§ 302 (2006) - Same; business, occupations, professions and trades covered; fees

Virgin Islands

TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN Professions and Occupations
Chapter 9. Licensing of Businesses and Occupations
Subchapter I. General Provisions

27 V.I.C. § 302 (2006)
§ 302. Same; business, occupations, professions and trades covered; fees
(a) The following annual license fees are made applicable to and shall be levied upon all persons and associations engaged in the designated businesses, occupations, professions and trades in the Virgin Islands of the United States.

    (note: the annual fee to obtain a license for Installation of Fire and Burglary Alarm Systems is $200)

(b) Any person or association engaged in a business, occupation, profession, or trade not designated in subsection (a) of this section or not covered by any other provision of this Code shall obtain an annual license at a fee determined by the Commissioner as reasonable to defray the costs of regulation, but not to exceed $500.

(c) For the purposes of this chapter, "hotels and guesthouses" shall be construed to mean establishments used for providing rooms and related accommodations for guests, and shall include such establishments feeding their own guests but not otherwise conducting a restaurant business, and "night club" shall be construed to mean every business which has a capacity for at least thirty (30) persons seated at tables and the bar, and which employs a bartender and which maintains table service and dancing and/or other live entertainment for the guests. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the Commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs may issue a Tavern Keeper B-fermented spirits only-license to mobile, food and mobile refreshment vendors.

(d) No license shall be issued to any person or association to engage in an investment brokerage business in the Virgin Islands for the purpose of buying and selling stocks, bonds, and other securities and debentures to and for others, unless the person or association pays the required annual license fee, and, in addition, files with the Commissioner, for the protection of its customers, a good and sufficient bond signed by the person or association as principal, with one or more sureties to be approved by the Commissioner and running to the Commissioner and his successors in office, in a sum of $50,000, with condition that the surety or sureties on the bond shall be answerable to the amount of the bond for all judgments, decrees, or orders given, made, or rendered against the principal on the bond by any court of competent jurisdiction in the Virgin Islands for payment of money. In case of any breach of the condition of any bond, the Commissioner may, and upon demand and receipt of satisfactory assurance for the payment of costs shall, enforce the bond either in his own name or in the name of any person as obligee therein by appropriate proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction for the use and benefit of any person injured by the breach. The surety or sureties on the bond may withdraw from obligations under the bond upon written notice to the Commissioner at least ninety (90) days prior to the date on which the then existing license of authorization is to expire. Such surety or sureties shall, however, remain liable on the bond for all judgments, decrees, or orders given, made, or rendered against the principal, based on obligations incurred during the period of suretyship.

(e) No person shall go into or upon any private or commercial premises in the Virgin Islands, not having been requested or invited to do so by the owner, owners, occupant or occupants of said private or commercial premises, as a solicitor, peddler, hawker, salesman, itinerant vendor or transient merchant, for the purpose of selling or procuring orders or subscriptions thereto (except magazines and newspapers published in the Virgin Islands), or for any other commercial or business purposes without first obtaining a door-to-door license as required by this chapter. For the purposes of this chapter an "Itinerant Vendor" license shall be required for all persons selling and delivering merchandise at retail other than from a retail store located within the Virgin Islands.

(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, persons owning and residing in apartment houses with less than five units shall not be required to obtain a license under any provision of this chapter.

(g) An owner of an apartment house or houses shall not be required more than one license under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section and shall pay annually only one license fee to be determined by the total number of apartment units owned by such person.

(h) Every person or association who has been issued a license pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall display the license in a conspicuous manner at the location identified in the license as the place of business.

27 V.I.C. § 303 (2006)
§ 303. Process of applications
(a) Upon the receipt of an application for an initial license under the provisions of this chapter, the Commissioner shall submit copies of the application to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (V.I.P.D.) for verification of the police record stated on the application, to the Virgin Islands Historic Preservation Commission, Department of Planning and Natural Resources for construction and site acceptability, to the Department of Health in the case of a business, occupation, trade or profession involving food operations, and to pay any other pertinent agency or instrumentality of the Government of the United States Virgin Islands or of the United States for the purpose of obtaining reasonable information or approval determined necessary by the Commissioner for action upon the application. In the case of Foreign Sales Corporations, a license to do business shall be granted within three (3) business days of the receipt of the application, provided that the license shall be subsequently revoked if, upon receipt of the information, the Commissioner determines that a license would not have been granted had the information been received prior to the granting of a license.

(b) The Commissioner may establish reasonable conditions and terms in any initial or renewed license reasonably related to the business, occupation, profession, or trade, the violation or breach of which may result in the revocation or suspension of the license according to the provisions of section 304 of this chapter.

(c) Subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to foreign sales corporations.

(d) A processing fee, in an amount established by the Commissioner, shall be payable to the Government of the Virgin Islands upon the submission of an application to the Department for an initial license or renewal.

27 V.I.C. § 307b (2006)
§ 307b. License conspicuously placed
Any business licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall display their business license(s) prominently at all times in their place of business and clearly identifiable by the consumer.