Chapter 98 BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING.
Section 98-3.5 DUE DATES AND PENALTIES.
A.
Each person subject to a license tax shall apply for a
license prior to
beginning business if he was not subject to licensure in this
jurisdiction
on or before January 1 of the license year, or no later than March 1 of
the
license year if he has been issued a license for the preceding
year. The application
shall be on forms prescribed by the assessing official.
(Ord.
No. 13-96 Added
New Section # & Amended from former (98-3) 12-16-96-Effective Upon
Passage)
B.
The tax shall be paid with the application in the case of any license
not based
on gross receipts. If the tax is measured by the gross receipts of
the business,
the tax shall be paid on or before March 1; or thirty (30) days
after
beginning business for businesses not subject to licensure in this
jurisdiction
on or before January 1 of the license year.
(Ord.
No. 13-96 Added
New Section # & Amended from former (98-3) 12-16-96-Effective Upon
Passage)
(Ord.
No. 5-01 Amended 6-25-01-Effective Upon Passage)
C.
The assessing official may grant an extension of time 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; the tax is then 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, with a penalty of ten
percent of
the portion paid after the due date.
(Ord.
No. 13-96 Added
New Section # & Amended from former (98-3) 12-16-96-Effective Upon
Passage)
D.
A penalty of ten percent of the tax may be imposed upon
the failure to
file an application or the failure to pay the tax by the
appropriate due
date. Only the late filing penalty shall be imposed by the assessing
official
if both the application and payment are late; however, both penalties
may be
assessed if the assessing official determines that the taxpayer has a
history
of noncompliance. In the case of an assessment of additional tax made
by the
assessing official, if the application and, if applicable, the return
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 assessing official is not paid within thirty days, the
treasurer
or Finance Director may impose a ten percent late payment penalty.
If the
failure to file or pay was not the fault of the taxpayer, the penalties
shall
not be imposed, or if imposed, shall be abated by the official who
assessed
them. 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: (i) 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 (ii)
the taxpayer undertook significant steps to avoid or mitigate the
failure, such
as requesting appropriate extensions (where applicable), 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 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 assessing
official who
was aware of the relevant facts relating to the taxpayer's business
when he
provided the erroneous information.
E.
Interest shall be charged on the late payment of the tax from the due
date
until the date paid without regard to fault or other reason for
the late
payment. Whenever an assessment of additional or omitted tax by
the
assessing official 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,
assessed pursuant to this Chapter, 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
Virginia Code Section 58.1-3916.
No
interest shall accrue on an adjustment of estimated tax liability to
actual
liability at the conclusion of a base year. 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 thirty days from the date of the payment that
created the
refund or the due date of the tax, whichever is later.
(Ord.
No. 2-96 had Amended Entire Section as
(98-3) 2-12-96-Effective Upon Passage)
(Ord.
No. 13-96 Added
New Section # & Amended from former (98-3) 12-16-96-Effective Upon
Passage)