5.04.010 Administrative authority – Definitions.
A. Except as specified herein, the development and business services director is authorized to administer, interpret, and enforce the provisions of this title. The director may promulgate forms, policies, and procedures as necessary to effectively and uniformly administer these provisions.
B. As necessary, the director may designate employees of the development and business services department or other city department to implement or enforce the provisions of this title. Enforcement of this title shall be based upon the authority and regulations set out in this title and in Chapters 1.01 and 1.40 LMC.
C. The following definitions shall apply in construing the provisions of this title, except where otherwise declared or clearly apparent from the context:
1. “Director” means the Lynnwood development and business services director or the director’s designee.
2. “Department” means the development and business services department of Lynnwood, or any department that succeeds to the development and business services department’s duties under this title.
3. “Business license clerk” means city employees or agents the development and business services director shall designate to administer this title, or any designee thereof.
4. “Business Licensing Service” or “BLS” both mean the office within the Washington State Department of Revenue providing business licensing services to the city of Lynnwood.
5. “Person,” “firm,” “business” or “corporation” are terms that may be used interchangeably in this chapter and mean any individual, receiver, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, estate, joint venture, joint stock company, club, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, solicitor, canvasser, association or any group of individuals acting as a unit whether mutual, cooperative, fraternal, nonprofit or otherwise.
6. “Regulatory business licenses” are business licenses which require higher levels of scrutiny during initial approvals and renewals due to the nature of the business.
7. “Business,” whether general business, general business nonresident or home occupation, means and includes all services and activities engaged in with the object of pecuniary gain, benefit or advantage to the persons, or to another person or class, directly or indirectly, whether part-time or full-time.
8. “Engaging or engage in business” means commencing, conducting or continuing in any 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.
a. This subsection (C)(8) 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” in this subsection (C)(8). If any 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.
b. 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:
i. 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.
ii. Owning, renting, leasing, using, or maintaining, an office, place of business, or other establishment in the city.
iii. Soliciting sales.
iv. Making repairs or providing maintenance or service to real or tangible personal property, including warranty work and property maintenance.
v. 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.
vi. 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.
vii. Installing, constructing, or supervising installation or construction of real or tangible personal property.
viii. Soliciting, negotiating, or approving franchise, license, or other similar agreements.
ix. Collecting current or delinquent accounts.
x. Picking up and transporting tangible personal property, solid waste, construction debris, or excavated materials.
xi. 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.
xii. Rendering professional services such as those provided by accountants, architects, attorneys, auctioneers, consultants, engineers, professional athletes, barbers, baseball clubs and other sports organizations, chemists, psychologists, court reporters, dentists, doctors, detectives, laboratory operators, teachers, or veterinarians.
xiii. Meeting customers or potential customers, even when no sales or orders are solicited at the meetings.
xiv. 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.
xv. Investigating, resolving, or otherwise assisting in resolving customer complaints.
xvi. 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.
xvii. Delivering goods in vehicles owned, rented, leased, used, or maintained by the person or another acting on its behalf.
c. No License Required in Certain Circumstances. If a person, or its employees, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on the person’s behalf, engages in no other activities in or within the city but the following, it need not register and obtain a business license.
i. Meeting with suppliers of goods and services as a customer.
ii. Meeting with government representatives in their official capacity, other than those performing contracting or purchasing functions.
iii. 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 directors member or attendee engaging in business such as a member of a board of directors who attends a board meeting.
iv. Renting tangible or intangible property as a customer when the property is not used in the city.
v. 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.
vi. Conducting advertising through the mail.
vii. Soliciting sales by phone from a location outside the city.
d. A seller located outside the city merely delivering goods into the city by means of a 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 (C)(8)(c) of this section.
e. Persons engaging in only the following activities need not register and obtain a business license: (i) activities that are within the term and scope of a city special event permit, or a community special event as defined in LMC 5.30.020 (e.g., vendors at a temporary booth who are included under an entity’s special event permit, consistent with the term and activity for which the permit was issued); or (ii) activities that are within the term and scope of a city-operated and city-managed parks event that would otherwise be exempt if they were conducted pursuant to a special events permit.
f. Farmers. No license or registration fee shall be required for any farmer, gardener, or other person to sell, deliver, or peddle any fruits, vegetables, berries, eggs, or any farm produce or edibles raised, gathered, produced, or manufactured by such person; provided, that this exemption does not apply to any dairy product, meat, poultry, eel, fish, mollusk, or shellfish (except as otherwise provided with regard to wild-caught salmon and crab under RCW 36.71.090).
g. No license or registration fee shall be required for any judge or court commissioner of the Lynnwood municipal court or for any person filling a judicial or hearing examiner position for the city of Lynnwood.
h. 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.
9. “Flea market” means and includes any person, firm or corporation, or company subleasing booths, stalls or tables within a building located within the limits of the city of Lynnwood for the purposes of placing before the public for sale, on a temporary basis, used goods, new wares or merchandise, with the exception of secondhand items subject to Chapter 5.82 LMC regulating secondhand dealers. (Ord. 3412 § 2 (Exh. A), 2022; Ord. 3399 § 2 (Exh. A), 2021; Ord. 3343 § 1 (Exh. A), 2019; Ord. 3253 § 2 (Exh. B), 2017; Ord. 3189 § 2, 2016)