CHAPTER 127

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 58-320 of the Code of Virginia, in
relation to the tazation of retail merchants so as to classify
restaurantkeepers as retail merchants; and to repeal § 58-399
of the Code of Virginia, in relation to the taration of restaur-
antkeepers.

[S 201 ]

Approved March 9, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 58-320 of the Code of Virginia be amended and re-
enacted to read as follows:

§ 58-320. Definitions—All goods, wares and merchandise
manufactured by any retail merchant and sold in this State, as
merchandise, shall be considered as sales within the meaning of
this article. But this article shall not be construed as applying
to manufacturers taxed on capital by this State, who sell at the
Place of manufacture goods, wares and merchandise manufactured
y them.

The term “retail merchant”, as used in this article, means
every merchant who sells at retail only and not for resale.

Any person who shall cook, or otherwise furnish for compen-
sation, diet or refreshments of any kind, for casual visitors at his
house, for consumption therein, and who does not furnish lodging,
and who is not the keeper of a hotel or lodging house, is classified
as a retail merchant for the purposes of this chapter, and shall be
licensable as such. Any person who shall sell soft drinks from a
soda fountain ig also classified as a retail merchant and shall be
licensable as such. The capital of the business classified as that
of a retail merchant by this paragraph shall, for tax purposes, take
the same status as other merchants’ capital, and the definition
thereof shall be the same, notwithstanding any other provision of
law to the contrary. Tangible personal property not constituting
a part of merchants’ capital, that 1s to say, tangible personal prop-
erty not Offered for sale as merchandise, or, in the case of the busi-
ness classified by this paragraph as that of a retatl merchant,
tangible personal property not intended for sale in the same or in
a different form in the ordinary and regular conduct of the. bust-
ness, shall be reported as tangible personal property and assessed
as such for local taration. The business classified by this para-
graph as that of a retail merchant is the business which before the
effectire date of this paragraph was classified by law as that of a
restaurantkeeper.

2. That § 58-399 of the Code of Virginia be, and the same is
hereby, repealed.
3. That this act shall be in force and effect for the tax and li-
cense year beginning January first, nineteen hundred and fifty-one,
and for every tax and license year thereafter.

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