refused a license
until such tax is paid in full.
A.ย
Any person who shall conduct, transact or engage in any of the businesses
subject to the tax imposed by this article without having first secured
a business license for the year or any person who shall fail to file
a tax return as required by the provisions of this article or any
person who shall willfully file a false return shall, upon summary
conviction before a Magisterial District Judge of Delaware County,
be sentenced to pay a maximum fine as provided from time to time by
state statute, together with costs of prosecution, or to imprisonment
in the county jail for a term not to exceed 30 days, or both.
[Amended 7-14-1988 by Ord. No. 1180]
B.ย
Each day on which such person violated the article may be considered
as a separate offense and punishable as such as afore-provided.
A.ย
The Treasurer is charged with the duties of collecting and receiving
the taxes, fines and penalties imposed by this article. It shall be
his duty to keep a record showing the amount received by him from
each person paying the tax and the date of such receipt.
B.ย
The Tax Administrator and his duly appointed deputies, under the
direction of the Treasurer, are hereby empowered to prescribe, adopt
and promulgate rules and regulations relating to any matter pertaining
to the administration and enforcement of the article, including provisions
for the examination 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, and charged with enforcing the provisions
of this article and any rules and/or regulations promulgated pursuant
hereto.
C.ย
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 deputies shall assess said person on such an amount of whole
or gross volume of business as said Tax Administrator or his deputies
deem reasonable and appropriate. In all cases of assessment, the Tax
Administrator or his duly appointed deputies shall give the parties
assessed a notice in which shall be stated the trade, business, occupation
or class and the amount of the business privilege tax imposed or levied.
D.ย
The taxpayer shall maintain such records and books of account as
will enable him to make a true and accurate return in accordance with
the provisions of the article. Such accounts and records must disclose
in detail the gross volume of business and must be sufficiently complete
to enable the Tax Administrator or his deputies to verify all transactions.
The Tax Administrator or his deputies are hereby authorized to examine
the books, papers and records of any person or persons subject to
or supposed to be subject to the tax imposed by this article in order
to verify the accuracy of the return made or, if no return was made,
ascertain the tax due.
E.ย
Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Tax Administrator shall
have the right to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, as in other
cases.
Any information gained by the Tax Administrator or any other
official, agent or employee of the Borough 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.
A.ย
In each and every case and on a case-by-case basis, the Tax Administrator
or his duly appointed deputies, after having first obtained the written
consent and approval of the Borough of Sharon Hill, shall have the
power in the name of the Borough to institute proceedings against
any and all persons who violate the provisions of the article.
B.ย
Where legal action is brought for the recovery of this tax, the taxpayer
thereafter shall, in addition to penalties and interest, be responsible
and liable for collection costs, including attorney's fees.
A.ย
Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to empower the
Borough 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 Borough under the Constitution of the United States and
the laws and Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
B.ย
If the tax, or any provision thereof, imposed upon any person under
the provisions of the article shall be held by any court of competent
power or jurisdiction to be violation of the Constitution of the United
States or of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any other provisions
of the law, the decisions of the court shall not affect or impair
the right to impose the taxes or the validity of the taxes so imposed
upon other persons as herein provided.