Programming-Enterprises

The City of Los Angeles appeals from a judgment in favor of respondent Programming-Enterprises, Inc., awarding a refund of business taxes for the years 1982 through 1986, in the sum of $128,404.90 plus prejudgment interest.

The facts are not in dispute. The city’s business license ordinance imposes a tax on persons engaged in business in the city; the amount of tax is based on the taxpayer’s gross receipts. Respondent is an employment agency doing business under the fictitious name Mini-Systems Associates. It specializes in placing engineers and computer programmers. Its gross receipts, insofar as this case is concerned, derive from its activities in placing workers in temporary employment. The ordinance imposes a business tax of 0.35 percent on the gross receipts of several types of businesses, including “temporary help agencies.” (L. A. Mun. Code, § 21.189.1(a).) A temporary help agency is defined as “any person engaged in the business of supplying his employees to others on a temporary basis.” (§ 21.189.1(b), italics added).) Various tax rates are applied to other described types of businesses. The tax rate on gross receipts of businesses not specifically described is…