Chap. 149.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 9 of Chapter 3 of the Acts
of Assembly, Extra Session 1933, known as the 3.2 Beverage Act, approved
August 29, 1933, so as to authorize cities and towns, in imposing local mer-
chants’ and local restaurant license taxes, to include 3.2 beverages in the base
for measuring such taxes. [H B 83]

Approved March 11, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section nine of chapter three of the Acts of Assembly,
Extra Session, nineteen hundred thirty-three, approved August twenty-
ninth, nineteen hundred thirty-three, be amended and re-enacted, as fol-
lows:

Section 9. In addition to the foregoing State licenses provided for
in this act, the board of supervisors or other governing body of each
county, and the council or other governing body of each city and town
in the State is hereby authorized to provide by ordinance for the issuance
ot county, city and town licenses, and to charge and collect license taxes
therefor, to persons to manufacture, bottle and sell, within said county,
city or town, beverages. The provisions of any general law or any spe-
cial act requiring ordinances adopted by counties to be published, ad-
vertised or submitted to and approved by the judge of the circuit court,
shall not apply to ordinances provided for hereunder, and any such ordi-
nance adopted by any county shall become effective as provided therein.

The license taxes which may be charged and collected by such coun-
ties, cities and towns shall not exceed the following sums: for each manu-
facturer’s license, two thousand dollars per annum; for each bottler’s
license, one thousand dollars per annum; for each wholesaler’s license,
one thousand dollars per annum, and for each retailer’s license by a
county or town, ten dollars per annum, and for each retailer’s license by
a city of the first class, fifty dollars per annum, and for each retailer’s li-
cense by a city of the second class, twenty-five dollars per annum, and
the council or other governing body of each city may, in its discretion,
classify licenses and graduate the said licenses in such manner as it may
deem proper.

For every distributing house or place in any county, city or town
operated by any person and used in whole or in part for distributing
beverages among his retail stores in this State, such county, city or town
may reuqire a separate license, and if such license is so required the tax
thereon shall be the same as the license tax imposed by such county,
city or town on a wholesaler therein.

No county, city or town shall issue any such local license to any
person, unless such person shall hold or shall secure simultaneously there-
with the proper State license provided for in this act.

The council or other governing body of each city and town in the
State, in imposing local wholesale merchants’ license taxes measured
by purchases, local retail merchants’ license taxes measured by sales, and
local restaurant license taxes measured by sales, may include beverages
as defined in this act in the base for measuring such local license taxes
the same as if the beverages were non-alcoholic; and no local beverage
license authorized by this act shall be construed as exempting any li-
censee from any local merchants’ or local restaurant license tax, but such
local merchants’ and local restaurant license taxes may be in addition to
the local beverage license taxes authorized by this act; provided, how-
ever, that the council or other governing body of any city or town, in
adopting an ordinance under this section, shall provide that, in ascertain-
ing the liability of a wholesaler or distributor to local merchants’ license
taxation under the ordinance and in computing the local wholesale mer-
chants’ license tax on such wholesaler, or distributor, purchases of bever-
ages up to a stated amount shall be disregarded if such wholesaler or
distributor pays a separate beverage license tax under this act and is not
within the provisions of section twenty-six-a of the Alcoholic Beverage
Control Act, which stated amount shall be the amount of beverage pur-
chases which would be necessary to produce a local wholesale merchants’
license tax equal to the local beverage license tax paid by such wholesaler
or distributor.

No city or town shall impose any local alcoholic beverage license on
any wholesaler or distributor for the privilege of delivering alcoholic
beverages in the city or town on orders previously taken when such
wholesaler or distributor maintains no place of business in such city or
town.