CHAP. 90.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 46, 9244 and 118% of
an act entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of the govern-
ment and public free schools, and to pay the interest, on the public
debt, and to provide a special tax for pensions, as authorized by sec-
tion 189 of the Constitution, approved April 16, 1908, and acts amenda-
tory thereof, and to add thereto a new section to be known ao D ol
51%. , | ° }

Approved September 10, 1919.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections forty-six, ninety-two and one-half and one hundred and
thirteen and one-half of an act entitled an act to raise revenue
for the support of the government and public free schools, and
te pay 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, approved April sixteenth, nineteen hun-
dred and three, and acts amendatory thereof, be amended and
re-enacted, and section fifty-one and one- half added thereto,
so as to read as follows:

Section 46. For every license to a merchant, firm, company
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 thou-
sand dollars, the amount shall be ten dollars; when purchases
exceed one thousand dollars, but do not exceed two thousand
dellars, the amount shall be twenty dollars, and when purchases
exceed two thousand dollars, but do not exceed one hundred
‘thousand dollars, the amount shall be twenty dollars for the
first two thousand and twenty cents on the one hundred dol-
lars on the excess from two thousand dollars to one hundred
thousand dollars, and when purchases exceed one hundred thou-
‘sand dollars, the amount shall be twenty dollars on the first two
thousand dollars, twenty cents on the one hundred dollars from
two thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars, and ten
cents on the one hundred dollars upon all in excess of one hun-
dred thousand dollars. , | :

Each merchant shall keep his invoices and a record with ink
of all purchases, and from whom made, which record shall be
open to inspection and examination by the taxing officers of
the State, and the report of purchases made by the merchant
shall be taken from that record; and he or his agents shall make
‘oath to the correctness of the report and that the same is in
accordance with said record, and that the record has been ac-
curately kept.

It shall be the duty of the commissioner of the revenue to
examine the record of purchases required to be kept by the
merchant and to verify the merchant’s report of purchases by
‘that record; and he shall state upon the report of purchases
made to him by the merchant that he did examine the record
‘of purchases kept by the merchant. Every merchant who does
not keep the record herein provided for shall be assessed with
and pay a minimum State license tax of twenty-five dollars in
addition to such tax as may be ascertained by the local board of
review as hereinafter provided for. Every merchant who does
not keep the record herein provided for shall be reported by
the commissioner of the revenue to the local board of review
whose duty it shall be to ascertain the correct purchases of such
merchant by summoning the merchant before it and by such in-
vestigation and examination as it deems proper to make or to
have made, to correctly determine the true and correct pur-
chases of such merchant, and when this fact has been ascer-
tained the local board of review shall direct the commissioner
of revenue to assess such merchant with the State license tax
provided by law upon the purchases so ascertained, in addition
to the minimum State license tax of twenty-five dollars herein-
before provided for but the minimum State license tax of
twenty-five dollars hereinbefore provided for shall not apply to
licenses granted merchants in the license year beginning May
first, nineteen hundred and sixteen, and ending April thirtieth,
nineteen hundred and seventeen. Should the commissioner of
the revenue fail to perform the duty herein imposed upon him
he shall not be paid by the State any commission upon the tax
So assessed, and he shall be subject in each case of failure to a
fine of twenty-five dollars to be recovered as other fines are re-
covered, and it shall be the duty of the local board of review
to bring to the attention of the attorney for the Commonwealth
each failure of the commissioner of révenue to perform the
duty herein required of him.

Provided, further, that goods, wares and merchandise not
belonging to a merchant which are offered for sale by the mer-
chant or by another person 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 vir-
tue of this section shall be in lieu of all taxes for State purposed
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 or other
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
city, county, district, and road or other levies thereon, notwith-
standing this act. The word “capital” shall be defined as “capi-
tal” is defined in sub-section 2, of section 8, of an act entitled
ar 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 sec-
tion 189 of the Constitution. Approved April 16, 1908, AS
amended.

For the purpose of ascertaining the tax to be paid bv a mer-
chant beginning business his purchases shall be considered to
be the amount of goods, wares and merchandise bought to com-
mence business with, including goods, wares and merchandise
manufactured by him to be offered for sale at the place at which
he conducts his business as a merchant, provided such place is
not: the place of manufacture, also including an estimate of pur-
chases which the merchant will make between the date of the
issuance of his license and the thirty-first of March following,
and including an estimate of the amount of goods, wares and
merchandise manufactured by him to be offered for sale at the
place at which he conducts his business as a merchant, provided
such place is not the place of manufacture.

If, after the close of the year for which the license is issued,
the merchant should elect not to renew it, but desires the privi-
lege 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
of a license upon said remnant of merchandise to be regarded
for purposes of revenue as purchases.

All other property. held by such merchant or firm or corpo-
ration engaged in mercantile business, not offered for sale as
merchandise, shall be separately listed and taxed as other prop-
erty. The sums required by this section to be paid when the
license is taken out shall be collected in the same manner that
the amount required to be paid for other licenses are collected.
Dealers in coal, wood or ice paying license tax under this sec-
tion may peddle the same from vehicles without paying addi-
tional 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 here-
inbefore prescribed; provided that dealers in coal and wood in
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.

LICENSE To KEEP A HOTEL.

Section 9214. That any person who keeps a public inn or
lodging house of more than thirty bed rooms where transient
guests are fed or lodged for pay in this State, shall be deemed
for the purposes of this act to be engaged in the business of
keeping a hotel. |

A transient guest is one who puts up for less than one week
at such hotel, but such a house is no less a hotel because some of
its guests put up for longer periods than one week.

Any person conducting the business of keeping a hotel as
defined in this act, shall pay an annual license tax of two dvl-
lars for each bed-room, and one dollar for each bath-room in said
hotel; provided, that hotels at summer and health resorts, keep-
ing Open not more than four months in the year, shall pay only
one-half of the foregoing sums.

SOFT DRINKS, MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF, ETC.

Section 11814. That for the privilege of selling soft drinks
from a soda fountain in cities and towns of over five thousand
inhabitants there shall be paid to the State an annual license of
ten doJlars for each fountain. and for the privilege of selling
soft drinks from soda fountains otherwise located there shall
be paid an annual license tax of five dollars for each fountain,
and for the privilege of manufacturing soft drinks to be sold
by wholesale or for bottling soft drinks, or for wholesale,
houses selling soft drinks by wholesale where no tax is paid in
this State by the manufacturer or bottler there shall be paid a
minimum license tax annually of twenty-two dollars and fifty
cents and, in addition thereto, ten cents on every hundred dol-
lars of the gross sales not including carriers or bottlers in ex-
cess of ten thousand dollars annually.

Every manufacturer manufacturing, bottling or selling soft
drinks by wholesale shall keep an accurate account of his sales
in a special book which he shall provide for that purpose, which
book it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the revenue
making assessments of their license tax to inspect, and upon
such inspection to make the assessment of the said license tax.

If any manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler shaH fail to keep
such book, he shall be assessed with a minimum Iicense tax of
three hundred dollars, and the commissioner of the revenue
shall report to the local board of review the failure of such
manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler to keep such book, where-
upon it shall be the duty of the local board of review to summon
such manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler before them and as-
certain the correct amount of license which he should pay,
which shall be paid in addition to the three hundred dollars
ahove mentioned.

If any manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler of soft drinks
shall fail to keep such book and shall fail or refuse to give in-
formation as to his sales to the local board of review, or to the
commissioner of the revenue, he shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor and shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dol-
lars, and it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the revenue
and the local boards of review to report such failure or refusal to
the Commonwealth’s attorney of the county or city wherein
such manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler is located, and it shall
then be the duty of the Commonwealth’s attorney to present the
violation of this section to the grand jury of the city or county
wherein such manufacturer, wholesaler or bottler is located.

All amounts raised under this section shall go for the general
purposes of government.

5114. No person, firm or corporation shall sell or barter
bottled mineral water unless such person, firm or corporation
shall first obtain a license from the State for that purpose. .

Every person, firm or corporation who shall sell or barter
such bottled mineral water shall pay for the privilege the sum
of. five dollars when the gross sales do not exceed five thousand
gallons annually, and when the gross sales exceed five thousand
gallons annually, shall pay in addition to the five dollars the
sum of ten cents for each one hundred gallons in excess of five
thousand gallons.
_ Every such person, firm or corporation selling or offering
for sale such mineral water shall keep an accurate account of
sales in a book provided by them for that purpose, and it shall
be the duty of the proper assessing officer to make the assess-
ment of this tax from said book; and if any such person, firm
or corporation shall fail to keep such book it shall he deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not less than one hundred
do]lars, and in addition thereto shall pay to the State a minimum
license tax of twenty-five dollars, and the amount of such sales
shall be ascertained by the local board of review when there has
peen a failure to keep such books in the manner provided by
aw

2. This act shall be in force on and after May first, nineteen
hundred and twenty. -