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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNS-1263 Not AdoptedNOT ADOPTBD CJL/plc 7-9-75 ORDINANCE NO. NS-1265 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA ADDING ARTICLE VI, TO CHAPTER 35 OF THE SANTA ANA MUNICIPAL CODE TO BE KNOWN AS THE UTILITY USERS TAX CODE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA AS FOLLOWS: DOES ORDAIN SECTION 1: That the Santa Ana Munic: amended by adding Article VI to Chapter 35 of Sections 35-151, 35-152, 35-153, 35-15~ 35-157, 35-158, 35-159, 35-160, 35-161, 35-165, 35-166 to read as follows: Code is hereby , consisting 35-155, 35-156, 35-163, 35-164, ARTICLE VI. Utility Tax Code Sec. 35-151. Short Title. This Article shall be Code." The word "Code," as used the "Utility Users Tax Code" un as the "Utility Users Tax this Article, shall mean otherwise so indicated. Sec. 35-152. This Code is peace, health, safety to the City of Santa sent level of servi~ are essential to tt vention and more equitable to of telephone, ele¢ utility users tax. income househ Sec. 3 the preservation of public reasons that present reven~es ~e insufficient to maintain the pre- the citizenry, increased revenues ementation of an expanded crime pre- ram, and the utility-users tax is itizens of Santa Ana since every user ity and gas utilities will share in the llowances are made herein to exempt low- iDefinitions. The Code shall words and phrases whenever used in this nstrued as defined in this section. (a) "i ~po~ ations setts ~rson" shall mean all domestic and foreign assocations, syndicates, joint-stock companies, )f every kind, joint ventures, clubs, Massachu- or common-law trusts, -societies, and indivi- "City" shall mean the City of Santa Ana. 7) "Telephone corporation," "electrical corporation," ~s corporation" shall have the same meanings as defined in S~ tions 234, 218 and 241, respectively, of the Public ties Code of the State of California as said sections exi on January 1, 1975. "Electrical corporation" shall be to include any municipality or franchised agency  [ed in the selling or supplying of electrical power to a vice user. (d) "Tax Administrator" shall mean the Finance Director o/of the City of Santa Ana. (e) "Service supplier" shall mean a person required collect and remit a tax imposed by this code. (f) "Service user" shall mean a person required to pay a tax imposed by this code. ORDINANCE NO. NS-1265 PAGE TWO (g) "Month" shall mean a calendar month. Sec. 35-154. Constitutional Exemptions. Nothing in this code shall be construed as imp( a tax upon any person when imposition of such tax upon person would be in violation of the Constitution of United States or that of the State of California. Sec. 35-155. Telephone Users Tax. (a) There is hereby imposed a tax upon other than a telephone corporation, in the using intrastate telephone communication servl~ Santa Ana. The tax imposed by this section s! rate of five percent (5%) of all charges vices and shall be paid by the person person, Santa Ana ~s in the City of ill be at the ~or such ser- such services. (b) As used in this section, the t~ "charges" shall not include charges for services paid for inserting coins in coin-operated telephones except that such coin- operated telephone service is furnished a guaranteed amount, the amounts paid under such gua] plus any fixed monthly or other periodic charge shall s included in the base for computing the amount of tax d~ nor shall the term "telephone communication services" .ude land mobile ser- vices or maritime mobile services as in Section 2.1 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal ulations. (c) The tax imposed in thil section shall be collected from the service user by the pers¢ providing the intrastate telephone communication services The amount of tax collected in one month shall be remitted the Tax Administrator on or before the 20th day of the foll month. (d) Notwithstanding t ~rovisions of subsection (a), the tax imposed under this s~ shall not be imposed upon any person for using telephone communications services to the extent amounts paid for such services are exempt from or not sub to the tax imposed under Sec- tion 4251 of Title 26 of e United States Code. Sec. 35-156. El( Users Tax. (a) There is imposed a tax upon every person in the City of Santa using electrical energy in the City. The tax impo~ by this section shall be at the rate of five percer (5%) of the charges made for such energy and shall paid by the person paying for such energy. "Charges," as use in this section shall include charges made for (1) red energy, and (2) minimum charges for service, customer charges, service charges, demand charges, charges, and annual and monthly charges. trical of such by him apart of suc of b~ of (b) used in this section, the term "using elec- ," shall not be construed to mean the storage by a person in a battery owned or possessed use in an automobile or other machinery or device the premises upon which the energy was received, however, that the term shall include the receiving energy for the purpose of using it in the charging ; nor shall the term include the mere receiving energy by an electric public utility or governmental agency at a point within the City of Santa Ana for resale; or the use of such energy in the production or distribution of water by a public utility or a governmental agency. ORDINANCE NO. NS- 1265 PAGE THREE (C) The tax imposed in this section shall be collected from the service user by the person supplying such energy. The amount of tax collected in one month shall be remitted to the Tax Administrator on or before the 20th day of the following month. Remittance of tax may be predicated on formula based upon the payment pattern of the supplier's tomers. Sec. 35-157. Gas User Tax. (a) There is hereby imposed a tax upon every in the City of Santa Ana, other than a gas corpor~ or electrical corporation, using in the City gas is deli- vered through mains or pipes. The tax imposed this section shall be at the rate of five percent (5%) of charges made for such gas and shall be paid by the person for such gas. (b) the tax imposed in this section is comput~ for gas which is to be resold and deliveI pipes; (2) charges made for gas sold of electrical energy or for the product water by a public utility or made by a gas public utility for gas conduct of the business of gas publi~ There shall be excluded from the on which (1) charges made through mains or in the generation or distribution of agency; and (3) charges and in the (c) The tax imposed in this from the service user by the pers. amount collected in one month sh~ Administrator on or before the month. shall be collected selling the gas. The be remitted to the Tax day of the following Sec. 35-158. Penalty. (a) Taxes collected remitted to the Tax Admini provided in this code are a service user which are not on or before the due dates uent. Sec. 35-159. Acti, to Collect. Any tax required provisions of this service user to the vice user which ha! shall be deemed a to collect and the provisions in the name of be paid by a service user under the shall be deemed a debt owed by the Any such tax collected from a ser- been remitted to the Tax Administrator owed to the City by the person required Any person owing money to the City under this code shall be liable to an action brought City for the recovery of such amount. Sec. 35- to Collect - Procedures. The code shall to collect and remit the taxes imposed by this performed as follows: (a) at the dance The tax shall be collected insofar as practicable time as and along with the charges made in accor- the regular billing practice. The duty to collect tax from a service user shall with the beginning of the first full regular billing applicable to that person which starts on or after the date of this code. Where a person receives more than one billing, for different periods, the duty to collect shall arise separately for each billing period. ORDINANCE NO. NS- 1263 PAGE FOUR Sec. 35-161. Additional Powers and Duties of Tax Administrator, etc. (a) The Tax Administrator shall have the power duty, and is hereby directed to enforce each and all provisions of this code. / the Sec. 35-162. Assessment - Administrative (a) The Tax Administrator may make an taxes not paid or remitted by a person re¢ for pay. (b) Whenever the Tax Administrator dete that a service user has deliberately withheld the of the tax owed by him from the amounts remitted a person required to collect the tax, or that a service user failed to pay the amount of the tax to such person for period of two or more billing periods, or whenever the Administrator deems it in the best interest of the City, he hall relieve such person of the obligation to collect taxes due this code from such service users for specified Administrator shall notify the servi( assumed responsibility to collect th periods and demand payment of such served on the service user by handJ or by deposit of the notice in prepaid thereon, addressed to to which billing was made by the tax; or, should the service to his last known address. If the tax to the Tax Adminis periods. The Tax user that he has taxes due for the stated The notice shall be it to him personally States mail, postage user at the address required to collect have changed his address, service user fails to remit within fifteen (15) days from the date of the service of notice upon him, which shall be the date of mailing if se is not accomplished in person, a penalty Of twenty percent (25%) of the amount of the tax set forth in notice shall be imposed, but not less than $5.00. The pen~ ty shall become part of the tax herein required to be paJ Sec. 35-163. It shall be the and remit to the preserve, for a per: necessary to been liable for Administrator, wh the right to ins of every person required to collect tax imposed by this code to keep and of three years, all records as may be the amount of such tax as he may have collection of and remittance to the Tax records the Tax Administrator shall have at all reasonable times. Sec. 35-11 Refunds. (a) the amount of any tax has been overpaid or paid once or has been erroneously or illegally collected o received by the Tax Administrator under this code it may be funded as provided in this section. No refund will be consid( by the Tax Administrator for a period in excess of twel~ (12) months prior to the date application is receive~ A person required to collect and remit taxes im- posed this code may claim a refund or take as credit aga~ it taxes collected and remitted the amount overpaid, pa~. than once or erroneously or illegally collected or re~ when it is established in a manner prescribed by the T~ Administrator that the service user from whom the tax has collected did not owe the tax; provided, however, that ORDINANCE NO. NS- 1265 PAGE FIVE neither a refund nor a credit shall be allowed unless th~ amount of the tax so collected has either been refunded to the vice user or credited to charges subsequently payable the service user to the person required to collect and (c) No refund shall be paid under the provis this section unless the claimant establishes his by written records showing entitlement thereto. of ;ht thereto Sec. 35-165. Low Income Household (a) The utility users tax imposed by code shall not apply to any service user who uses tel )hone, electric or gas services, in or upon any premises Died by such service user, provided the combined gros income of all mem- bers of the household in which such use~ resl~ was less than Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($ ) for the calen- dar year prior to the fiscal year 1 through June 30) for which the exemption provided in this ~ection is applied for. The exemption granted by this :ction shall not elimi- nate the duty of the service to collect taxes from such exempt individual or duty of such exempt individual to pay such taxes to service supplier unless an exemption is applied for by service user and granted in accordance with the provisions subsection (b) hereof. (b) Any service user this code because of the pro may file an application partment of Finance, City cation shall be made upon trator and shall recite f~ cant for an exemption. such applications and ce mined to qualify theref~ affected that such )t from the taxes imposed by .sions of subsection (a) above, Tax Administrator at the De- for an exemption. Such appli- supplied by the Tax Adminis- ~ts under oath which qualify the appli- Tax Administrator shall review all as exempt those applicants deter- and shall notify all service suppliers has been approved, stating the name of the applicant ~he address to which such exempt ser- vice is being supplie, the account number, and such other information as may b~ necessary for the service supplier to remove the exempt se ,ice user from its tax billing procedure. Upon receipt of suc] notice, the service supplier shall not be required to code from such Tax nate such exempt upon receipt of later than the Tax Admini %ue to bill any further tax imposed by this )t service user until further notice by the The service supplier shall elimi- user from its tax billing procedure ich notice from the Tax Administrator, no (60) days after receipt of such notice from Ail cally by facts shall automatic, or each from (10) disq~ It ~lons shall continue and be renewed automati- Administrator so long as the prerequisite the initial qualification for exemption provided, however, that the exemption shall terminate with any change in the service address of the exempt individual; further provided such may nevertheless apply for a new exemption with of address or residence. Any individual exempt tax shall notify the Tax Administrator within ten of any change in fact or circumstance which might said individual from receiving such exemption. be a misdemeanor for any person to knowingly receive the benefits of the exemptions provided by this section when the basis for such exemption either does not exist or ceases to exist. ORDINANCE NO. NS- 1265 PAGE SIX Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this sub section, however, any service supplier who determines any means that a new or nonexempt service user is re( ser- vice through a meter or connection exempt by virtu of an exemption issued to a previous user or exempt usc of the same meter or connection, such service supplier shal notify the Tax Administrator of such fact and Tax Admin- istrator shall conduct an investigation to as whether or not the provisions of this section have complied with and, where appropriate, order the service ~lier to commence collecting the tax from the nonexempt user. Sec. 35-166. Violation; Misdemean~ Any person violating any of the of this code shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be punishable there- after by a fine of not more than Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment in the Orange Jail for a period of not more than six months or by bo such fine and imprisonment. SECTION 2: If any paragraph· sentence, clause ox part thereof is for any such decision shall not portions of this ordinance Council hereby declares subsection, subdivision, thereof, irrespective of subsections, phrases be declared un. subsection, subdivision, ~hrase of this ordinance or any held to be unconstitutional, the validity of the remaining any part thereof. The City it would have passed each section, sentence, clause or phrase fact that any one or more sections, · paragraphs, sentences, clauses or SECTION 3: rate of taxation immediately upon its posting, by this ordinance October 1, 1975 period on or afi hereof, date. Thi ordinance, inasmuch as it fixes the utility users tax, shall take effect date of its publication or on the date of occurs first, except that the tax imposed become operative and be imposed on at the beginning of the first regular billing October 1, 1975, as provided in Section 35-160 is later, and shall not apply prior to said the passage same to be Santa Ana The Clerk of the Council shall certify to adoption of this ordinance and shall cause the in the official newspaper of the City of fifteen (15) days after its adoption. Santa AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of at its regular meeting held on the day of , 1975. ATTE~ MAYOR CLERK OF THE COUNCIL ORDINANCE NO. NS-1265 PAGE SEVEN STATE OF CALIFORNIA) COUNTY OF ORANGE ) CITY OF SANTA ANA ) ss. I, FLORENCE I. MALONE, do hereby cer Clerk of the Council of the City of Santa going ordinance was introduced to said meeting held on the day of and was again considered by said held on the day of said meeting passed and adou that I am the that the fore- at its regular , 1975 regular meeting 1975 and was at vote, to wit: AYES; NOES: ABSENT: Councilmen: CLERK OF THE COUNCIL APPROVED AS TO FO] CITY