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In construing the provisions of this chapter, except where otherwise declared or clearly apparent from the context, the following definitions shall be applied:

“Business” includes all activities, engaged in with the object of gain, benefit or advantage to the taxpayer or to another person or class, directly or indirectly.

“Cash discount” means a deduction from the invoice price of goods or charge for services which is allowed if the bill is paid on or before a specified date.

“City” means the city of Vancouver.

“Engaging in business” means:

1. Commencing, conducting, or continuing in business, and also the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, as well as liquidating a business when the liquidators thereof hold themselves out to the public as conducting such business.

2. This section sets forth examples of activities that constitute engaging in business in the city, and establishes safe harbors for certain of those activities so that a person who meets the criteria may engage in de minimis business activities in the city without having to pay a business license fee. The activities listed in this section are illustrative only and are not intended to narrow the definition of “engaging in business” in subsection (1) of this definition. If an activity is not listed, whether it constitutes engaging in business in the city shall be determined by considering all the facts and circumstances and applicable law.

3. Without being all-inclusive, any one of the following activities conducted within the city by a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on its behalf, constitutes engaging in business and requires a person to register and obtain a business license:

a. Owning, renting, leasing, maintaining, or having the right to use, or using, tangible personal property, intangible personal property, or real property permanently or temporarily located in the city.

b. Owning, renting, leasing, using, or maintaining an office, place of business, or other establishment in the city.

c. Soliciting sales.

d. Making repairs or providing maintenance or service to real or tangible personal property, including warranty work and property maintenance.

e. Providing technical assistance or service, including quality control, product inspections, warranty work, or similar services on or in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf.

f. Installing, constructing, or supervising installation or construction of, real or tangible personal property.

g. Soliciting, negotiating, or approving franchise, license, or other similar agreements.

h. Collecting current or delinquent accounts.

i. Picking up and transporting tangible personal property, solid waste, construction debris, or excavated materials.

j. Providing disinfecting and pest control services, employment and labor pool services, home nursing care, janitorial services, appraising, landscape architectural services, security system services, surveying, and real estate services including the listing of homes and managing real property.

k. Rendering professional services such as those provided by accountants, architects, attorneys, auctioneers, consultants, engineers, professional athletes, barbers, baseball clubs and other sports organizations, chemists, psychologists, court reporters, dentists, doctors, detectives, laboratory operators, teachers, veterinarians.

l. Meeting with customers or potential customers, even when no sales or orders are solicited at the meetings.

m. Training or recruiting agents, representatives, independent contractors, brokers or others, domiciled or operating on a job in the city, acting on its behalf, or for customers or potential customers.

n. Investigating, resolving, or otherwise assisting in resolving customer complaints.

o. In-store stocking or manipulating products or goods, sold to and owned by a customer, regardless of where sale and delivery of the goods took place.

p. Delivering goods in vehicles owned, rented, leased, used, or maintained by the person or another acting on its behalf.

4. If a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on the person’s behalf, engages in no other activities in or with the city but the following, it need not register and obtain a business license:

a. Meeting with suppliers of goods and services as a customer.

b. Meeting with government representatives in their official capacity, other than those performing contracting or purchasing functions.

c. Attending meetings, such as board meetings, retreats, seminars, and conferences, or other meetings wherein the person does not provide training in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf. This provision does not apply to any board of directors member or attendee engaging in business such as a member of a board of directors who attends a board meeting.

d. Renting tangible or intangible property as a customer when the property is not used in the city.

e. Attending, but not participating in, a “trade show” or “multiple vendor events.” Persons participating at a trade show shall review the city’s trade show or multiple vendor event ordinances.

f. Conducting advertising through the mail.

g. Soliciting sales by phone from a location outside the city.

5. A seller located outside the city merely delivering goods into the city by means of common carrier is not required to register and obtain a business license; provided, that it engages in no other business activities in the city. Such activities do not include those in subsection (4) of this definition.

The city expressly intends that engaging in business include any activity sufficient to establish nexus for purposes of applying the license fee under the law and the constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington. Nexus is presumed to continue as long as the taxpayer benefits from the activity that constituted the original nexus-generating contact or subsequent contacts.

“Extractor” means every person who, from his own land or from the land of another under a right or license granted by lease or contract, either directly or by contracting with others for the necessary labor or mechanical services, for sale or commercial use, mines, quarries, takes or produces coal, oil, natural gas, ore, stone, sand, gravel, clay, mineral or other natural resource product, or fells, cuts or takes timber or other natural products, or takes, cultivates, or raises fish, shellfish or other sea or inland water foods or products.

“Gross income of the business” means the value proceeding or accruing by reason of the transaction of the business engaged in and includes gross proceeds of sales, compensation for the rendition of services, gains realized from trading in stocks, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness, interest, discount, rents, royalties, fees, commissions, dividends and other emoluments however designated, 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 expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of losses.

“Gross proceeds of sales” means the value proceeding or accruing from the sale of tangible personal property and for services rendered without any deduction on account of the cost of property sold, the cost of materials used, labor costs, interest, discount paid, delivery costs, taxes or any other expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of losses.

“Manufacturer” means every person who, either directly or by contracting with others for the necessary labor or mechanical services, manufactures for sale or for commercial or industrial use from his own materials or ingredients any articles, substances, or commodities. When the owner of equipment or facilities furnishes or sells to the customer prior to manufacture all or a portion of the materials that become a part or whole of the manufactured article, the director of financial and management services shall prescribe equitable rules for determining tax liability.

“Person” or “company,” herein used interchangeably, means any person, individual, receiver, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, trust, estate, firm, copartnership, joint venture, club, company, joint stock company, business trust, corporation, association, society, or any group of individuals acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative, fraternal, nonprofit or otherwise, and also includes the United States or any instrumentality thereof, provided a valid tax may be levied upon or collected therefrom under the provisions of this chapter.

“Quarterly period” means the three-month period beginning on the first day of either the first, fourth, seventh or tenth month of any given year and ending on the last day of the third, sixth, ninth or twelfth month thereof.

“Sale” includes the exchange of property as well as the sale thereof for money; and also includes conditional sales contracts, leases with option to purchase and any other contract under which possession of the property is given to the purchaser but title is retained by the vendor as security for the payment of the purchase price. It shall also be construed to include the furnishing of food, drink, or meals for compensation, whether consumed upon the premises or not.

“Successor” means any person who shall, through direct or mesne conveyance, purchase or succeed to the business, or portion thereof, or the whole or any part of the stock of goods, wares or merchandise or fixtures or any interest therein of a taxpayer quitting, selling out, exchanging or otherwise disposing of his business. Any person obligated to fulfill the terms of a contract shall be deemed a successor to any contractor defaulting in the performance of any contract as to which such person is surety or guarantor.

“Tax” or “taxable year” means either the calendar year or the taxpayer’s fiscal year when permission is obtained from the director of financial and management services to use a fiscal year in lieu of the calendar year.

“Taxpayer” includes any individual, group of individuals, corporations or associations required to have a business license hereunder, or liable for any license fee or tax, or for the collection of any license fee or tax hereunder, or who engages in any business, or who performs any act, service, or labor receiving wages, salary, commission or other compensation having monetary value.

“To manufacture” embraces all the activities of a commercial or industrial nature wherein labor or skill is applied, by hand or machinery, to materials so that as a result thereof a new, different or useful article of tangible personal property is produced for sale or commercial or industrial use and shall include the production or fabrication of special-made or custom-made articles.

“Tuition fee” includes library, laboratory, health service and other special fees, and amounts charged for room and board by an educational institution when the property or service for which such charges are made is furnished exclusively to the students or faculty of such institution; provided, that the term “educational institution,” as herein used, shall be construed to mean only those institutions created or generally accredited as such by the state and offering to students an educational program of a general academic nature, or those institutions which are not operated for profit and which are privately endowed under a deed of trust to offer instruction in trade, industry and agriculture, but not including specialty schools, business colleges, trade schools or similar institutions.

“Value proceeding or accruing” means the consideration, whether money, credits, rights or other property expressed in terms of money, actually received or accrued. The term shall be applied, in each case, on a cash receipts or accrual basis according to which method of accounting is regularly employed in keeping the books of the taxpayer. The director of financial and management services may provide by regulation that the value proceeding or accruing from sales on the installment plan under conditional contracts of sale may be reported as of the dates when the payments become due.

Words in the singular number include the plural, and the plural include the singular. Words in one gender include the other gender also. (Ord. M-2265 § 1, 1981: Ord. M-769 § 1, 1965: Ord. M-203 § 2, 1954; Ord. M-4192, Amended, 02/06/2017, Section 2-Effective 05/01/2017; Ord. M-203, Amended, 12/07/1954)