Tax Type
BPOL Tax
Description
All gross receipts from pharmacy's sales taxable
Topic
Local Power to Tax
Date Issued
08-18-1997
August 18, 1997
Re: Request for Advisory Opinion: BPOL
Dear***************
This will respond to your letter of July 25, 1997, requesting an advisory opinion.
The license tax is a local tax which is imposed and administered by local officials. The Code of Virginia limits the involvement of the Department of Taxation to promulgating guidelines and issuing advisory opinions. However, the department shall not be required to interpret any local ordinance.
While addressing the questions raised in your letter, this response is intended to provide advisory guidance only and does not constitute a formal or binding ruling.
FACTS
You have inquired concerning the application of BPOL taxes to pharmacists.
OPINION
Under the amendments to the BPOL statute, effective January 1, 1997, the department was required to publish in the 1997 BPOL Guidelines, an exhaustive list of all occupations which may be classified as professionals for BPOL purposes. Pharmacists are included in the list. However, while a pharmacist unquestionably qualifies as a professional and while his professional attainments are a prerequisite for the operation of a pharmacy, he is generally engaged in selling goods, wares or merchandise in connection with the practice of his profession. For this reason, it is my opinion that a pharmacist should generally be classified as a practitioner of a profession who sells goods, wares or merchandise (retail sales) in connection with the practice of his profession. Such classification would include all gross receipts of the pharmacy, including those derived from the sale of prescription drugs as well as other sales. Thus, the entire business (the pharmacist and the rest of the of the drug store operation) would be classified as a retail merchant. It should also be noted that under the 1997 BPOL Guidelines the pharmacist, as an employee of the drug store rather than a professional offering his services to the public, would not be engaged in a licensable business separate from that of his employer, the retail drug store operation.
I hope that the above information will be beneficial to you. Although I believe this letter conforms with the law, it is written only for your guidance. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Sincerely,
Danny M. Payne
Tax Commissioner
OTP/127761D
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner