5.02.010 Definitions.
For purposes of this title, the following definitions shall apply:
“Carnival” as used in this section shall mean any entertainment which includes side shows, games, amusement devices, riding devices, and/or refreshments.
“Circus” as used in this section shall mean any entertainment which includes wild animals, acrobats, and/or clowns.
“Conviction” means an adjudication or conviction of guilt and occurs at such time as a plea of guilty has been accepted or a verdict of guilty has been filed, notwithstanding the pendency of any future proceeding including but not limited to sentencing or disposition, post-trial or post-fact finding motions and appeals and also means a bail forfeiture and includes all instances in which a plea of nolo contendere is the basis for the conviction and all proceedings in which the sentence has been deferred or suspended.
“Engaging in business” or “engage in business” means commencing, conducting, or continuing in business, and also the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, as well as liquidating a business when the liquidators thereof hold themselves out to the public as conducting such business.
1. This section sets forth examples of activities that constitute engaging in business in the City, and establishes safe harbors for certain of those activities so that a person who meets the criteria may engage in de minimis business activities in the City without having to pay a business license fee. The activities listed in this section are illustrative only and are not intended to narrow the definition of “engaging in business” provided in this chapter. If an activity is not listed, whether it constitutes engaging in business in the City shall be determined by considering all the facts and circumstances and applicable law.
2. Without being all-inclusive, any one of the following activities conducted within the City by a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on its behalf, constitutes engaging in business and requires a person to register and obtain a business license:
a. Owning, renting, leasing, maintaining, or having the right to use, or using, tangible personal property, intangible personal property, or real property permanently or temporarily located in the City.
b. Owning, renting, leasing, using, or maintaining an office, place of business, or other establishment in the City.
c. Soliciting sales.
d. Making repairs or providing maintenance or service to real or tangible personal property, including warranty work and property maintenance.
e. Providing technical assistance or service, including quality control, product inspections, warranty work, or similar services on or in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf.
f. Installing, constructing, or supervising installation or construction of, real or tangible personal property.
g. Soliciting, negotiating, or approving franchise, license, or other similar agreements.
h. Collecting current or delinquent accounts.
i. Picking up and transporting tangible personal property, solid waste, construction debris, or excavated materials.
j. Providing disinfecting and pest control services, employment and labor pool services, home nursing care, janitorial services, appraising, landscape architectural services, security system services, surveying, and real estate services including the listing of homes and managing real property.
k. Rendering professional services such as those provided by accountants, architects, attorneys, auctioneers, consultants, engineers, professional athletes, barbers, baseball clubs and other sports organizations, chemists, consultants, psychologists, court reporters, dentists, doctors, detectives, laboratory operators, teachers, veterinarians.
l. Meeting with customers or potential customers, even when no sales or orders are solicited at the meetings.
m. Training or recruiting agents, representatives, independent contractors, brokers or others, domiciled or operating on a job in the City, acting on its behalf, or for customers or potential customers.
n. Investigating, resolving, or otherwise assisting in resolving customer complaints.
o. In-store stocking or manipulating products or goods, sold to and owned by a customer, regardless of where sale and delivery of the goods took place.
p. Delivering goods in vehicles owned, rented, leased, used, or maintained by the person or another acting on its behalf.
3. If a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on the person’s behalf, engages in no other activities in or with the City but the following, it need not register and obtain a business license:
a. Meeting with suppliers of goods and services as a customer.
b. Meeting with government representatives in their official capacity, other than those performing contracting or purchasing functions.
c. Attending meetings, such as board meetings, retreats, seminars, and conferences, or other meetings wherein the person does not provide training in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf. This provision does not apply to any board of director member or attendee engaging in business such as a member of a board of directors who attends a board meeting.
d. Renting tangible or intangible property as a customer when the property is not used in the City.
e. Attending, but not participating in, a “trade show” or “multiple vendor events.” Persons participating at a trade show shall review the City’s trade show or multiple vendor event ordinances.
f. Conducting advertising through the mail.
g. Soliciting sales by phone from a location outside the City.
4. A seller located outside the City merely delivering goods into the City by means of common carrier is not required to register and obtain a business license; provided, that it engages in no other business activities in the City. Such activities do not include those in subsection (3) of this definition.
5. The City expressly intends that engaging in business include any activity sufficient to establish nexus for purposes of applying the license fee under the law and the Constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington. Nexus is presumed to continue as long as the taxpayer benefits from the activity that constituted the original nexus generating contact or subsequent contacts.
“Flea market” means and includes, but is not limited to, arrangements whereby a person or persons sell, lease, rent, offer or donate to one or more persons a place or area where such persons may offer or display new, secondhand or junk items. “Flea market” includes, but is not limited to, bazaars, rummage sales and swap meets.
“Person” means any individual, corporation, company, firm, joint stock company, partnership, limited liability entity, joint venture, trust, business trust, club, association, society, or any group of individuals acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative, fraternal, nonprofit, or otherwise, receiver, administrator, executor, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, or any other group or entity formed for the purpose of engaging in business.
“Public bathhouse” means any place where baths or facilities for baths of any kind whatever are given or furnished, including without limitation Finnish baths; Russian baths; sauna baths; Swedish baths; Turkish baths; hot tubs; baths by hot air, steam, vapor, water or electric cabinet or a combination of any of the foregoing; provided, that such term shall not include ordinary tub or shower baths, or any of the above-named baths where an attendant is not required.
“Temporary business” means all business of a short term or transitory nature, including but not limited to the following:
1. Any business which occupies a site or operates within the City for no more than seven days per occurrence twice within any 365-day period.
2. Roving mobile vendors involved in business such as door-to-door sales, sales from ice-cream trucks, or other businesses that do not have a fixed location;
3. Operating a carnival or circus within the City. [Ord. 694 § 1 (Exh. A), 2018; Ord. 679 § 1, 2018; Ord. 610 § 2, 2015; Ord. 568 § 1, 2013; Ord. 548 § 1, 2012; Ord. 24 § 1, 1995.]