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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrd1956-267 -1 ~-.....-----_. "-- ,- -~~T- " \ , ORDINANCE NO. 267 AN ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR THE LEVY AND COLLECTION OF A CONSUMER'S SALES TAX OF 2 PER CENT OF THE SELLING PRICE ON ALL RETAIL SALES AND SERVICES OF 25 CENTS AND MORE MADE WITHIN THE CITY OF <::EW ARD. ALASKA. PROCEEDS THEREOF TO BE PLACED IN A SPECIAL PURPOSE ACCOUNT TO BE USED FOR SAID SPECIAL PURPOSE; PROVIDING FOR ADMINISTRATION AND METHODS OF COLLECTION OF SUCH TAX; PROVIDING PENALTIES; FOR OTHER RELATED PURPOSES; AND REPEALING TAX ORDINANCE NO. 190-A. WHEREAS. a special election was called and held in conformity and under the provisions of subsection Ninth, Section 16 1-35. ACLA 1949. as amended by Section 1. Chapter 38 of the Session Laws of Alaska, 1949. on the 8th day of September. 1919. and at said election more than 55% of the qualified voters of the City of Seward. Alaska. voting thereat voted in favor of a 2~ consumer's sales tax on retail sales and services made within the City of Seward, and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Seward on the 23rd of September. 1949 enacted a consumer's sales tax by the passage of Tax Ordinance No. 190-A for the purpose of providing additional funds for the construction and operation of more adequate educational and public health facilities and to provide for betterment of the schools and to pay for such school obligations. public health and sanitation. and WHEREAS. the City Council of the City of Seward has determined that Tax Ordinance No. 190-A should be completely revised. NOW. THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED By the City Council of the City of Seward. Alaska: SECTION 1. Levy andSollectlo!!.. of Tax. From and after the effect- ive date of this Ordinance. there shall be levied and collected a tax on retail sales and services made within the City of Seward equal to two per cent (2%) of the selling price and/ or charge made for services rendered. when such selling price and/or charge made amounts to twenty-five (25) cents or more. SECTION 2. Computation of Tax. The tax on retail sales, which shall be payable by the retailer. shall be two per cent (2%) of the gross revenue computed in dollars derived from all taxable retail sales made within the City; and the tax on services rendered. which shall be payable by the person. firm or corporation performing the services. shall be two per cent (210) of the gross remuneration computed in dollars derived from taxable services performed within the City; provided, that "remuneration for services" shall not be construed to include salaries or wages received by an employee from an employer. but shall include the gross remuneration for furnishing labor and materials for accomplishing a specific result. SECTION 3. Definitions. (A) For the purpose of this Ordinance the term "selling price" means the consideration, whether money. credit, rights or other property. expressed in the terms of money. paid or deliver- ed by a buyer to a seller. all without any deduction on account of the cost of tangible property sold. the cost of materials used, labor costs. interest. discount, delivery costs, taxes or any other expenses whatsoever paid or accrued, and without any deduction on account of losses. - 1 - (B) The term "seller" and the term "vendor" means every person, firm or corporation making sales at retail to a buyer or consumer, whether as agent, broker, or principal; and the term includes persons performing services for remuneration. (C) The term IIbuyerll and the term "consumerll include, without limiting the scope thereof, every individual, receiver, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, trust estate, firm, co-partnership, joint venture, club, company, joint stock company, business trust, corporation, associa- tion, society, or any group:of individuals acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative, fraternal, non-profit or otherwise. SECTION 4. Sales Subject to Tax. Retail sales on which the tax is levied shall include but not be limited to sales of the following: (A) All tangible personal property, except that the tax on the sale of new automobiles shall not exceed the sum of Twenty (20) Dollars and that the tax on used automobiles shall be 2" of the selling price, but not in excess of Five Dollars ($5.00). (B) Natural or artificial gas, electricity, ice, steam or any public service or public utility, including water. (C) Transportation for hire of persons or property by common carriers, including motor transpoI1ation, taxicab companies and all other means of transportation for hire. (D) Services by telephone companies to subscribers or users, including transmission of messages, whether local or long distance. This shall include all services and rental charges having any connection with transmission of messages. (E) Printing matter or printing of all types, kinds, and characters and the service of printing or over printing. (F) The service of renting rooms by hotels, motels, rooming houses, and public lodging houses. The term IIroom" also means any housing accommodation in a motor court, any trailer, or ground rented as trailer space, and also all business office or offices; provided, however, that the renting of not more than one non-housekeeping furnished accommo- dation located within a single dwelling unit, not used as a rooming or boarding house, where the remaining portion of such dwelling unit is occupied by the landlord or his immediate family, shall not be included in this definition. (G) The service of renting apartments, housekeeping rooms or other self-contained dwelling units: provided, however, that the renting of not more than one of said apartments, housekeeping rooms or other self-contained dwelling units shall not be included in this defipition. - 2 - (H) Foods, confections and all drinks sold and dispensed by hotels, restaurants, or other dispensers, and sold for immediate comsumption upon the premises or delivered or carried away from the premises for consumption elsewhere. (1) Advertising of all kinds, types and characters originating in Seward or adjacent areas, including any and all devices used for advertising purposes and the servicing of advertising devices. (J) Gross proceeds derived from the operation of marble machines, juke boxes, merchandise vending machines or amusement devices of any kind. (K) The sale of tickets or admissions to places of amusement, to athletic entertainment, recreational events, or dues or fees for the privilege of having access to or the use of amusement, entertainment, athletic or recreational facilities, including free or complimentary passes and tickets, admissions, dues, or fees. Such free or compli- mentary passes and tickets, dues or fees are hereby declared to have a value equivalent to the sale price or value of said tickets, passes, admissions, fees, or dues. (L) For the purposes of this Ordinance, sales and services of tangible personal property made for the purpose of develojping and improving real estate even though such real estate is intended for re- sale as real property, are hereby declared to be sales to consumers or users. Sales and/or services of tangible personal property, including materials, supplies and equipment, made to contractors who use same in the performance of any contract, are hereby declared to be sales to consumers or users and not sales for resale. Sales of tangible personal property to persons who are primarily engaged in selling their services shall be deemed sales to consumers or users and therefore taxable. SECTION 5. Exceptio~ and exem....Etion~ (A) The gross receipts or gross proceeds derived from the sale of tangible personal property or services to or by churches, except where such organizations may be engaged in business for profit or sav- ings, competing with other persons engaged in the same or similar business. (B) Gross receipts or proceeds derived from the transportation to and from grade or high schools in motor or other vehicles. (C) Gross receipts or proceeds derived from the sale of food on public school cafeterias or lunch rooms operated primarily for teachers and pupils, and not operated primarily for the public and not operated for profit. (D) Gross receipts or proceeds derived from carrier sales made directly to consumers or users of newspapers or any other periodicals. (E) Gross receipts or proceeds from servicing, freezing, storing, handling or wharfing of fish or any other such commodities awaiting shipment or in the process of being shipped. - 3 - r (F) Gross receipts or proceeds derived from sales to the United States Government, Territory of Alaska, or any of its political sub- divisions. (G) Gross receipts or proceeds derived from legal, medical or dental services rendered, and from the sale of medicinal p~parations when prescribed in writing by any licensed practitioner; hospital services and funeral charges. (H) Retail sales and for remuneration for services amounting to less than $100.00 in any calendar year. (I) Casual and isolated sales not made in the regular course of business. (J) Sales of insurance and bonds of guaranty and fidelity. (K) Dues or fees to clubs, labor unions, or fraternal organizations. (L) Gross receipts derived from the sale of real property; except- ing the gross receipts earned as commissions by agents shall be taxaJj. e. SECTION 6. Tax due when - Filing of returns, records. (A) The tax levied hereunder shall be due and payable at the expir- ation of each month's business by any person or corporation liable for the payment of any tax due under this Ordinance and for the purpose of ascer- taining the amount of the tax payable under this Ordinance, it shall be the duty of all taxpayers on or before the 19th day of the month immediately following the close of each month to deliver to the City Clerk upon forms prescribed and furnished by him, returns under Oath, showing the gross receipts or gross proceeds arising from all sales taxable or non-taxable under this Ordinance, during the preceeding month; and thereafter like returns shall be prepared and delivered to the said City Clerk by all such taxpayers on or before the lOth day of each succeeding month. Such returns shall show such further information as the City Clerk may require to enable him to compute correctly and collect the tax herein levied. In addition to the information required on returns, the City Clerk may request and the taxpayer must furnish any information deemed necessary for a correct computation of the tax. Such taxpayer shall compute and remit to the City Clerk the required tax due for the preceed- ing month, and the remittance or remittances of the tax must accompany the returns herein required. If not paid on or before the lOth day of each month immediately following the close of each month, the tax shall be delinquent from such date, and collection will be enforced under the terms of the Ordinance as set forth in paragraph four of Section 7. (B) It shall be the duty of every taxpayer required to make a return and pay any tax under this Ordinance, to keep and preserve suitable records of the gross daily sales togethe r with invoices of purchases and sales, bills of lading, bills of sale and other pertinent records and docu- ments which may be necessary to determine the amount of tax due here- under and such other records of goods, wares, merchandise and other - 4 - ~,..~..~~-..._.............. '''.'.-~''''- ,., .."'" ,., ,"'- subjects of taxation under this Ordinance as will substantiate and prove the accuracy of such returns. It shall also be the duty of every person who makes sales for resale to keep records of such sales which shall be subject to examination by the City Clerk or any authorized employee thereof while engaged in checking or auditing the records of any taxpayer required to make a report under the terms of this Ordinance, and cause the books to be audited and examined. All such records shall remain in the City of Seward and be pre- served for a period of three (3) years, unless the City Clerk in writing, has authorized their destruction or disposal at an earlier date, and shall be open to examination at any time by the City Clerk or anyauthor- ized employee thereof while engaging in checking such records. The burden of prov~ that a sale was not a taxable sale shall be upon the person or persons making the sale. SECTION 7. Vendor's duty to collect tax - Failure to comply - Rebate to consumer prohibited. (A) The tax levied hereunder shall be paid by the consumer or user to the vendor, and it shall be the duty of each and every vendor of the City to collect from the consumer or user, the full amount of the tax imposed by this Ordinance, except that the tax on receipts of proceeds from various mechanical devices as stipulated in paragraph (J), Section 4, shall be paid by the owner and/ or operator thereof. (B) Vendors shall add the tax imposed under this ordinance, or the average equivalent thereof, to the sales price or charge, and wilen so added such tax shall constitute a part of such price or charge and shall be recoverable at law in the same manner as other debts. P rformers and/ or sellers of services shall be considered vendors for the purpose of this Section. (C) Vendors shall add this tax to the sale price or service charge in strict accordance with the following scale: COLLECTION SCALE Sales Tax .24 & under. -- ------------------------------- None .25 to .50-- - ------------------------------- .01 .51 to 1. 24 ---------------------- ------------- .02 1.25 to 1.50 ---------------------- - ---------- .03 1.51 to2.24----------------------------------- .04 2.25 to 2.50--- ------------------------------- .65 2.51 to 3.24- --------- ----------------------- .06 3.25 to 3.50 ----------------------------------- .07 3.51 to 4.24-- ---------------------- ----------. 08 4.25 to 4.50------------------- ---------------- .09 4.51 to 5.00---------------- ------------------ .10 Over $5. Oo--------------straight 2% except as provided in Sec. 4 (A) (D) Any seller who willfully or intentionally fails, neglects or refuses to collect the tax imposed by this Ordinance; or fails, ne<<lects or refuses to comply with the provisions of this Ordinance; - 5 - or remits or rebates to a buyer or consumer, either directly or indirectly or by whatever means, all or any part of the tax levied hereunder; or makes in any form of advertising, verbally or other- wise, any statement which indicates or infers that he is absorbing the tax, or paying the tax for the buyer or consumer or user by an adjustment of prices or at a price including the tax; or in any manner whatsoever. shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished in the manner hereinafter provided. SECTION 8. Discount. At the time of transmitting the returns required under this Ordinance to the City Clerk, the person or persons filing such returns shall remit therewith to the City Clerk, except as hereinafter provided, ninety-seven per cent (97%) of the tax due under this Ordinance, and the failure to remit such tax at the time of filing the returns shall cause said tax to become delinquent; provided how- ever, in the event the payment of any tax due under the applicable provisions of this Ordinance becomes and remains delinquent for a period of five days (5), the taxpayer forfeits his claim to the three per cent (3'0) discount and must remit to the City Clerk one hundred per cent (100%) of the tax due. This discount is allowed the seller or vendor to compensate for his keeping sales tax records. filing returns and remitting the tax when due as required by this. SECTION 9. Designating ~d~~itor~nd providing for admin- istration. (A) All monies accumulated under the terms of this Ordinance shall be deposited by the City Clerk with the First National Bank of Anchorage, Seward Branch in an account to be titled "Education and Public Health and Sanitation", and no part of these funds may be di- verted to any other than herein stipulated except that the City Council may direct the City Clerk to invest any portion thereof in United States Government Bonds, pending its immediate need for those stipulated purposes. (B) Expenditures from this fund may be made at the discretion of the City Council, by Resolution or Ordinance, but only for the pur- pose of operating, maintaining. improving or increasing public educa- tional facilities, public health, and sanitation. SECTION 10. Enforcement of the Act. Whenever the City Council by a resolution or ordinance, authorizes and requires the inspection of the books and records - sales books or otherwise- of any person or corporation coming under the jurisdiction of the Ordinance, it shall become the duty of such person or corporation to forthwith faithfully and openly allow said inspection to be made by the authorized person designated by the City Council to make such inspection. The inspection aforesaid shall be limited in its examination of the purchase books to show the gross amount of purchases and the sales books to show the gross amount of sales and other records necessary to enable the author- izatild person to check, determine' and levy the two per cent (2%) sales tax in cases where it is doubtful that the full amount of tax has .been previously accounted for and paid and that this inspection shall be used for the purpose of finding the amount of exact tax due to the city only. - 6 - , I '. . \ The refusal to permit full inspection of the books of a taxpayer or person or corporation coming within the purview of this act, or to refuse to report upon the monthly accounts, or to remit the tax due under this Ordinance will be a violation of this Ordinance and is hereby declared to be a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished in the manner hereinafter provided. Any buyer or consumer who willfully or intentionally fails, neglects or refuses to pay to the seller said tax shall be guilty of a misdemeaul' and on conviction thereof shall be punished in the manner hereinafter provided. SECTION 11. Penalty. Any person, firm, co-partnership or corporation violating any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined Dot less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00) nor more than One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00); and upon conviction of a second or subsequent offense shall be fined not less than One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) nor more than Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00), or imprisoned in the City Jail not more than thirty (30) days, or both such fine and imprison- ment in the discretion of the City Magist!'.te, and shall pay the costs of prosection. Each act of violation and every day upon which any such violation shall occur shall constitute a separate offense. The penalty provided by this section shall, unless another penalty is expressly provided, apply to the amendment of any section of this Ordinance whether or not such penalty is reenacted in the amendatory ordinance. SECTION 12. Partial Invalidity. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this Ordinance is held to be invalid, the decision shall not affect the validity or meaning of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council declares that it would have passed this Ordinance, and each section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that anyone or more sections, sub- sections, sentences, clauses, or phrases be declared invalid. Ordinance No. 190-A is hereby expressly repealed, and all ordinances and parts of Ordinances in conflict with this Ordinance are hereby repealed. provided however, that any taxes now due and payable under said Ordinance 190-A shall be paid as therein provided. This Ordinance shall take effect and be in full force from and after the date of its passage and approval. This Ordinance passed and approved this iday Of~, 1956. ~~-~-- - ""1 Mayor Attest: ?:rA.J~ City ClerY;