OCCUPATION

1. Possession; control; tenure; use. In its usual sense “occupation” is where a person exercises physical control over land. Thus, the lessee of a house is in occupation of it so long as he has the power of entering into and staying there at pleasure, and of excluding all other persons (or all except one or more specified persons) from the use of it. Occupation is therefore the same thing as actual possession. Sweet. The word “occupation,” applied to real property, is, ordinarily, equivalent to “possession.” In connection with other expressions, it may mean that the party should be living upon the premises; but, standing alone, it is satisfied by actual possession. Lawrence v. Fulton, 19 Oal. 683. 2. A trade; employment; profession; business ; means of livelihood. Actual occupation. An open, visible occupancy as distinguished from the constructive one which follows the legal title. Cutting v. Patterson, 82 Minn. 375, 85 N. W. 172; People v. Ambrecht, 11 Abb. Prac. (N. Y.) 97; Bennett v. Burton, 44 Iowa, 550. Occupation tax. A tax imposed upon an occupation or the prosecution of a business, trade, or profession; not a tax on property, or even the capital employed in the business, but an excise tax on the business itself; to be distinguished from a “license tax,” which is a fee or exaction for the privilege of engaging in the business, not for its prosecution. See Adler v. Whitbeck, 44 Ohio St. 539, 9 N. E. 672; Appeal of Banger, 109 Pa. 95; Pullman Palace Car Co. v. State, 64 Tex. 274, 53 Am. Rep. 788.