A.  Each person subject to a license tax shall apply for a license  prior to beginning business if he was not subject to licensure  in this jurisdiction on or before January 1 of the license year, or no later than March 1 of the license year if he has  been issued a license for the preceding year.  The  application shall be on forms prescribed by the assessing  official.

B.  The tax shall be paid with the application in the case of any  license not based on gross receipts. If the tax is measured by  the gross receipts of the business, the tax shall be paid on or  before March 1; or thirty (30) days after beginning business for businesses not subject to licensure in this jurisdiction on or before January 1 of the license year.

C.  The assessing official may grant an extension of time in which  to file an application for a license, for reasonable cause.  The extension shall be conditioned upon the timely payment of  a reasonable estimate of the appropriate tax; the tax is then  subject to adjustment to the correct tax at the end of the extension, together with interest from the due date until the  date paid and, if the estimate submitted with the extension is  found to be unreasonable under the circumstances, with a  penalty of ten percent of the portion paid after the due date.

D.  A penalty of ten percent of the tax may be imposed upon the  failure to file an application or the failure to pay the tax by  the appropriate due date. Only the late filing penalty shall be imposed by the assessing official if both the application and payment are late; however, both penalties may be assessed if the assessing official determines that the taxpayer has a  history of noncompliance. In the case of an assessment of additional tax made by the assessing official, if the application and, if applicable, the return were made in good faith and the understatement of the tax was not due to any fraud, reckless or intentional disregard of the law by the taxpayer, there shall be no late payment penalty assessed with  the additional tax.  If any assessment of tax by the assessing  official is not paid within thirty days, the treasurer or  Finance Director may impose a ten percent late payment penalty.  If the failure to file or pay was not the fault of the taxpayer, the penalties shall not be imposed, or if  imposed, shall be abated by the official who assessed them.  In  order to demonstrate lack of fault, the taxpayer must show that  he acted responsibly and that the failure was due to events  beyond his control.

    "Acted responsibly" means that: (i) the taxpayer exercised the level of reasonable care that a prudent person would exercise under the circumstances in determining the filing  obligations for the business and (ii) the taxpayer undertook significant steps to avoid or mitigate the failure, such as requesting appropriate extensions (where applicable), attempting to prevent a foreseeable impediment, acting to remove an impediment once it  occurred, and promptly rectifying a failure once the impediment was removed or the failure discovered.

    "Events beyond the taxpayer's control" include, but are  not limited to, the unavailability of records due to fire or other casualty; the unavoidable absence (e.g., due to death or serious illness) of the person with the sole  responsibility for tax compliance; or the taxpayer's  reasonable reliance in good faith upon erroneous written information from the assessing official who was aware of the relevant facts relating to the taxpayer's business when he provided the erroneous information.

E.  Interest shall be charged on the late payment of the tax from  the due date until the date paid without regard to fault or  other reason for the late payment.  Whenever an assessment of additional or omitted tax by the assessing official is found to  be erroneous, all interest and penalty charged and collected on  the amount of the assessment found to be erroneous shall be  refunded together with interest on the refund from the date of  payment or the due date, whichever is later. Interest shall be paid on the refund of any license tax, assessed pursuant to  this Chapter, from the date of payment or due date, whichever  is later, whether attributable to an amended return or other  reason.  Interest on any refund shall be paid at the same rate  charged under Virginia Code Section 58.1-3916.

No interest shall accrue on an adjustment of estimated tax liability to actual liability at the conclusion of a base year.  No interest shall be paid on a refund or charged on a late payment, provided the refund or the late payment is made not more than thirty days from the date of the payment that created  the refund or the due date of the tax, whichever is later.