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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 23. Taxation
Agency 10. Department of Taxation
Chapter 500. Business, Professional and Occupational License Tax Regulations
12/30/2024

23VAC10-500-450. Professional services; list of occupations.

A. The BPOL statute requires the Department of Taxation to list those occupations that may be classified as "professionals" by the localities. The BPOL statute limits the term "professional" to those occupations or vocations in which a professed knowledge of some department of science or learning, gained by a prolonged course of specialized instruction and study, is used in its practical application to the affairs of others, either advising, guiding, or teaching others, and serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art or a science founded upon it. The statute also states that the word "profession" implies attainments in professional knowledge as distinguished from mere skill, and the application of knowledge to uses for others rather than for personal profit. The following is an all encompassing list. Unless otherwise specifically excluded, all professional titles listed include the specialties and subspecialties included within that title in the U.S. Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational titles. For instance, "dentist" includes orthodontist, periodontist, oral pathologist, endodontist, oral surgeon, and prosthodontist. Further, the term "engineer" includes, petroleum engineer, mechanical engineer, chemical engineer, civil engineer, industrial engineer, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, and agricultural engineer. A "professional" means a person rendering services as:

1. Architects

2. Attorneys-at-law

3. Certified public accountants

4. Dentists

5. Engineers

6. Land surveyors

7. Surgeons

8. Veterinarians

9. Practitioners of the healing arts (the arts and sciences dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure or alleviation of human physical or mental ailments, conditions, diseases, pain or infirmities), including pharmacists and occupational and physical therapists, chiropractors, dieticians, and such occupations as listed in this section, and no others.

B. In addition, the following occupational titles would fall within the definition of "professional":

1. Anatomists

2. Archeologists

3. Biologists

4. Botanists

5. Chemists

6. Economists

7. Geologists

8. Historians

9. Mathematicians

10. Metallurgists

11. Meteorologists

12. Morticians

13. Physicists

14. Zoologists.

Statutory Authority

§ 58.1-3701 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 24, Issue 23, eff. October 6, 2008.

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