Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services
In short
Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services issues 3 permits we publish for Cuyahoga County, last verified 2026-09-30. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor's License (Regular) | Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services | $50 one application fee for each fixed sales location in the county — a combined state and county amount, of which the county auditor transmits $25 to the Treasurer of State for the organized crime commission fund and credits $25 to the Cuyahoga County general fund; the county's page states 'No Annual Renewal Fee' | a standing registration with no annual renewal fee; the county's own page states that 'Vendors must have one regular vendor's license for each sales location', and a new license is needed when the vendor's legal identity changes rather than at a fixed expiry date | 2026-09-30 |
| Retail Cigarette Dealer's License (Cigarette Vendor's License)only if it applies to you | Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services | $125 a year for each physical place where cigarettes are sold at retail, and for each motor vehicle used to convey cigarettes from place to place — a state-set fee collected by the county Fiscal Officer, prorated when the application is filed after 1 June but never below $25 in any one year; a duplicate license is $5 and a transfer to another place of business in the same county is $5 | one year commencing on the first day of June, per ORC 5743.15(B)(2), with applications due annually on or before the first day of June; a license is not transferable where the business moves, is sold, an individual or partnership incorporates, or a partnership or corporation is dissolved | 2026-09-30 |
| Junk Yard License (outside a municipality)only if it applies to you | Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Licensing and Support Services | $25 for the initial license, with renewal at $10 a year — both amounts set by ORC 4737.07 rather than by any county schedule | ORC 4737.07 provides that 'All licenses issued under this section shall expire on the first day of January following the date of issue', renewable from year to year on payment of ten dollars to the county auditor | 2026-09-30 |
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
Vendor's License (Regular)
A business making retail sales from a fixed location anywhere in Cuyahoga County registers for a regular vendor's license with the Fiscal Officer's Licensing and Support Services office at 2079 East Ninth Street in Cleveland, or through the Ohio Business Gateway, on Ohio Form ST-1. The amount is set by statute rather than by the county: ORC 5739.17(A) requires the applicant to 'pay into the county treasury a license fee in the sum of fifty dollars for each fixed place of business in the county that will be the situs of retail sales', and then directs that the auditor 'shall transmit twenty-five dollars of each license fee to the treasurer of state … to the credit of the organized crime commission fund' while 'The remaining twenty-five dollars of each license fee shall be credited to the general fund of the county.' The $50 is therefore a combined state and county amount, and a $25 figure repeated in older material is the county's share rather than the price — the statute's own version history shows the prior text, effective 6 September 2012 under House Bill 508 of the 129th General Assembly, reading 'license fee in the sum of twenty-five dollars', which House Bill 366 doubled with effect from 9 April 2025. As published on the county's own Vendor's Licenses page, the application fee is '$50.00 · Cash, Check or Money Order made payable to Cuyahoga County Treasurer', with 'No Annual Renewal Fee', and the page states that 'Vendors must have one regular vendor's license for each sales location' — so a second shop in the county is a second $50. The same page tells operators based elsewhere: 'If you are from outside Cuyahoga County, please contact your local County Auditor.' Two related licenses on that page are state ones, not county ones: it marks the Transient Vendor's License and the Service Vendor's License as 'Issued by the Department of Taxation'.
Retail Cigarette Dealer's License (Cigarette Vendor's License)
A shop, cafe, restaurant or truck selling cigarettes at retail in Cuyahoga County needs this license for each physical place of business, and the Fiscal Officer issues it on 216-443-7420, option #7. ORC 5743.15(B)(1) requires 'every person desiring to engage in the retail business of trafficking in cigarettes' to 'pay an application fee in the sum of one hundred twenty-five dollars for each physical place where the person proposes to carry on such business', and ORC 5743.15(B)(2) authorises the business 'at such place for one year commencing on the first day of June', adding that 'When an application is filed after the first day of June, the application fee required to be paid shall be proportioned in amount to the remainder of the license year, except that it shall not be less than twenty-five dollars in any one year.' The county's own page prints the same amount — 'There is an annual renewal fee of $125.00 and a Vendor's License is required' — and describes its counter practice for part-year applicants: 'New applicants requesting a license will pay a prorated fee between January - May. Please contact the Fiscal Office at 216-443-7420, option #7 for the exact cost.' The statute's proration rule and the county's January-to-May wording are each recorded as their own source states them. Vehicles count as places: the county's page states that 'Any person who employs the use of a motor vehicle to convey a supply of cigarettes from place to place or for the purpose of offering such cigarettes for sale must obtain a license for each vehicle in each county in which any vehicle is used.' A lost, destroyed or defaced license is replaced for $5, and a move to another place of business inside the same county transfers for $5 while the licensee's ownership interest and business structure stay unchanged. The license must be on show: 'Cigarette licenses are to be displayed near the product being sold for easy inspection.' A Vendor's License is a prerequisite. One boundary is worth knowing before budgeting: tobacco retailing inside the City of Cleveland also draws the city's own annual tobacco retail license under Ordinance 187-2025, applied for through the city's licensing portal, so a Cleveland retailer's tobacco permit sits with the city rather than with the county Board of Health.
Junk Yard License (outside a municipality)
This record reaches a very small number of Cuyahoga County businesses, and the reason is geographic rather than commercial. ORC 4737.07 provides that 'No person shall operate and maintain a junk yard outside of a municipality, except in zoned or unzoned industrial areas adjacent to the interstate or primary systems, without first obtaining a license to do so from the county auditor of the county in which such junk yard is located or in which such junk yard is to be established', and puts the license for a yard inside a municipality with the chief executive officer of that municipality instead. Cuyahoga County's unincorporated territory is Olmsted Township and Chagrin Falls Township; at every other address in the county the licensing authority under the same statute is the municipality, not the Fiscal Officer. The amounts are statutory: 'The fee for a license issued under this section is twenty-five dollars, except that the fee for municipal licenses issued under this section shall be reduced by the amount paid by the licensee for any similar licenses issued pursuant to ordinances of such municipality. All licenses issued under this section shall expire on the first day of January following the date of issue. A license may be renewed from year to year upon paying the chief executive officer of the municipality or the auditor of the county in which the junk yard is located the sum of ten dollars for each such renewal.' Because the license expires on the first of January whatever month it was issued in, a yard opening in the autumn renews within weeks. The auditor may revoke it, after reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard, for any violation of ORC 4737.01 to 4737.12 by the licensee or its officers, agents or employees. The trade test is what the business actually does: an ordinary mechanical repair shop has no trigger, and this applies only where the business operates as a junk or salvage yard. The $25 and $10 figures are read from the statute; the Fiscal Officer's Licensing and Support Services page names Vendor's Licenses, Cigarette Vendor's Licenses and Dog Licenses as the licenses it publishes process pages for, so an applicant should call the office on 216-443-7420 to file.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Cuyahoga County
- Phone
- 216-443-7420
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.
- Cigarette Vendor's Licenses — the county's own page: the $125 annual fee, one license per location, a license for each cigarette-carrying vehicle, the display duty and the non-transferability rulesCuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
- Licensing and Support Services — the Fiscal Officer's own page, listing the three licenses the office issues: Vendor's Licenses, Cigarette Vendor's Licenses and Dog LicensesCuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
- ORC 4737.07 — junk yard/secondhand dealer license issuance and the $25 license feeOhio Legislative Service Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- ORC 5739.17, Vendor's License — $50 fee ($25 to the state Organized Crime Commission Fund, $25 to the county general fund), effective April 9, 2025Ohio Legislative Service Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- ORC 5743.15 — retail cigarette dealer's license, $125 application fee per physical place, license year commencing 1 June, $25 proration floor, $5 duplicate and transfer fees, and the 30/10/60 distribution of the feeOhio Legislative Service Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
- Tobacco Prevention and Control — the City of Cleveland's own page: the city's annual tobacco retail license under Ordinance 187-2025, applied for through the city licensing portal, with the first license year running January to December 2026City of Cleveland, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
- Vendor's Licenses — the county's own page: $50 application fee, no annual renewal fee, one regular license for each sales location, and the Transient and Service Vendor's Licenses marked as issued by the Department of TaxationCuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, Ohio · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-30
Other offices serving Cuyahoga County
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Ohio jurisdictions
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