Chap. 311.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 176 of the Tax Code of
Virginia, as heretofore amended, in relation to licenses of contractors,
plumbers and steam fitters. [H B 294]

Approved March 29, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
one hundred and seventy-six of the Tax Code of Virginia, as
Atofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as fol-
S:

Section 176. Contractors, plumbers and steam fitters——Any per-
son, firm or corporation accepting or offering to accept orders or
contracts for doing any work on or in any building or structure,
requiring the use of paint, stone, brick, mortar, wood, cement, struc-
tural iron or steel, sheet iron, galvanized iron, metallic piping, tin,
lead, electric wiring or other metal or any other building material,
or who shall accept or offer to accept contracts to do any paving, curb-
ing or other work on sidewalks, streets, alleys, or highways, public or
private property, using asphalt, brick, stone, cement, concrete, wood or
any composition, or who shall accept or offer to accept an order for
or contract to excavate earth, rock, or other material for foundations
or any other purpose, or who shall accept or offer to accept an order
or contract to construct any sewer of stone, brick, terra cotta or other
material, shall be deemed a contractor; provided, however, that any
person, firm or corporation engaging in the business of plumbing and
steam fitting in cities, town or counties which have adopted or may
hereafter adopt rules and regulations for the purpose of securing
sanitary construction, alteration and inspection of plumbing and sewer
connections and drains, pursuant to section fifteen hundred and forty-
four of the Code of Virginia, shall not be deemed to be a contractor, as
defined in this section, but shall pay for the privilege of conducting
the business of plumbing and steam fitting, the same license as that
required of contractors by this section.

Every contractor and every plumber and steam fitter shall, on the
first day of January in each year, procure from the commissioner of
the revenue for the city or county in which he has his office a license
to carry on the business of a contractor, plumber or steam fitter; pro-
vided, that if such contractor, plumber or steam fitter has no office in
this State, then he shall procure such license from the commissioner
of the revenue for the city or county where he conducts his business.

When a contractor or a plumbing and steam fitting contractor
shall have paid the aforesaid State license and local license required
by the city or town, in which his principal office and any branch of-
fice or offices may be located, no further license shall be required by
the State or other city or town for conducting any such business within
the confines of this State, except that qualification under section fif-
teen hundred and forty-four of the Code may be required of con-
tractors doing plumbing, and provided that this section shall not apply
to contractors, plumbers and steam fitters the gross amount of whose
orders accepted and executed does not amount to one thousand dol-
lars per annum.

Every such contractor, plumber and steam fitter, for the privilege
of transacting business in this State, shall pay a license, to be ascer-
tained in the following manner:

If the gross amount of all orders or contracts accepted during the
preceding year aggregated as much as one thousand dollars and not
more than five thousand dollars, he shall pay the sum of five dollars;
if the amount of such orders or contracts was more than five thousand
dollars, and did not exceed ten thousand dollars, ten dollars; if the
amount of such orders or contracts exceeded ten thousand dollars,
and did. not exceed twenty thousand dollars, fifteen dollars; if the
amount of such orders or contracts exceeded twenty thousand dollars,
and did not exceed fifty thousand dollars, twenty dollars; if the
amount of such orders or contracts exceeded fifty thousand dollars,
and did not exceed one hundred thousand dollars, fifty dollars; if the
amount of such orders or contracts exceeded one hundred thousand
dollars, and did not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
one hundred dollars; if the amount of such orders or contracts ex-
ceeded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and did not exceed three
hundred thousand dollars, one hundred and fifty dollars; and if the
amount of such contracts or orders exceeded three hundred thousand
dollars, two hundred and fifty dollars.

The license tax on every contractor, plumber and steam fitter
beginning business shall be measured in accordance with the foregoing
scale by the gross amount of all orders or contracts which he has ac-
cepted before applying for the license, plus the gross amount of all
orders or contracts which he estimates he will accept between the date
of the issuance of his license and the thirty-first of December fol-
lowing.

. The councils or other governing bodies of cities and towns may,
by ordinance or ordinances, classify contractors for the purpose of
city or town license taxation, and may impose upon each class the same
or different rates of tax. ,

This section, as hereby amended, shall be in force for the license
year beginning January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and
for every license year thereafter until otherwise provided by law.