§ 5.04.030. Definitions.

Except where the context otherwise requires, the following terms shall, for the purposes of this chapter, have the following meanings:

"Business" means any activity, enterprise, profession, trade or undertaking of any nature conducted or engaged in, with the object of gain, benefit or advantage, whether direct or indirect, to the taxpayer or to another or others. Business shall include any transaction which is or which, in effect results in a sale, but shall not include the services rendered by an employee to his or her employer.

"Certificate" means business tax certificate.

"City" or "city" means the City of Oakland.

"Engaging in business" means 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.

"Gross receipts," except as otherwise specifically provided, means the taxpayer's gross receipts of the preceding fiscal year or part thereof, and is defined as follows: the total amount actually received or receivable from all sales; the total amount or compensation actually received or receivable for the performance of any act or service, of whatever nature it may be, for which a charge is made or credit allowed, whether or not such act or service is done as a part of or in connection with the sale of materials, goods, wares or merchandise; discounts, rents, royalties, fees, commissions, dividends, and gains realized from trading in stocks or bonds, or other emoluments, however designated. Included in "gross receipts" shall be all receipts, cash, credits and property of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, or losses or other expenses whatsoever, except that the following shall be excluded therefrom:

1.

Cash discounts allowed and taken on sales;

2.

Credit allowed on property accepted as part of the purchase price and which property may later be sold, at which time the sales price shall be included as gross receipts;

3.

Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the consumer or purchaser;

4.

Such part of the sale price of any property returned by purchasers to the seller as refunded by the seller by way of cash or credit allowances or return of refundable deposits previously included in gross receipts;

5.

Receipts from investments where the holder of the investment receives only interest and/or dividends, royalties, annuities and gains from the sale or exchange of stock or securities solely for a person's own account, not derived in the ordinary course of a business.

6.

Receipts derived from the occasion sale of used, obsolete or surplus trade fixtures, machinery or other equipment used by the taxpayer in the regular course of the taxpayer's business;

7.

Cash value of sales, trades or transactions between departments or units of the same business;

8.

Receipts of community chest funds, foundations or corporations organized and operated for religious or charitable purposes, which are not conducted for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefits of any private shareholder or individual;

9.

Receipts of nonprofit educational institutions of collegiate grade, defined herein to mean institutions incorporated as colleges or seminaries under the laws of the State of California; receipts of nonprofit secondary schools which are duly accredited by the University of California, and receipts of nonprofit elementary schools in which instruction is given to students in the preprimary grades in the several branches or studies required to be taught in the public schools of the State of California;

10.

Whenever there are included within the gross receipts amounts which reflect sales for which credit is extended and such amount proved uncollectible in a subsequent year, those amounts may be excluded from the gross receipts in the year they prove to be uncollectible; provided, however, if the whole or portion of such amounts excluded as uncollectible are subsequently collected, they shall be included in the amount of gross receipts for the period when they are recovered;

11.

Transactions between partnership and its partners;

12.

Receipts from services or sales in transactions between affiliated corporations. An affiliated corporation is a corporation:

a.

The voting and nonvoting stock of which is owned at least eighty (80%) percent by such other corporation with which such transaction is had, or

b.

Which owns at least eighty (80%) percent of the voting and nonvoting stock of such other corporation, or

c.

At least eighty (80%) percent of the voting and nonvoting stock of which is owned by a common parent corporation which also has such ownership of the corporation with which such transaction is had.

13.

Transactions between a limited liability company and its member(s), provided the limited liability company has elected to file as a subchapter K entity under the Internal Revenue Code and that such transaction(s) shall be treated the same as between a partnership and its partner(s) as specified in subsection 11 above.

"Newly established business" is defined as:

1.

A business in operation in the city for the first time;

2.

An additional location of an existing business, which location goes into operation in the city for the first time;

3.

A business which resumes operation in the city after having been out of operation in the city during the entire previous tax year; or

4.

An existing business in the city which in a single tax year sells eighty (80%) percent or more of its ownership to the same person, except that such sale shall not create a newly established business if the sale is:

a.

Between departments or units of the same business,

b.

Between a partnership and its partners, or

c.

Between "affiliated corporations" as that term is defined in subsection 12 above.

"Person" or "persons" means any natural person, receiver, administrator, executor, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, trust, estate, firm, co-partnership, joint venture, club, company, joint stock company, business trust, limited liability company, municipal corporation, political subdivision of the state of California, domestic or foreign corporation, association, syndicate, society, or any group of individuals acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative, fraternal, nonprofit, or otherwise, and the United States or any instrumentality thereof, and any natural person, who as an individual or with a spouse, owns fifty-one (51%) percent or more of the capital stock of a corporation obligated to file a declaration and pay tax pursuant to this chapter; and in addition, is a person with the power to control the fiscal decision-making process by which the corporation allocates funds to creditors in preference to its tax obligations under the provisions of this chapter. A person as defined herein, who is also an officer or director of a corporation obligated to file declarations and pay tax pursuant to this chapter, shall be presumed to be a person with the power to control the fiscal decision-making process. Whenever the term "person" is used in any clause prescribing and imposing a penalty, the term as applied to association shall mean the owners or part owners thereof, and as applied to corporation, the officers thereof.

"Sale" and "sell" shall be deemed to include and refer to: The making of any transfer of title, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, to property for a price, and to the serving, supplying or furnishing, for a price of any property fabricated or made at the special order of consumers who do or do not furnish directly or indirectly the specifications therefor. A transaction whereby the possession of property is transferred, but the seller retains the title as security for the payment of the price, shall likewise be deemed a sale.

Shall and May. "Shall" is mandatory, "may" is permissive.

(Ord. 12838 § 3 (part), 2007; Ord. 12208 § 1, 3, 2000; prior code § 5-1.02, 5-1.02(a)( 5-1.02(i))