City of Los Angeles Office of Finance

Business Tax Registration Certificate

There is no fee to register. Nothing in the Office of Finance's guidance or in LAMC article 1 imposes one — what you owe is the tax itself, and a business whose total gross receipts inside and outside the City stay under $100,000 owes none of it. Two traps sit behind that exemption. It is not automatic: file or renew after the delinquency date and the code makes the exemption inapplicable, so the full tax plus interest and penalty becomes payable, and a business that never registered cannot claim it at all. And the first year is not free — it is billed a year late, in the second year's renewal, which catches operators who assumed year one was exempt. Restaurants fall under Retail Sales at $1.27 per $1,000, not under services. A separate certificate is needed for each location and each classification, and liability for an unregistered business reaches back eight years.