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2018 SESSION

18107055D
HOUSE BILL NO. 552
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE
(Proposed by the Senate Committee on Education and Health
on February 22, 2018)
(Patron Prior to Substitute--Delegate Freitas)
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 35.1-1, 35.1-25, and 58.1-3833 of the Code of Virginia, relating to definition of restaurant; exception; bed-and-breakfast operation.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 35.1-1, 35.1-25, and 58.1-3833 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 35.1-1. Definitions.

As used in this title, unless the context requires otherwise or it is otherwise provided a different meaning:

1. "Bed-and-breakfast operation" means a residential-type establishment that provides (i) two or more rental accommodations for transient guests and food service to a maximum of 18 transient guests on any single day for five or more days in any calendar year or (ii) at least one rental accommodation for transient guests and food service to a maximum of 18 transient guests on any single day for 30 or more days in any calendar year.

"Board" or "State Board" means the State Board of Health.

2. "Campground" means and includes but is not limited to a travel trailer camp, recreation camp, family campground, camping resort, camping community, or any other area, place, parcel, or tract of land, by whatever name called, on which three or more campsites are occupied or intended for occupancy, or facilities are established or maintained, wholly or in part, for the accommodation of camping units for periods of overnight or longer, whether the use of the campsites and facilities is granted gratuitously, or by rental fee, lease, or conditional sale, or by covenants, restrictions, and easements, including any travel trailer camp, recreation camp, family campground, camping resort, or camping community. "Campground" does not include mean a summer camp, migrant labor camp, or park for mobile homes as defined in this section and in §§ 32.1-203 and 36-71, or a construction camp, storage area for unoccupied camping units, or property upon which the individual owner may choose to camp and not be prohibited or encumbered by covenants, restrictions, and conditions from providing his sanitary facilities within his property lines.

3. "Camping unit" means and includes a tent, tent trailer, travel trailer, camping trailer, pickup camper, motor home, and any other device or vehicular type structure for use as temporary living quarters or shelter during periods of recreation, vacation, leisure time, or travel, including any tent, tent trailer, travel trailer, camping trailer, pickup camper, or motor home.

4. "Campsite" means and includes any plot of ground within a campground used or intended for occupation by the camping unit.

5. "Commissioner" means the State Health Commissioner.

6. "Department" means the State Department of Health.

7. "Hotel" means any place offering to the public for compensation transitory lodging or sleeping accommodations, overnight or otherwise, including but not limited to facilities known by varying nomenclatures or designations as hotels, motels, travel lodges, tourist homes, or hostels.

8. "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, or any other legal entity.

9. "Restaurant" means any one of the following:

a. 1. Any place where food is prepared for service to the public on or off the premises, or any place where food is served. Examples of such places include but are not limited to, including lunchrooms, short order places, cafeterias, coffee shops, cafes, taverns, delicatessens, dining accommodations of public or private clubs, kitchen facilities of hospitals and nursing homes, dining accommodations of public and private schools and institutions of higher education, and kitchen areas of local correctional facilities subject to standards adopted under § 53.1-68. Excluded from the definition are places manufacturing packaged or canned foods which are distributed to grocery stores or other similar food retailers for sale to the public.

b. 2. Any place or operation which that prepares or stores food for distribution to persons of the same business operation or of a related business operation for service to the public. Examples of such places or operations include but are not limited to, including operations preparing or storing food for catering services, push cart operations, hotdog stands, and other mobile points of service. Such mobile

3. Mobile points of service are also deemed to be restaurants to which food is distributed by a place or operation described in subdivision 2 unless the point of service and of consumption is in a private residence.

"Restaurant" does not include any place manufacturing packaged or canned foods that are distributed to grocery stores or other similar retailers for sale to the public.

10. "Summer camp" means and includes any building, tent, or vehicle, or group of buildings, tents, or vehicles, if operated as one place or establishment, or any other place or establishment, public or private, together with the land and waters adjacent thereto, which that is operated or used in this Commonwealth for the entertainment, education, recreation, religious instruction or activities, physical education, or health of persons under 18 years of age who are not related to the operator of such place or establishment by blood or marriage within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity, if 12 or more such persons at any one time are accommodated, gratuitously or for compensation, overnight and during any portion of more than two consecutive days.

§ 35.1-25. Exemptions.

The provisions of this title applicable to restaurants shall not apply to:

1. Boardinghouses that do not accommodate transients;

2. Cafeterias operated by industrial plants for employees only;

3. Churches; fraternal or school organizations; organizations that are exempt from taxation under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; and volunteer fire departments and volunteer emergency medical services agencies that hold occasional dinners, bazaars, and other fund-raisers of one or two days' duration, at which food (i) prepared in the homes of members; (ii) prepared in the kitchen of the church, school, or organization; or (iii) purchased or donated from a restaurant licensed pursuant to Chapter 3 (§ 35.1-18 et seq.) is offered for sale to the public. Restaurants licensed pursuant to Chapter 3 that donate or sell food to the entities identified in this subdivision shall not be required to apply for any additional permits from, or pay any additional permit application fees to, the Department for the proposed occasional dinner, bazaar, or other fund raiser;

4. Grocery stores, including the delicatessen portion that is a part of a grocery store selling exclusively for off-premises consumption, and places manufacturing or selling packaged or canned goods;

5. Churches that serve meals consisting of food prepared in the homes of members or in the kitchen of the church or purchased or donated from a restaurant licensed pursuant to Chapter 3 (§ 35.1-18 et seq.) for their members or their invited guests;

6. Convenience stores or gas stations that are subject to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Retail Food Establishment Regulations or any regulations subsequently adopted and that (i) have 15 or fewer seats at which food is served to the public on the premises of the convenience store or gas station and (ii) are not associated with a national or regional restaurant chain. Notwithstanding this exemption, such convenience stores or gas stations shall remain responsible for collecting any applicable local meals tax; or

7. Concession stands at youth athletic activities, if such stands are promoted or sponsored by a youth athletic association or by any charitable nonprofit organization or group thereof that has been recognized as being a part of the recreational program of the political subdivision where the association or organization is located by an ordinance or resolution of such political subdivision; or

8. Any bed-and-breakfast operation that prepares food for and offers food to guests, regardless of the time the food is prepared and offered, if (i) the premises of the bed-and-breakfast operation is a home that is owner occupied or owner-agent occupied, (ii) the bed-and-breakfast operation prepares food for and offers food to transient guests of the bed and breakfast only, (iii) the number of guests served by the bed-and-breakfast operation does not exceed 18 on any single day, and (iv) guests for whom food is prepared and to whom food is offered are informed in a manner established by the Board in regulations that the food is prepared in a kitchen that is not licensed as a restaurant and is not subject to regulations governing restaurants.

§ 58.1-3833. County food and beverage tax.

A. Any county is hereby authorized to levy a tax on food and beverages sold, for human consumption, by a restaurant, as such term is defined in subdivision 9 of § 35.1-1, not to exceed four percent of the amount charged for such food and beverages. Such tax shall not be levied on food and beverages sold through vending machines or by (i) boardinghouses that do not accommodate transients; (ii) cafeterias operated by industrial plants for employees only; (iii) restaurants to their employees as part of their compensation when no charge is made to the employee; (iv) volunteer fire departments and volunteer emergency medical services agencies; nonprofit churches or other religious bodies; or educational, charitable, fraternal, or benevolent organizations the first three times per calendar year and, beginning with the fourth time, on the first $100,000 of gross receipts per calendar year from sales of food and beverages (excluding gross receipts from the first three times), as a fundraising activity, the gross proceeds of which are to be used by such church, religious body or organization exclusively for nonprofit educational, charitable, benevolent, or religious purposes; (v) churches that serve meals for their members as a regular part of their religious observances; (vi) public or private elementary or secondary schools or institutions of higher education to their students or employees; (vii) hospitals, medical clinics, convalescent homes, nursing homes, or other extended care facilities to patients or residents thereof; (viii) day care centers; (ix) homes for the aged, infirm, handicapped, battered women, narcotic addicts, or alcoholics; or (x) age-restricted apartment complexes or residences with restaurants, not open to the public, where meals are served and fees are charged for such food and beverages and are included in rental fees. Also, the tax shall not be levied on food and beverages: (a) when used or consumed and paid for by the Commonwealth, any political subdivision of the Commonwealth, or the United States; or (b) provided by a public or private nonprofit charitable organization or establishment to elderly, infirm, blind, handicapped, or needy persons in their homes, or at central locations; or (c) provided by private establishments that contract with the appropriate agency of the Commonwealth to offer food, food products, or beverages for immediate consumption at concession prices to elderly, infirm, blind, handicapped, or needy persons in their homes or at central locations.

Grocery stores and convenience stores selling prepared foods ready for human consumption at a delicatessen counter shall be subject to the tax, for that portion of the grocery store or convenience store selling such items.

This tax shall be levied only if the tax is approved in a referendum within the county which shall be held in accordance with § 24.2-684 and initiated either by a resolution of the board of supervisors or on the filing of a petition signed by a number of registered voters of the county equal in number to 10 percent of the number of voters registered in the county, as appropriate on January 1 of the year in which the petition is filed with the court of such county. However, no referendum initiated by a resolution of the board of supervisors shall be authorized in a county in the three calendar years subsequent to the electoral defeat of any referendum held pursuant to this section in such county. The clerk of the circuit court shall publish notice of the election in a newspaper of general circulation in the county once a week for three consecutive weeks prior to the election. If the voters affirm the levy of a local meals tax, the tax shall be effective in an amount and on such terms as the governing body may by ordinance prescribe. If such resolution of the board of supervisors or such petition states for what projects and/or purposes the revenues collected from the tax are to be used, then the question on the ballot for the referendum shall include language stating for what projects and/or purposes the revenues collected from the tax are to be used.

Any referendum held for the purpose of approving a county food and beverage tax pursuant to this section shall, in the language of the ballot question presented to voters, contain the following text in a paragraph unto itself: "If this food and beverage tax is adopted and a maximum tax rate of four percent is imposed, then the total tax imposed on all prepared food and beverage shall be..." followed by the total, expressed as a percentage, of all existing ad valorem taxes applicable to the transaction added to the four percent county food and beverage tax to be approved by the referendum.

The term "beverage" as set forth herein shall mean alcoholic beverages as defined in § 4.1-100 and nonalcoholic beverages served as part of a meal. The tax shall be in addition to the sales tax currently imposed by the county pursuant to the authority of Chapter 6 (§ 58.1-600 et seq.). Collection of such tax shall be in a manner prescribed by the governing body.

B. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A, Roanoke County, Rockbridge County, Frederick County, Arlington County, and Montgomery County, are hereby authorized to levy a tax on food and beverages sold for human consumption by a restaurant, as such term is defined in § 35.1-1 and as modified in subsection A above and subject to the same exemptions, not to exceed four percent of the amount charged for such food and beverages, provided that the governing body of the respective county holds a public hearing before adopting a local food and beverage tax, and the governing body by unanimous vote adopts such tax by local ordinance. The tax shall be effective in an amount and on such terms as the governing body may by ordinance prescribe.

C. Nothing herein contained shall affect any authority heretofore granted to any county, city or town to levy a meals tax. The county tax limitations imposed pursuant to § 58.1-3711 shall apply to any tax levied under this section, mutatis mutandis. All food and beverage tax collections and all meals tax collections shall be deemed to be held in trust for the county, city or town imposing the applicable tax. The wrongful and fraudulent use of such collections other than remittance of the same as provided by law shall constitute embezzlement pursuant to § 18.2-111.

D. No county which has heretofore adopted an ordinance pursuant to subsection A shall be required to submit an amendment to its meals tax ordinance to the voters in a referendum.

E. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, no locality shall levy any tax under this section upon (i) that portion of the amount paid by the purchaser as a discretionary gratuity in addition to the sales price; (ii) that portion of the amount paid by the purchaser as a mandatory gratuity or service charge added by the restaurant in addition to the sales price, but only to the extent that such mandatory gratuity or service charge does not exceed 20 percent of the sales price; or (iii) alcoholic beverages sold in factory sealed containers and purchased for off-premises consumption or food purchased for human consumption as "food" is defined in the Food Stamp Act of 1977, 7 U.S.C. § 2012, as amended, and federal regulations adopted pursuant to that act, except for the following items: sandwiches, salad bar items sold from a salad bar, prepackaged single-serving salads consisting primarily of an assortment of vegetables, and nonfactory sealed beverages.