log in or create account

Davis Municipal Code Chapter 19

Licenses

19.03.090 Businesses subject to miscellaneous tax rates.

For every person conducting or carrying on any business hereinafter described in this section, the license tax shall be as set forth herein:

(a)Transportation and trucking—Every person not having a fixed place of business within the city and not being herein otherwise licensed or classified, who delivers goods, wares or merchandise of any kind by vehicle or who provides any service by the use of vehicles in the city, shall pay a business license tax of one hundred twenty dollars annually per vehicle; provided, that any such person may elect to pay a business license tax under the same section as a similar business with a fixed place of business within the city, measured by gross receipts from business done within the city.

(b)Dance halls, etc.—Public dance hall, nightclub or any place where dancing is permitted, two hundred dollars per year, in addition to the business license tax determined by gross receipts.

(c)Card rooms—Conducting a public card room where games of any kind are played with cards, six hundred dollars per year for the first table, one hundred eighty dollars per year for each additional table, in addition to the business license tax determined by gross receipts, exempting therefrom all fraternal organizations and labor unions, if no private individual operates the card room for a fee or percentage of the profits.

(d)Amusement circuses, menageries, tent shows, theatricals.

(1)Circus, carnival or other similar exhibition, three hundred dollars for each day; each circus or menagerie parade or procession on, over or along any public street or highway of the city, by any person not having a license to exhibit such circus, carnival or other similar exhibit in such city, three hundred dollars per day.

When the carnival, circus or tent show business license tax is paid,no additional license shall be required for shows, exhibitions, rides or devices within the carnival, circus or tent show.

"Carnival" shall include tent shows, games of skill, rides and devices.

(2)Lecture or traveling theatrical performance under or surrounded or partially enclosed by canvas, such as comedy, spoken drama, opera or concert, sixty dollars per day.

(3)Concessions or rides for children, other than carnivals, including miniature trains, merry-go-rounds, pony rides, speedways (small electric automobiles), small gasoline automobiles, etc., one hundred twenty dollars per year for each such ride device.

(4)Concessions or rides for adults, other than carnivals, including carrousels, loop-o-planes, aeroplanes, ferris wheels, sky fliers, scooters, whips, toonervilles, or ride devices of a similar character, one hundred twenty dollars per year for each such ride device.

(e)Bankrupt closeout sales, etc.—Owning, operating, opening, establishing, managing, maintaining or having charge of any location or place of business of any kind for the sale of any insolvent or bankrupt business, fire-damaged, closeout or other similar goods, wares or merchandise, one hundred twenty dollars for the first thirty days, plus thirty dollars per day over thirty days.

(f)Christmas trees, greens or card sales—Sale of Christmas trees, holly, berries, cards or other seasonal items, sixty dollars per season, except where business is conducted in connection with another regularly established place of business for which a license has been issued, or is conducted by and solely for the benefit of a charitable or nonprofit organization.

(g)Junk dealers or dealers in old and/or used articles—Every person, at a fixed place of business in the city, engaged in the business of carrying on or collecting, buying or selling, at either retail or wholesale, or otherwise dealing in junk and/or rubbish, waste material, refuse and/or any old rags, sacks, bottles, cans, papers, metals, jewelry, precious metals, rubber, bric-a-brac, cordage, truck or automobile tires, truck or automobile accessories and truck or automobile parts and other like articles, whether such can be sold or otherwise disposed of for the purpose of being treated, repaired or prepared so as to be used again in some other form, six hundred dollars per year.

(h)Pawnbrokers—Six hundred dollars per year.

(i)Occasional bazaar, crafts fair, etc.—The coordinator or promoter of the event shall pay a fee of thirty dollars per day for the entire event. This section shall only apply to occasional bazaars, crafts fairs, and the like, where individual artisans display for purposes of sale only such goods, crafts and works which they have personally created.

(j)Peddler — “Peddler” is defined as any person who sells and makes immediate delivery or offers for sale and immediate delivery any goods, wares, merchandise, service or thing in the possession of the seller, at any place in the city other than at a fixed place of business, but does not include salesmen or agents for wholesale houses or firms who sell to retail dealers for resale or sell to manufacturers for manufacturing purposes to bidders for public works or supplies. Every person, firm or corporation engaged in such a business (peddler) in the city shall pay a business license tax of four hundred fifty dollars per year per peddler, or thirty dollars per day per peddler. No peddler shall conduct business within the area bounded by B Street on the west, Fifth Street on the north, H Street on the east and First Street on the south during the annual three-day sidewalk sale conducted by the Davis Downtown Merchants Association. No peddler shall sell, nor shall a business license be granted for the sale of Silly String or any similar product that causes a foam-like material to be propelled out of an aerosol container on the annual Picnic Day conducted by the University of California at Davis.

(1) Peddlers of food products, produce and fresh cut flowers shall pay a business license tax of one hundred fifty dollars per year per peddler, or fifteen dollars per day per peddler.

(2) All other peddlers shall pay a business license tax of four hundred fifty dollars per year per peddler, or thirty dollars per day.

(k)Solicitor—"Solicitor" is defined as any person who engages in the business of going from place to place, and/or by telephone, selling or taking orders for or offering to sell or take orders for goods, wares or merchandise or other things of value for future delivery, or for services to be performed in the future. Every person, firm or corporation engaged in such a business in the city shall be required to pay a business license tax of four hundred fifty dollars per year per solicitor, or thirty dollars per day per solicitor. No solicitor shall conduct business within the area bounded by B Street on the west, Fifth Street on the north, H Street on the east and First Street on the south during the annual three-day sidewalk sale conducted by the Davis Downtown Merchants Association.*

(l)Owners or lessors of single-family dwellings (attached or detached), and of individual rooms in such dwellings shall pay a tax of twenty-five dollars per calendar year, or portion thereof for each such dwelling unit so used or offered for such use. For purposes of this section, a duplex shall be considered a single-family dwelling if one unit is occupied by the record owner thereof.** (Ord. No. 872; Ord. No. 904, § 1; Ord. No. 973, § 4; Ord. No. 976, § 1; Ord. No. 978, § 2; Ord. No. 994, § 1; Ord. No. 1269, § 3; Ord. No. 1278, § 1 Ord. 2164; § 1; Ord. No. 2344, § 1, Amended 09/15/2009)

*If the order of any court of competent jurisdiction or any valid passed statute or constitutional amendment prohibits tax increases without a vote of the electors in the city, and if the within amendment is declared to be a tax increase by a court of competent jurisdiction, then said subsection (k) of section 19.04.090 shall automatically, without further action of the city council, read as it did prior to passage of the amendment by Ordinance No. 1278.

**Section 19.04.090(l) of Chapter 19 of the Davis Municipal Code is hereby reinstated as written, and Business License Tax from owners or lessors of single family dwellings within the City will become due January 1, 2010 and each year thereafter.