Chap. 280.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 12 in relation to tax on
wills and administrations; to amend and re-enact section 45 in relation
to merchants; to amend and re-enact section 46 in relation to merchant’s
licenses; to amend and re-enact section 49 in relation to commission
merchant’s license; to amend and re-enact section 50 in relation to sale
by peddlers, as amended and re-enacted by chapter 271, acts of assembly,
1902-3-4; to amend and re-enact section 51, in relation to peddler’s
license as amended and re-enacted by chapter 99, acts of assembly, 1908;
to repeal section 68 in relation to license to retailers of tobacco and to
require them to be licensed as merchants; to amend and re-enact sec-
tion 8§ in relation to undertaker’s license, as amended and re-enacted
by chapter 20, acts of 1904; to amend and re-enact section 130 in re-
lation to persons operating laundries, as amended and re-enacted by
chapter 20, acts of assembly, 1904; of an-act approved April 16, 1903,
entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of the government and
public free schools and to pay the interest on the public debt, and to
provide a special tax for pensions as authorized by section 189 of the
Constitution. (H. B. 379.)

Approved March 25, 1914.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section twelve, in relation to tax on wills and administrations; to
amend and re-enact section forty-five in relation to merchants; to
amend and re-enact section forty-six in relation to merchants’ li-
censes; to amend and re-enact section forty-nine in relation to com-
mission merchants’ licenses; to amend and re-enact section fifty in
relation to sale by peddlers, as amended and re-enacted by chapter
two hundred and seventy-one, acts of assembly, nineteen hundred
and two, three and four; to amend and re-enact section fifty-one,
in relation to peddlers’ license, as amended and re-enacted by chap-
ter ninety-nine, acts of assembly, nineteen hundred and eight; to
repeal section sixty-eight in relation to license to retailers of tobacco
and to require them to be licensed as merchants; and to amend and
re-enact section eighty-eight in relation to undertaker’s license, as
amended and re-enacted by chapter twenty, acts of nineteen hun-
dred and four; to amend and re-enact section one hundred and
thirty in relation to persons operating laundries, as amended and
re-enacted by chapter twenty, acts of assembly, nineteen hundred
and four; of an act approved April sixteenth, nineteen hundred
and three, entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of the
government and public free schools and to pay the interest on the
public debt, and to provide a special tax for pensions as authorized
by section one hundred and eighty-nine of the Constitution, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 12. Tax on wills and administrations—On the probate of
every will or grant of administration, not exempt by law, there
shall be a tax of one dollar, where the estate, real or personal or
mixed, passing by such will or by intestacy of the decedent, shall
not exceed one thousand dollars, and for every additional one hun-
dred dollars, or fraction of one hundred, an additional tax of ten
cents; and no one shall be permitted to qualify and act as executor
or administrator until said tax shall have been paid; and should
it thereafter appear that on the probate of said will or grant of ad-
ministration the estate has been undervalued, the commissioner of
accounts before whom the appraisement is directed to be filed, shall
report such fact to the court, whereupon the said tax shall forth-
with be paid to the clerk of the court in which said will was admitted
to probate or letters of administration granted, and said estate
shall not be distributed until such inventory has been filed and
the tax paid.

When an estate is committed to a sheriff to be administered, he
‘ shall be required to pay said tax as soon as sufficient assets of said
estate shall have come into his hands; provided, that said tax shall
be charged only upon the value of such estate—real, personal or
mixed—the legal situs of which for taxation was in Virginia during
the lifetime of decedent.

Sec. 45. Every person, firm, company or corporation engaged
in the business of a merchant shall pay a license tax for the
privilege of doing business in this State to be graduated by the
amount of purchases made by him during the period for which the
license is granted, and all goods, wares and merchandise manu-
factured by such merchant and sold, or offered for sale, in this
State as merchandise shall be considered as purchases within the
meaning of this section; provided, that this section shall not be con-
strued as applying to manufacturers taxed on capital by this State,
who offer for sale at the place of manufacture goods, wares and
merchandise, manufactured by them. To ascertain the amount of
purchases, it shall be the duty of such merchant, on the first day
of April of each year, or within ten days thereafter, to make report
in writing under oath, to the commissioner of the revenue for the
district for which he was licensed, showing the amount of goods
actually bought by him during the next preceding twelve months.
The form of the report required by this section shall be prepared
by the auditor of public accounts and furnished to each commis-
sioner of the revenue, and by him distributed to each licensed mer-
chant; and each commissioner shall, in the mode prescribed for
making such report by him of violations of the revenue law, report
every merchant who shall fail to comply with the requirements of
this section. Any person violating the provisions of this section
shall pay a fine of not less than thirty dollars, nor more than one
thousand dollars, for each offense.

Sec. 46. For every license to a merchant, mercantile firm, com-
pany or corporation as defined in section forty-five, engaged in the
business of a merchant, the amount to be paid shall be graduated as
follows: If the amount of purchases shall not exceed one thousand
dollars, the amount shall be five dollars. When purchases exceed
one thousand dollars, but do not exceed two thousand dollars, the
amount shall be ten dollars; and for all purchases over two thou-
sand dollars and less than fifty thousand dollars, there shall be
paid thirty cents on the one hundred dollars; and upon all the pur-
chases over fifty thousand dollars, there shall be paid ten cents on
every hundred dollars in excess of fifty thousand dollars; provided,
further that goods, wares and merchandise not belonging to a mer-
chant which are offered for sale by the merchant or by another per-
son at the merchant’s duly licensed place of business shall require
such merchant to take out the license of a commission merchant. The
sums imposed under and by virtue of this section shall be in lieu
of all taxes for State purposes on the capital actually employed
by said merchant or mercantile firm or corporation in said business,
except the registration fee and franchise tax; and except that such
merchant shall not be exempt from the payment of county, district,
and road levies on the net amount of capital on hand on the first
day of February of each year, and may be required to pay the
usual county, district, and road levies thereon, notwithstanding
this act. The word “capital” shall include moneys and credits
actively used in carrying on the business, including goods, wares,
and merchandise on hand, and all solvent bonds, demands, and
claims made and contracted in the business during the preceding
year; but real estate shall not be held to be capital, but shall be
assessed and taxed as other specific property. All other property
held by such merchant or firm or corporation engaged in mer-
cantile business, not offered for sale as merchandise, shall be sep-
arately listed and taxed as other property. The sums required by
this section to be paid when the license is taken out shall be col-
lected in the same manner that the amounts required to be paid
for other licenses are collected. If after the close of the year for
which his license is issued, the merchant should elect not to renew
it, but desires the privilege to sell whatever remnant or purchase
he may have on hand at the time, it may be lawful for him to do
so upon the payment for a license upon said remnant of merchan-
cise, to be regarded for purposes of revenue as purchases. Dealers
in coal, wood, or ice paying license tax under this section may
peddle the same from vehicles without paying additional tax. But
nothing in this section shall be so construed as to require a license
of any person who may canvass any county or corporation to buy
lambs, pigs, calves, fowls, eggs, butter, and such like small matters
of subsistence designed as food for man, but any person who shall
keep a place of business for the purpose of selling such articles in,
or within a half mile of any city or town in the State, shall take out
license therefor, as hereinbefore prescribed; provided, that dealers
in coal and wood in the cities of forty thousand inhabitants or more
who peddle the same from vehicles shall pay an additional tax of
fifty dollars for each wagon thus used.

Any person, firm, company or corporation, not a producer of
the tobacco sold or offered for sale, desiring to retail tobacco, cigars,
snuff, smoker’s supplies, et cetera, shall be licensed as a merchant
under the provisions of this section and section forty-five.

If the license required by this section and section forty-five when
first issued cannot run for an entire license year, because part of the
license year has expired, then the license shall be issued for the
residue of the license year, and the tax to be paid shall bear such
proportion to the whole annual tax as the residue of the license
year bears to the entire license year; unless the annual tax on the
license be as much as fifty dollars or over, in which case the tax
niay be paid quarterly or for the residue of the quarter in which the
license was taken out and the tax for the license shall be apportioned
accordingly.

Sec. 49. Commission merchant’s license—-Every person, firm,
or corporation shall pay for the privilege of transacting the busi-
ness of a commission merchant the sum of fifty dollars, provided
the commissions do not exceed one thousand dollars, but when the
commissions exceed one thousand dollars the tax shall be fifty dol-
lars, and an additional tax at the rate of one dollar on each one
hundred dollars, or fraction thereof, of commissions in excess of
one thousand dollars; and if the license is to include the privilege
of selling wine, ardent spirits, and malt liquors, gold or silver coin,
bonds, certificates of public or private debts, or other securities,
there shall be paid in addition, the amounts required in each case to
be paid by liquor merchants and stock-brokers, and in like manner.

Sec. 50. Sale by peddlers——(As amended by act approved May
thirteenth, nineteen hundred and three.) Any person who shall
carry from place to place any goods, wares, or merchandise, and
offer to sell or barter the same, or actually sell or barter the same,
shall be deemed to be a peddler, and any person licensed as a peddler
may sell any personal property a merchant may sell, or he may ex-
change the same for other articles; and whenever a license is granted
to a peddler to sell such goods, wares, or merchandise his license
shall be valid for one year from date of its issue. Said license
shall not be transferable, and any person so licensed shall endorse
his name on the said license, and such license shall confer authority
to sell at any house or place within the county or city in which the
license was granted. Any peddler who shall peddle for sale or sell
or barter without a license shall pay a fine of not less than one hun-
dred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each offense,
one-half of which shall go to the informer; any person selling or
offering to sell as a peddler shall exhibit his license on demand of
any citizen of the county, city or town, in which he sells or offers
to sell or barter; and upon his failure or refusal to do so he shall
be subject to the penalties of peddling without a license. This sec-
tion shall be construed to include persons engaged in peddling
lightning rods. All persons who do not keep a regular place of
business (whether it be in a house, on a vacant lot, or elsewhere),
open at all times in regular business hours, and at the same place,
who shall offer for sale goods, wares and merchandise, shall be
deemed peddlers under this act. All persons who keep a regular
place of business open at all times in regular business hours, and at
the same place, and who shall personally, or through their agents,
offer for sale or sell, and at the time of such offering for sale, de-
liver goods, wares and merchandise, elsewhere than at such regular
place of business, shall also be deemed peddlers as above; but this
section shall not apply to those who sell or offer for sale, in person
or by their employees, ice, wood, meats, milk, butter, eggs, poultry,
fish, oysters, game, vegetables, fruits, or other family supplies of a
perishable nature grown or produced by them and not purchased by
them for sale.

Sec. 51. Peddler’s license.—(As amended by act approved Feb-
ruary twenty-ninth,. nineteen hundred and eight.) For the
privilege of peddling or bartering in any county, city or town,
there shall be paid two hundred and fifty dollars for each person so
engaged or employed, when he travels on foot, and when he peddles
otherwise than on foot, the tax paid shall be five hundred dollars,
except that the tax on peddlers of ice, wood, meats, milk, butter,
eggs, poultry, fish, oysters, game, vegetables, fruits or other family
supplies of a perishable nature, not grown or produced by them,
shall be fifty dollars for each vehicle used in such peddling, and
except that the tax on peddlers of pianos and organs shall be ten
dollars for each person engaged in selling pianos or organs from a
peddler’s wagon, said tax to be paid to the proper officer of each
county, city and town wherein such wagon is so used; provided,
however, that nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent any
city or town from requiring an additional license tax on such ped-
dlers of pianos and organs, where the charter of such city or town
authorizes it to impose license taxes, and except that the tax on
peddlers of lightning rods shall be two hundred dollars, and that
peddlers in coal and wood ini cities of over forty thousand inhabi-
tants who peddle the same from vehicles, shall pay a tax of fifty
dollars for each vehicle used; provided, that no State license tax
shall be imposed on peddlers of meats sold in the country. Every
vehicle use: in peddling as aforesaid shall have conspicuously dis-
played thereon the name of the peddler using the same, together
with the street and number of his residence, if he resides in any city
or town. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of revenue to
issue a peddler’s license to a person desiring to obtain the same, upon
presentation to him of the certificate of the county or city treasurer
that the license tax has been paid to him. Nothing under this or
the preceding section shall be construed to require of any farmer a
peddler’s license for the privilege of selling or peddling farm pro-
ducts, wood or charcoal grown or produced by him.

Sec. 68. License to retailers of tobacco.—Be it enacted by the
general assembly of Virginia, That this section of the act approved
April sixteenth, nineteen hundred and three, entitled an act to
raise revenue for the support of the government and public free
schools and to pay the interest on the public debt, and to provide
a special tax for pensions as authorized by section one hundred and
eighty-nine of the Constitution, be and the same is hereby, re-
pealed. Section forty-six of said act having been so amended as to
require a retailer of tobacco to take out the merchant’s license pro-
vided for in sections forty-five and forty-six of the act approved
April sixteenth, nineteen hundred and three.

Sec. 88. Undertaker’s license——(As amended by act approved
-February nineteenth, nineteen hundred and four.) An undertaker
shall pay for transacting such business in the country and in towns
of one thousand inhabitants or less, five dollars; and in towns and
cities of over one thousand and not over three thousand inhabitants,
ten dollars; and in towns and cities of over three thousand and not
over five thousand inhabitants, fifteen dollars; and in towns and
cities of over five thousand and not over ten thousand inhabitants.
twenty-five dollars; and in cities of over ten thousand inhabitants
and not over thirty thousand inhabitants, thirty-five dollars; and
in cities of over thirty thousand inhabitants, fifty dollars.

Sec. 130. Persons operating laundries.—-(As amended by act
approved February nineteenth, nineteen hundred and four.) Every
person who operates a laundry shall pay for the privilege of con-
ducting such business; if it be a laundry. operated other than by
hand, in the country and in towns of two thousand inhabitants or
less, five dollars; and in towns and cities of over two thousand and
not over five thousand inhabitants, ten dollars; and in towns and
cities of over five thousand inhabitants, twenty-five dollars; anc
if it be a hand laundry the amount to be paid for the privilege shall
he two dollars and fifty cents in the country and in towns of two
thousand inhabitants or less, and in towns and cities of over two
thousand and not over five thousand inhabitants, five dollars; and
in towns and cities of over five thousand inhabitants, ten dollars.
Any person who shall without a license conduct such business shall
be subject to a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars.

~ But nothing in this act shall be construed to impose a license tax

upon persons who wash bed-clothing, wearing apparel, and so

ce forth, without laundry machinery, and who do not keep shops or
. other regular places of business for laundry purposes.