HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinances - 2018-09 - Amending Section 5.04.020, 5.04.060 Business License definitions and process - 7/24/2018
City of East Wenatchee Ordinance 2018-09
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City of East Wenatchee, Washington
Ordinance No. 2018-09
An Ordinance of the City of East Wenatchee updating the City’s process of regulating business-license fees by amending Section 5.04.020 of the East Wenatchee Municipal Code and by amending Section 5.04.060 of the East Wenatchee Municipal Code.
Una Ordenanza de la Ciudad de East Wenatchee actualizando el
proceso de regular las tarifas de licencias comerciales por parte de la Ciudad al enmendar la Sección 5.04.020 del Código Municipal de East Wenatchee y al enmendar la Sección 5.04.060 del Código Municipal de East Wenatchee.
1. Alternate format.
1.1. Para leer este documento en otro formato (español, Braille, leer en voz alta, etc.), póngase en contacto con el vendedor de la ciudad al alternatformat@east-wenatchee.com, al (509) 884-9515 o al 711 (TTY).
1.2. To read this document in an alternate format (Spanish, Braille, read aloud, etc.), please contact the City Clerk at alternateformat@east-wenatchee.com, at (509) 884-9515, or at 711 (TTY).
2. Recitals.
2.1. The City of East Wenatchee (“City”) is a non-charter code City duly incorporated and operating under the laws of the State of Washington.
2.2. The legislature recently enacted RCW 35.90.080. The effective date of this statute is 7/23/17.
2.3. Working with the Association of Washington Cities, the Department of Revenue composed a model ordinance to regulate general business licenses.
2.4. RCW 35.90.080 requires the City to adopt the mandatory provisions of the model ordinance.
City of East Wenatchee Ordinance 2018-09
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2.5. The first mandatory provision of the model ordinance requires the City to adopt the model ordinance’s definition of “engaging in business.
2.6. The second mandatory provision of the model ordinance
requires the City to adopt a uniform minimum licensing threshold
under which a person would be relieved of the requirement to
obtain a city's general business license.
2.7. Because the City has partnered with the Business Licensing Services provided by the Department of Revenue, the City’s deadline for adopting the mandatory provisions of the model ordinance is October 17, 2018.
2.8. RCW 35.90.090 states, “A city that has not complied with the requirements of this section by January 1, 2019, may not enforce its general business licensing requirements on any person until the date that the mandatory provisions of the model ordinance take effect within the city.”
3. Authority.
3.1. RCW 35A.11.020 and RCW 35A.12.190 authorize the City Council to adopt ordinances of all kinds to regulate its municipal affairs and appropriate to the good government of the City.
3.2. RCW 35.90.080 requires the City to adopt the mandatory provisions of the model ordinance composed by the Department of Revenue.
City of East Wenatchee Ordinance 2018-09
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Retain Ordinance until no longer needed for City-business, then transfer to Washington State Archives (GS50-05A-16 Rev. 1)
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EAST WENATCHEE DO ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
4. Purpose. The purpose of this ordinance is to update the City Clerk
powers, duties, and responsibilities.
5. Amendment. The City Council amends Section 5.04.020D of the East Wenatchee Municipal Code to read:
D. “Engaging in business” means commencing, conducting or continuing in any business, and also the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, as well as liquidating a business when the liquidators hold themselves out to the public as conducting such business.
D. "Engaging in business"
1. The term “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.
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
minimus 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. 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.
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(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, consultants, 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.
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(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 director 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.
City of East Wenatchee Ordinance 2018-09
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Retain Ordinance until no longer needed for City-business, then transfer to Washington State Archives (GS50-05A-16 Rev. 1)
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.
6. 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.
6. Amendment. The City Council amends Section 5.04.060 of the East Wenatchee Municipal Code to read:
The license and license fee provisions of this chapter do not apply to the following persons, sales, or services, unless otherwise indicated: A. A governmental entity including public and private elementary, secondary, high schools, and universities; B. A person who delivers newspapers or periodicals; C. A person soliciting orders from retail establishments for the delivery and sale of goods, wares and merchandise to retailers for resale unless located within the city; D. A person or organization conducting a nonprofit enterprise when the enterprise is operated without private profit, for a public, charitable, educational, literary, fraternal or religious purpose is exempt only from the city license fee required by this chapter, but must comply with the business licensing requirement as outlined in EWMC 5.04.120; E. A person under the age of 18 engaged in babysitting; F. A person selling his or her own produce; G. A person that the city is forbidden to tax by law;