Lincoln
City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer
In short
City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer issues 3 permits we publish for Lincoln, last verified 2026-09-11. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant and Drinking Places Occupation Tax | City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer | 2% of total monthly gross receipts from the sale of food, to the extent those receipts are subject to city and state sales tax under LMC §3.16.010. A 10% penalty plus 1% interest per month (or part of a month) applies to a late-filed return, compounded quarterly. | ongoing — filed and remitted by the 25th of the following month (quarterly by written City Finance Director permission, due the 25th of April/July/October/January) | 2026-09-11 |
| General Business License — City of Lincoln Positiononly if it applies to you | City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-11 |
| Salon/Barbershop-Specific Municipal License (not found)only if it applies to you | City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-11 |
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
Restaurant and Drinking Places Occupation Tax
This tax, not a license fee, is Lincoln's local charge on prepared-food sales. The City's Restaurant Occupation Tax FAQ states that the tax reaches catering (whether the food is served by the seller or merely provided to the purchaser for consumption, so long as the catered event occurs within the City of Lincoln) and golf-course concession sales of prepared food, and that it is imposed upon "each and every person operating a drinking place or restaurant business or providing the services within the City"; that wording reaches coffee shops and food trucks selling prepared food as well as restaurants proper, although the FAQ, unlike Omaha's equivalent Q&A, does not use the words "coffee shop" or "food truck". Wholesale-only sales, off-sale liquor, cover charges, gift-certificate sales themselves, and food provided free to employees are excluded from the taxable base; a mandatory gratuity is included.
General Business License — City of Lincoln Position
No fee applies: the City Treasurer's Occupation Taxes page lists seven narrow, industry-specific occupation taxes (car rental, two shopping-center enhanced-employment-area taxes, hotel/motel, restaurant/bar, short-term rental and telecommunications) and names no universal operating license, so there is no city business-license fee to pay. The only one of those taxes that reaches the industries covered here is the 2% Restaurant and Drinking Places Occupation Tax, listed as a separate Lincoln requirement. A business still needs Nebraska Secretary of State entity registration and any applicable state license (both covered at the Nebraska state level), plus whichever local zoning, building, fire and food-safety approvals apply.
Salon/Barbershop-Specific Municipal License (not found)
No fee applies — the City Treasurer's own seven-tax occupation schedule and the Bureau of Fire Prevention's own operational-permit table list no additional salon- or barbershop-specific municipal product beyond the general permitting, zoning and fire requirements recorded elsewhere in this file. Nebraska's own DHHS cosmetology salon license and Board of Barber Examiners shop registration, both recorded at the state layer, remain the real trade-specific credentials for this industry.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Lincoln
- Phone
- (402) 441-7457
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.
- City of Lincoln Restaurant Occupation Tax FAQs (rev. 9/30/2019) — states the 2% tax rate effective January 1, 2011, monthly/quarterly filing deadlines, 1%/month interest plus a discretionary 10% penalty, and confirms catering, golf-course concessions and other prepared-food sales are taxableCity of Lincoln Finance Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
- Occupation Taxes — the complete list of seven occupation taxes the City Treasurer administers (car rental 4%, Gateway-Shops EEA 0.5%, hotel/motel 4%, restaurant/bar 2%, short-term rental 4%, SouthPointe Pavilions EEA 1%, telecommunications 4%), with no general business license mentionedCity of Lincoln Finance Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
Other offices serving Lincoln
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Nebraska jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.