North Charleston

City of North Charleston One Stop Shop, Finance Department

In short

City of North Charleston One Stop Shop, Finance Department issues 2 permits we publish for North Charleston, last verified 2026-10-09. 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
Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
Business License (Business License Tax)	City of North Charleston One Stop Shop, Finance Department	Annual business license tax on gross income under City Code § 10.5-40, Appendix A: a base rate on gross income of $0 to $2,000, plus a rate per $1,000 (or fraction) over $2,000. Class 2 (NAICS 722, food services and drinking places, which includes restaurants, coffee shops and mobile food services) $40.00 + $1.75; Class 3 (NAICS 62 health care and social assistance, NAICS 71 arts, entertainment and recreation, and NAICS 81 other services, which includes personal care and automotive repair) $45.00 + $2.05; Class 4 (NAICS 54 professional, scientific and technical services, which includes veterinary services, NAICS 541940) $50.00 + $2.35; subclass 8.1 contractors (NAICS 23, all construction) $55.00 + $1.60. Retail trade (NAICS 44-45) is Class 1 in the Appendix B class schedule. For gross income over $1,000,000, each additional $1,000 is taxed at a declining percentage of the class rate: 90% from $1 to $2 million, 80% from $2 to $3 million, 70% from $3 to $4 million, 60% from $4 to $250 million, 5% from $250 to $7,500 million and 0.1% above that. All taxes and rates are doubled for nonresidents and itinerants having no fixed principal place of business within the City, and contractors without a permanent place of business in the City pay the non-resident rate.	annual — the license year runs May 1 to April 30 (City Code § 10.5-18); the tax is due on or before April 30 each year (§ 10.5-19)	2026-10-09
Transient Merchant Set-Up Application and Inspectiononly if it applies to you	City of North Charleston One Stop Shop, Finance Department	$10 administrative fee per set-up application	per set-up; the application must be made at least 24 hours before the proposed operation	2026-10-09

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

Business License (Business License Tax)

Rates and rules are from the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10.5, Article II, as codified on Municode in Supplement No. 76 (through Ord. No. 2026-022, adopted June 25, 2026). The Appendix B class schedule (2025 Class Schedule) was replaced by Ord. No. 2025-048, ordained December 11, 2025 and effective for the license year beginning May 1, 2026; the signed ordinance is posted by Charleston County Revenue Collections, which handles North Charleston license renewals. Under § 10.5-20(a) a new business must hold the license before operating in the City, and under § 10.5-20(e) no license is issued until the applicant submits documents showing compliance with the zoning ordinance and the building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, roofing and other codes. The City's Business Licenses page states that businesses within commercial structures need a fire inspection to receive a business license. Under § 10.5-19(b) a separate license is required for each place of business and each classification; a new business is taxed on its estimated gross income for the rest of the license year, and a contractor may license per construction project. Subclass 8.1 contractors must first meet all state and City examination and trade-license requirements and file the bonds the building code requires. A bar (NAICS 722410) is subclass 9.7 at $55.00 + $1.60, and that license must be issued in the name of the individual holding the state alcohol, beer or wine permit.

Transient Merchant Set-Up Application and Inspection

Under City Code § 10.5-23(d), a transient merchant may not operate from a site until a set-up inspection has been applied for at least 24 hours in advance, with a $10.00 administrative fee; the City's Transient Merchants Permit page states that the vendor files this separate set-up application each time it proposes to start operations on a site. The site must already be an approved 'transient merchant host location': under § 10.5-23(a)-(b) the owner of commercially or industrially zoned property applies for each parcel with a $15.00 application fee, and the City's page states that host approval is good for one year unless ownership changes. A set-up must be at least 75 feet from the nearest fuel pump and leave five customer parking spaces, and no transient vending may occur between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. The City's Starting a Business page states that roadside vendors and mobile businesses need this permit before doing business in the City.

Contact

Jurisdiction: North Charleston
Phone: (843) 740-2639
Website: www.northcharleston.org/business/business_licenses.php

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 North Charleston — Business LicensesCity of North Charleston, Finance Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-09
City of North Charleston — Starting a BusinessCity of North Charleston · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-09
City of North Charleston — Transient Merchants PermitCity of North Charleston · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-09
City of North Charleston Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10.5, Article II — Business Licenses (§§ 10.5-16 to 10.5-40, incl. Appendix A rate schedule and Appendix B class schedule; Supp. No. 76, codified through Ord. No. 2026-022)City of North Charleston (published by Municode) · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-09
City of North Charleston Ordinance No. 2025-048 (business license class schedule, ordained December 11, 2025) with Ord. No. 2023-062 and Ord. No. 2021-080, as posted by Charleston County Revenue CollectionsCharleston County Revenue Collections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-09

Other offices serving North Charleston

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

Business licenses in North Charleston

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