For the purpose of this chapter the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section.

    "Business" means any business, commercial enterprise, trade, calling, vocation, profession, or any means of livelihood, whether or not carried on for gain or profit, including the offering of real property for rental by the owner of such property.

    "Calendar year" means the period from January 1 of one year to December 31 of the same year.

    "City" means the city of Grass Valley, California.

    "Collector" means the director of finance or other city officer or employee charged with the administration of this chapter.

    "Employee" means all persons engaged in the operation or conduct of any business, whether as owner, any member of the owner's family, partner, agent, manager, or solicitor, and also any and all other persons employed or working in the business eighteen hours or more per week.

    "Fixed place of business" means premises occupied in the city for the particular purpose of conducting a business thereat and regularly kept open for that purpose.

    "Gross receipts" means the total of amounts actually received or receivable from all sales; the total amount of compensation actually received or receivable for the performance of any act or service, of whatever nature it may be, for which a charge is made or credit allowed, whether or not such act or service is done as part of, or in connection with, the sale of materials, goods, wares or merchandise; and gains realized from trading in stocks or bonds, interest income, carrying charges, rents, royalties, fees, commissions, dividends, or other emoluments, however designed. Included in "gross receipts," are all receipts, cash, credits, and property of any kind or nature, without any deduction from them on account of the cost of the property sold, the cost of materials used, labor or service costs, interest paid or payable, or losses or other expenses whatsoever, except that the following shall be excluded from them:

    1.    Any tax required by law to be included in or added to the purchase price and collected from the customer or purchaser;

    2.    Cash discounts allowed and taken on sales;

    3.    Such part of the sale price of property returned by purchasers upon rescission of the contract of sale as is refunded in either cash or by credit;

    4.    Amounts collected for others where the business is acting as an agent of trustee, to the extent that such amounts are paid to those for whom collected; provided, that the business furnish the collector with the names and addresses of the others and the amounts paid to them;

    5.    Receipts or refundable deposits, except that refundable deposits forfeited and taken into the income of the business shall not be excluded;

    6.    As to alcohol, alcoholic beverages, bars, restaurants, liquor stores and like businesses dispensing and/or selling alcoholic beverages, only that portion of the gross receipts related to the sale of alcohol shall be exempt;

    7.    Amounts received or receivable by persons having a fixed place of business within the city for acts or services performed outside the city, but only to the extent a business tax has been paid to the city or cities in which the acts or services were performed.

    "Person" means all domestic and foreign corporations, associations, syndicates, joint stock corporations, partnerships of every kind, clubs, Massachusetts business or common law trusts, societies and individuals transacting and carrying on any business in the city.

    "Quarter" means the period of three calendar months, the quarters beginning with the first day of January, April, July and October of each year; the word "quarter" includes fractions thereof.

    "Sworn statement" means an affidavit sworn to before a person authorized to take oaths or a declaration or certification made under penalty of perjury. (Ord. 470 § 2 (part), 1991: prior code § 12-1)