CHAPTER 219

An Act to amend and reenact § 58-298, as amended, of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to the license tax on commission merchants ala eet
543

Approved March 11, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 58-293 as amended of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 58-293. Every person, firm or corporation doing business in this
State who receives or distributes provisions and merchandise, including
flour, hay or grain, shipped to such person, firm or corporation for dis-
tribution on account of the shipper or who participates in the profits
ensuing from or accruing out of the sales of such provisions or merchan-
dise, including flour, hay or grain, or who invoices such sales or collects
the money therefor shall be deemed to be a broker who receives or dis-
tributes provisions and merchandise, including flour, hay or grain.

Every person, firm or corporation buying or selling for another any
kind of merchandise on commission, except associations or organizations
of farmers, including produce exchanges, organized and maintained by
farmers for mutual help in the marketing of their produce and not for
profit, shall be a commission merchant, provided, however, that this
section shall not be construed as applying to any person who buys milk
or cream for others and whose compensation is based on the butterfat
content of such milk or cream and not on the market price, nor as apply-
ing to any person who on commission sells merchandise by sample, circular,
or catalogue, where the merchandise subsequently delivered is not samples,
who has no office, display room, store, or other definite place of business
in the State, who has no stock of merchandise in his custody or possession
or under his control at any time during the year, and who employs no
person. Any person, firm or corporation licensed as a commission mer-
chant may sell any personal property which may be left with or consigned
to him for sale, except gold or silver coin, bonds, certificates of public or
private debts or other securities; provided, however, that any such mer-
chant may sell gold or silver coin, certificates of public or private debts or
other securities, by taking out the license therefor prescribed in the case
of stockbrokers.

Every person, firm or corporation shall pay for the privilege of trans-
acting the business of a commission merchant or broker the sum of twenty-
five dollars, provided his commissions for the preceding year did not exceed
two thousand dollars; but when his commissions exceeded two thousand
dollars, the tax shall be twenty-five dollars on the first two thousand
dollars of commissions, fifty cents per one hundred dollars on the next
eight thousand dollars of commissions and one dollar per one hundred
dollars on all commissions in excess of ten thousand dollars; and if the
license is to include the privilege of selling gold or silver coins, bonds,
certificates of public or private debts or other securities, there shall be
paid, in addition, the amounts required in each case to be paid by stock-
brokers and in like manner.

The license tax on every commission merchant or broker beginning
business shall be the initial tax above prescribed plus a tax in accordance
with the foregoing scale measured by the commissions which it is esti-
mated he will receive from the time he commences business to the following
December thirty-first. |