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Sacramento County

Sacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division

In short

Sacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division issues 9 permits we publish for Sacramento County, last verified 2026-09-28. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.

What this agency issues

Permits required, with issuing agency, fee, renewal term and the date each record was last verified against its source
Salon / Cosmetology Licensing — State Board License Applies (Sacramento County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNo feenot applicable2026-09-28
General Contractor Licensing — State CSLB License Applies (Sacramento County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNo feenot applicable2026-09-28
Child Care Facility Licensing — State CDSS License Applies (Sacramento County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNo feenot applicable2026-09-28
Fictitious Business Name (FBN) Statementonly if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division$47 for one business name and one owner; $8 for each additional business name or additional owner; abandonment or withdrawal $47.5 years from filing date2026-09-28
Special Business Licenseonly if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNew $237.87 a year; renewal $231.11 a year, both including the $4.00 state surcharge under Government Code §4467 (Department of Finance fees effective July 1, 2026, as published in its Business Licensing FAQs).1 year2026-09-28
Tobacco Retailer License (County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNew $560.55; renewal $455.98 (Department of Finance fees effective July 1, 2026, as published in its Business Licensing FAQs). The Board of Supervisors' August 6, 2024 fee-structure resolution had set $495 new and $402 renewal, up from a prior flat $355.1 year2026-09-28
Fitness Studio Licensing — General County Layer Applies (Sacramento County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNo feenot applicable2026-09-28
General Business Licenseonly if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNew license $262.60, valid for 3 years and including the mandatory $4.00 state surcharge under Government Code §4467 (the Department of Finance notes that the fee is determined by the answers in Section II of the application); renewal $252.48 for a commercial location or $124.30 for a home-based business; an $18.00 late fee applies to a renewal received after expiration. These are the Department of Finance's new fees effective July 1, 2026, as published in its Business Licensing FAQs.3 years2026-09-28
Veterinary Practice Licensing — State Veterinary Medical Board Applies (Sacramento County)only if it applies to youSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing DivisionNo feenot applicable2026-09-28

Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.

About each permit

Salon / Cosmetology Licensing — State Board License Applies (Sacramento County)

No fee applies to a sector-specific license. Per the Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, places barber and beauty salons under the General Business License and lists no cosmetology-specific county license for an ordinary hair, nail, or skin salon: the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology licenses individual practitioners and establishments statewide. Two County licenses can still reach a salon depending on the services it offers: the Special Business License (#2) if the salon offers massage services in the unincorporated area, and the Body Art Facility Permit (countywide) if it offers tattooing, permanent makeup, or piercing. Beyond those two conditional triggers, a salon's county-level obligations are the same general layer every industry faces — the General Business License if in the unincorporated area, Building/Zoning compliance in the unincorporated area, and the applicable Metro Fire or local fire department's Commercial Business Inspection fee for its premises.

General Contractor Licensing — State CSLB License Applies (Sacramento County)

No fee applies at county level. Per the Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, lists no county contractor license or registration among its chapters: the California Contractors State License Board licenses and regulates the state's construction industry. The County's own touchpoints for a contractor are the Building/Tenant-Improvement Permit (#, unincorporated area only), which can be issued only to an owner, an authorized agent, or a state-licensed contractor, and the County's Special Business License — but only for a person performing home-repair or handyman work in the unincorporated area WITHOUT a CSLB license; a state-licensed contractor performing licensed work is not in that Special License's trigger list at all. A contractor's fire-system work (sprinklers, alarms) on a tenant-improvement project is billed separately by Metro Fire or the applicable local fire department, listed as its own Sacramento County requirement.

Child Care Facility Licensing — State CDSS License Applies (Sacramento County)

No fee applies at county level. Per the Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, lists no county child-care-facility license among its chapters, and the Department of Finance's Business Licensing FAQs state that 'The State of California issues day care licenses': the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD), a state agency with a Sacramento regional office located in the county, licenses the child care centers and family child care homes in Sacramento County. Health & Safety Code §§1596.77 and 1596.82 let CDSS delegate day-care licensing to a county or public agency, so a county exception is a real statutory option; for Sacramento County, the Department of Finance's FAQ statement quoted above places day care licensing with the State. County-level touchpoints still apply: the General Business License (#1) if the facility sits in the unincorporated area; a fire clearance and Commercial Day Care occupancy inspection from Metro Fire (in its territory) or the applicable local fire department elsewhere, commonly required before CDSS issues the state license; and Building/Zoning compliance, though small and large family day care homes (up to 14 children) are generally treated as a residential use by right and largely exempt from conditional-use zoning review under Health & Safety Code §1597.40 et seq.

Fictitious Business Name (FBN) Statement

Any of the ten industries operating under a name other than the legal owner's own name must file this statement with the Department of Finance, regardless of whether the business sits inside one of the 7 incorporated cities or the unincorporated area — this is the one function among the Sacramento County requirements listed here that is genuinely countywide by state mandate rather than following either the unincorporated-only or the EMD countywide pattern used elsewhere. The filing costs $47 for one business name and one owner, plus $8 for each additional business name or additional owner; abandoning or withdrawing a statement each costs $47. The statement must then be published in a newspaper of general circulation within 30 days of filing, once a week for four consecutive weeks, and the listed business address cannot be a P.O. box. It remains valid for 5 years from the filing date. A commercial service advertising a lower bundled price for this filing is charging its own service fee on top of an older county base rate, not the County's current rate, so only the Department of Finance's own published figures above should be relied on.

Special Business License

This license is required for a specific, named list of activities CONDUCTED in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County — 'even if the business is based outside the jurisdiction,' per the Department of Finance's own description. For the four industries covered here, the reaches are: food-truck for mobile food vending; salon only where massage services are offered; contractor only for home-repair or handyman work performed WITHOUT a California contractor's license (a state-licensed contractor performing licensed work is not in the trigger list); and auto-repair only for mobile auto-repair service. The license also covers housekeeping, landscaping/tree service, roadside service, taxi and escort services, repossession, private street patrol, hauling, and children's entertainment, among 'more than 20' categories the agency's own FAQ describes without publishing the full list. Under the Department of Finance's fees effective July 1, 2026, a new license costs $237.87 a year and a renewal $231.11 a year. Every owner, partner, and spouse of an applicant must be fingerprinted and photographed as part of the background-check process. The correct authority is Title 4, Chapter 4.10, under the same Title 4 structure documented for the General Business License above, not the erroneous 'Title 5' an earlier pass had used.

Tobacco Retailer License (County)

A retailer selling tobacco products or tobacco paraphernalia in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County must hold this license 'in addition to other County business licenses,' meaning it stacks on top of the General Business License rather than replacing it. Under the Department of Finance's fees effective July 1, 2026, a new license costs $560.55 and a renewal costs $455.98 a year; the Board of Supervisors' August 6, 2024 resolution amending the business-license fee structure had set $495 and $402, up from a prior flat $355 for both new licenses and renewals. Because it is issued by the Department of Finance under the same unincorporated-area-only scope as the General and Special Business Licenses, a retail store or coffee shop selling tobacco inside any of the 7 incorporated cities instead needs that city's own tobacco retailer license, not this one. The license must be renewed annually to remain valid, and the same misdemeanor penalty structure that applies to operating without a General Business License applies here as well.

Fitness Studio Licensing — General County Layer Applies (Sacramento County)

No fee applies to a sector-specific license. Per the Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, lists no fitness-studio-specific license among its chapters: a gym or studio's county-level obligations are the general layer that applies to every industry — the General Business License (#1) if the studio sits in the unincorporated area, Building/Zoning compliance in the unincorporated area, and the applicable Metro Fire or local fire department's operational-permit fee for its space, including the Places of Assembly permit once occupant load reaches 50 people within Metro Fire's territory. Title 4's chapter list names no sector-specific county registration or inspection program for a fitness studio beyond these general-layer requirements, each listed as a separate Sacramento County requirement.

General Business License

This license applies only to a business physically located in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County — the Department of Finance's own page states the license reaches 'areas of the County not located within city limits,' and the 7 incorporated cities (Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova, and the City of Sacramento) are affirmatively excluded, since a business there licenses with its own city instead. Any commercial or home-based business operating in the unincorporated area must hold this license, verified against the Assessor's Parcel Viewer. Under the Department of Finance's fees effective July 1, 2026, a new license costs $262.60 and a renewal costs $252.48 for a commercial location or $124.30 for a home-based business, both valid for 3 years, with an $18.00 late fee for a lapsed renewal. Financial institutions, licensed residential care facilities housing residents beyond 30 days, churches, libraries, and agricultural crop-growing or livestock operations are affirmatively exempted. Operating without a required license is a misdemeanor carrying up to a $500 fine and 6 months in jail. The correct authority is Sacramento County Code Title 4, Chapter 4.06 — an earlier research pass had cited 'Title 5,' traced to accidentally fetching the City of Sacramento's own code library instead of the County's; Title 4 is the citation confirmed directly against the County's own eCode360 codification.

Veterinary Practice Licensing — State Veterinary Medical Board Applies (Sacramento County)

No fee applies at county level. Per the Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, lists no veterinary-practice license among its chapters: the California Veterinary Medical Board licenses the individual practitioner and registers the veterinary premises statewide. The county-level touchpoints a veterinary practice does face are each listed as a separate Sacramento County requirement: the Business License (#1) if the clinic sits in the unincorporated area, the Medical Waste Small Quantity Generator registration for the clinic's own waste stream, the Kennel/Cattery Permit if the clinic boards animals beyond incidental overnight medical care, Building/Zoning compliance in the unincorporated area, and the applicable Metro Fire or local fire department's operational-permit fee for the premises itself. None of these substitute for, or amount to, a county practice license for veterinary medicine, which remains a purely state-level credential.

Contact

Jurisdiction
Sacramento County
Phone
Not verified — use the website

Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.

Sources

Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.

  1. Business Licensing Frequently Asked Questions — application and renewal fees effective July 1, 2026 for the General Business License, Special Business License and Tobacco Retailer License (each including the $4.00 state surcharge), terms, and the $18.00 late renewal feeSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-08
  2. Community Care Licensing Division Regional Offices — child care centers and family child care homes statewide, including Sacramento County, are licensed solely by the California Department of Social ServicesCalifornia Department of Social Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  3. Contractors State License Board — home pageCalifornia Contractors State License Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  4. Do I Need a Business License? — confirms the General and Special Business License apply only in the unincorporated area of Sacramento CountySacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  5. Fictitious Business Name (FBN) Statement — filing requirement, fee schedule, publication rule and 5-year termSacramento County Department of Finance, Tax Collection & Business Licensing Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  6. Health and Safety Code §1596.77 — defines 'Department' for child day care facility licensing to include a county or other public agency the state has delegated licensing authority toCalifornia Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  7. Sacramento County Code (eCode360 library SA4999) — Title 2 ch. 2.01 (Fictitious Business Names, §2.01.016); Title 4 chs. 4.02 (General Provisions), 4.06 (General Business Licenses), 4.10 (Special Business Licenses & Employee Permits), 4.60 (Alcohol Sales); Title 8 ch. 8.26 and §8.08.090 (Kennel/Cattery/Wild Animal Facility Permits)Sacramento County, CA, via eCode360 (General Code) · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  8. Sacramento County Code, Title 4 (Business Regulation), Chapter 4.06, 'General Business Licenses'Sacramento County, CA, via eCode360 (General Code) · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
  9. Veterinary Medical Board — home pageCalifornia Veterinary Medical Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28

Other offices serving Sacramento County

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

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Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.