Title 27, Taxation and Finance

As used in this chapter: The terms “year” and “annually” mean either the calendar year or a period of twelve (12) calendar months. The term “business” includes all activities or acts, personal, professional or corporate, engaged in or caused to be engaged in with the object of ga…

(1) Upon each person operating a taxicab, U-drive-it, or other forms of renting motor vehicles (for the transportation of persons for hire), whether driven by the person renting same, or by driver furnished by the person operating the station, for each automobile so operated, as …

(1) From October 1, 1984, through September 30, 1985, there shall be levied a tax upon each person operating a wholesale or retail store for the sale of goods, wares and merchandise, in an amount equal to the local privilege tax levied upon such person for the preceding year; how…

Upon each person selling pistols, dirk knives, sword canes, brass or metallic knuckles, or other deadly weapons (excepting hunting knives, shot guns and rifles) $100.00

(1) Wherever the words “drilling rig” are used in this section the same shall be construed to mean the machinery, equipment, tools and appliances usual and necessary in the drilling of wells in exploring for, attempting to obtain and obtaining production of oil, gas, sulphur, sal…

Upon each person licensed as an optometrist by the State Board of Optometry under the provisions of Sections 73-19-1 through 73-19-31, who also is certified to use diagnostic pharmaceutical agents under the provisions of Sections 73-19-103 through 73-19-109, there shall be levied…

All licenses under the provisions of this chapter shall be obtained from the tax collector of the county in which the business is located if such business be located outside of a municipality, or, if the business be located within a municipality then such licenses shall be obtain…

Every person required to obtain a license for the privilege of engaging in any business for which a privilege tax is required shall make application therefor in writing to the officer who is required to collect the tax. The application for license shall be filed on blanks to be f…

Upon the receipt of the application herein required, and payment of the amount shown thereby to be due for the privilege to be exercised, the officer to whom said application is made shall determine if the application is in proper form, and if the correct amount be tendered, and …

(1) Any contractor, including, but not limited to, any electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, water and sewer, roofing or mechanical contractor, who is licensed by any one (1) municipality or county of the State of Mississippi, which municipality or county has an exa…

Any person pursuing or engaging in more than one (1) of the businesses for which a privilege tax is imposed, shall pay separately the privilege tax imposed upon each separate business so conducted, engaged in, or pursued except as otherwise specifically provided by this chapter, …

Except as otherwise provided in this section, all privilege licenses issued pursuant to this chapter from and after July 1, 1988, shall expire on September 30 of each year; the privilege tax for a license which is issued for a period of less than one (1) year shall be prorated ac…

The tax collector shall mail to each privilege taxpayer holding a license, on or before the first day of the month prior to the month in which his privilege license will expire, a notice that the license will expire and that a new privilege license must be procured during the fol…

If any person liable for a tax under the provisions of this chapter shall fail, refuse or neglect to obtain the necessary license and pay such tax prior to commencing in business, or if any person liable for such tax shall fail, refuse or neglect to obtain a new or renewal licens…

When the tax collector of any county or municipality shall discover anyone who has failed to pay privilege taxes due in any former year or years he shall make the proper collection for such year or years. The power to collect these past due taxes shall expire at the end of seven …

Each privilege license issued shall be kept posted in a conspicuous part of the place of business of the person to whom such license has been issued where the business carried on has a permanent location, and if the business is such that the license cannot be so posted, then the …

The privilege license herein provided shall be and constitute a personal privilege to the person named therein to conduct the business specified in the license, and shall not be transferable to any other person, and shall be construed to limit to the county or municipality and lo…

The issuance of a privilege license, or the payment of a tax required therefor, shall not make lawful any business, employment, transaction, article or device, or the operation thereof, contrary to any statute of this state, or any ordinance of any municipality thereof.

It shall be the duty of the county auditor or of the governing body of a municipality to prepare and have printed and distributed to the officer collecting the tax the proper privilege tax license blanks necessary to carry into effect any law relating to privilege taxes. There sh…

Each officer required to collect privilege taxes shall make requisitions upon the county auditor or in the case of municipalities upon the governing body of the municipality for such license blanks for privilege taxes as will be needed by him from time to time and the county audi…

(1) Any person sixty-five (65) years old or older, or any person blind, deaf or dumb, or maimed by loss of hand or foot, or loss of the use of the hand or foot, or any citizen of the United States who is disabled or suffering from an infirmity to the extent that he is unable to p…

No tax levied under the provisions of this chapter shall be levied, assessed or collected from or against any municipality in this state which operates any business which is taxed hereunder, it being the intention of the legislature that all municipalities are specifically exempt…

Clubs for the promotion or development of the art of canning, preserving or bottling; the art of cooking; art of sewing or handiwork; the art of drawing or painting; or otherwise, the art of home or domestic science may sell their products without paying any of the taxes levied b…

No privilege tax license shall be required of hotels, restaurants, fruit stands and vendors of soft drinks, circuses, exhibitions, street fairs, or other amusements when the same are held within the enclosure of and in cooperation with the annual holding of any state, county or c…

Any person desiring to avail himself of any of the exemptions provided in Sections 27-17-479 through 27-17-485, shall, before engaging in such business, file with the officer whose duty it is to collect the privilege tax, an application for the exemption certificate accompanied b…

The certificate of exemption provided for above is hereby declared to be a personal privilege, peculiar to the grantee and is not transferable, and no business may be conducted thereunder by any person other than the grantee. The holder of any such certificate of exemption is her…

Each officer authorized to issue privilege licenses shall keep a privilege tax register in such form as he shall determine, in which the names of all privilege taxpayers shall be recorded, showing the amount paid, the serial number of the license issued and the period covered by …

At the end of each month the county auditor shall carefully check the books and records of the tax collector and his accounts with any bank or banks, and shall verify the amounts collected as privilege taxes under the provisions of this chapter.

On all privilege taxes not paid during the month when due and on which a penalty is collected, the tax collector making such collection shall be entitled to retain one-fourth (¼) of said damages, to be deposited in the county general fund, in addition to the regular commission no…

It shall be the duty of the officer required to collect privilege taxes to require all persons liable for a privilege tax to pay the same, and he shall cause all persons doing business without a privilege license as required under this chapter, to be prosecuted. He is further req…

(1) All privilege taxes levied and imposed by this chapter shall be paid in addition to any and all other taxes, and the provisions of this chapter shall not affect the operation of any other sections of the Mississippi Code of 1972 or other laws providing for the imposition, lev…

The privilege taxes paid to the officer collecting same shall be reported by him monthly and paid into the proper depository, to the credit of the general fund, as are other taxes, except as otherwise provided by law, and each officer shall within twenty (20) days after the end o…

Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be fined not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding six (6) months, or by both such fine and imprisonment …

(1) Every person desiring to engage in any business, or exercise any privilege hereinafter specified, if such business is located outside a municipality, shall first, before commencing the same, apply for, pay for and procure from the tax collector of the county in which such bus…