Chap. 151.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 192 of the Tax Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, relating to peddlers’ licenses. [H B 152]

Approved March 7, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That
section one hundred and ninety-two of the Tax Code of Virginia, as
heretofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows:

Section 192. Peddlers.—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 exchange the same for other
articles.

A peddler’s license shall not be transferable, and any person s
licensed shall endorse his name on said license, and such license shall
confer authority to sell within the county or city in which the license
was granted and in no other county or city.

Any peddler who shall peddle for sale or sell or barter without a
license shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof
shall be fined not less than fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred
dollars for each offense; and any person selling or offering to sell as a
peddler shall exhibit his license on demand of any citizen of the county
or city 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 for peddling
without a license.

All persons who do not keep a regular place of business (whether it
be a house or 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 section.
All persons who keep a regular place of business, open at all times in
regular business hours and at the same place, who shall elsewhere than
at such regular place of business, personally, or through their agents,
offer for sale or sell, and at the time of such offering for sale, deliver
goods, wares and merchandise, 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. But a dairyman who uses upon the streets of any
city one or more wagons may sell and deliver from his wagons, milk,
butter, cream and eggs in said city without procuring a peddler’s
license.

For the privilege of peddling or bartering in any county or city,
there shall be paid two hundred and fifty dollars for each person so
engaged or employed in each county or city, when he travels on foot,
and when he peddles otherwise than on foot, the tax paid shall be
five hundred dollars in each county and city, except that the tax on
peddlers of ice, wood, or coal, not produced by them, but purchased for
resale, shall be twenty-five dollars for each vehicle used in such peddling
in each county and city, and except that the tax on peddlers of meat,
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 in
each county and city, and except, further, that the tax on peddlers of
seafood who buy the seafood they peddle directly from persons who
catch or take the same shall be five dollars in each county including
incorporated towns therein, of less than fifteen hundred inhabitants,
and ten dollars in each city and in each incorporated town of more than
fifteen hundred inhabitants. The tax on peddlers of lightning rods shall
be two hundred dollars in each county and city.

Every vehicle used in peddling as aforesaid shall have conspicuously
displayed 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.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to require of any farmer a
peddler’s license for the privilege of selling or peddling farm products,
wood or charcoal grown or produced by him.

All cities and towns may by ordinance or ordinances designate the
streets or other public places on or in which all licensed peddlers may
sell or offer for sale their goods, wares, or merchandise. The councils
or other governing bodies of cities and towns may also by ordinance or
ordinances, classify peddlers for the purpose of city or town license
taxation, and may impose upon each class the same or different rates
of tax, except no license tax may be imposed directly or indirectly
upon those exempted from a State license by this section.

Every license issued under this section shall expire on the thirty-
first day of December of each year. No license issued under this section
shall be prorated.

The license taxes imposed by this section shall not apply to any
peddler who is covered by section one hundred and ninety-two-b of
the Tax Code of Virginia, and who sells to licensed dealers or retailers
only.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.