Carnation Co. v. City of Los Angeles

PEEK, J. The tax in question is levied pursuant to the provisions of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Section 21.03 imposes a "business tax" on any person engaged in a business as defined in particular following sections, including sections 21.166 (wholesale sales) and 21.167 (retail sales). The pertinent portions of those sections provide that "every person manufacturing and selling any goods, wares or merchandise ..., or selling any goods, wares or merchandise ..." shall be subject to the levy of the tax at specified rates. (Italics added.) Pursuant to authority granted by section 21.15, subdivision (h) of the code, the city clerk has issued ruling No. 14, duly augmenting and interpreting sections 21.166 and 21.167. That ruling provides in Part I: "1. (a) Whenever a person is engaged within the City of Los Angeles in a business subject to a tax under Sections 21.166, 21.167 ... only those gross receipts which are directly attributable to the business engaged in within the City of Los Angeles shall be included in the measure of the tax. ... (c) If the person engaged in such business owns, leases, occupies or otherwise maintains within the City a place or premises upon which or from which he engages in such business, all receipts resulting from sales of goods, wares, or merchandise which are in any manner attributable to business functions carried on, at, or from that place of business, and which goods, wares or merchandise are ... shipped ... from a place within the City to a place outside the City but within the State of California,