Commercial Compliance Hub
Check requirements

Fairfax County

Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration

In short

Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration issues 4 permits we publish for Fairfax County, last verified 2026-10-02. 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
BPOL (Business, Professional and Occupational License) RegistrationFairfax County Department of Tax AdministrationFlat-fee tier for gross receipts/purchases up to $100,000: $0 for $10,000 or less; $30 for $10,001-$50,000; $50 for $50,001-$100,000. Rate tier for gross receipts/purchases of $100,001 or more, per $100, by classification: Wholesale Merchants $0.04 (gross-purchases basis); Builder and Developers $0.05; Contractors $0.11; Retail Merchants $0.17; Business Service Occupations, Money Lenders, Personal Service Occupations and Repair Service Occupations $0.19 each; Telephone Companies $0.24; Amusement Occupations, Hotels and Motels, and Renting By Owner $0.26; Professional Occupations, Consultants and Specialized Occupations, Real Estate Brokers, and Research & Development Business $0.31 (or $0.03 for certain federally-funded R&D prime contracts).Annual; renewal due March 1. New registration required within 75 days of starting operations, with a 10% late penalty.2026-10-02
BPOL Classification — Veterinary (Professional Occupations)Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration$0.31 per $100 of gross receipts for a Professional Occupations-classified business with gross receipts over $100,000; at or below $100,000, the flat-fee tier in the BPOL general registration record applies instead.Annual; renewal due March 1, same as the general BPOL registration.2026-10-02
Mixed Beverage License Taxonly if it applies to youFairfax County Department of Tax AdministrationSeating capacity 50-100: $200/yr; 101-150: $350/yr; over 150: $500/yr. Private non-profit club operating an on-site restaurant: $350/yr (non-profit status per ABC Board determination).Annual; due March 1 (changed from January 31, effective January 1, 2026); 10% late penalty. First-time filers must file within 75 days of business start or ABC license issuance; proration applies only on move-in, not move-out.2026-10-02
BPOL Classification — Restaurant / Coffee Shop / Food Truck (Retail Merchants)Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration$0.17 per $100 of gross receipts/purchases for a Retail Merchants-classified business with gross receipts over $100,000; at or below $100,000, the flat-fee tier in the BPOL general registration record applies instead.Annual; renewal due March 1, same as the general BPOL registration.2026-10-02

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

BPOL (Business, Professional and Occupational License) Registration

Every business, including a home-based business, operating in unincorporated Fairfax County must register for a BPOL license with the Department of Tax Administration, as read directly from the county's own fee pages. Businesses with gross receipts or purchases of $10,000 or less owe no fee; $10,001-$50,000 owes a flat $30; $50,001-$100,000 owes a flat $50. Above $100,000, the tax is a per-$100 rate by classification, read verbatim from the county's own bpol-license-rates page: Wholesale Merchants $0.04, Builder and Developers $0.05, Contractors $0.11, Retail Merchants $0.17, Business Service/Money Lenders/Personal Service/Repair Service Occupations $0.19 each, Telephone Companies $0.24, Amusement Occupations/Hotels and Motels/Renting By Owner $0.26, and Professional Occupations/Consultants and Specialized Occupations/Real Estate Brokers/R&D Business $0.31. New businesses must register within 75 days of starting operations, with a 10% late penalty, and renew annually by March 1. Virginia Code §58.1-3711 provides that a county's BPOL tax does not apply within a town that imposes its own BPOL tax on the same privilege: each of Fairfax County's three incorporated towns — Clifton, Herndon and Vienna — runs its own BPOL ordinance, so this county-level registration and rate schedule applies everywhere in unincorporated Fairfax County but is replaced, not stacked on top of, by each town's own BPOL ordinance for a business physically located inside Clifton, Herndon or Vienna, as Clifton's own FAQ confirms directly.

BPOL Classification — Veterinary (Professional Occupations)

Fairfax County's own BPOL rate page lists a Professional Occupations classification at $0.31 per $100 of gross receipts but does not name which business types fall under each classification label, and Fairfax County Code §4-7.2's own classification-definitions text lives exclusively inside Municode's JavaScript-rendered code library interface, which serves no readable server-rendered text for that section. The veterinary classification published here instead rests on the mandatory statewide BPOL framework Fairfax is legally required to follow: 23VAC10-500-450(A) enumerates the statutory list of professional occupations for BPOL purposes and explicitly lists, as item 8, 'Veterinarians,' and Va. Code §58.1-3706(A)(4) sets the professional-occupations rate ceiling under this same classification. Fairfax County's own classification label, Professional Occupations, is itself the exact statutory label from this state framework, which is why this record states a Professional Occupations classification and rate rather than quoting county ordinance text directly.

Mixed Beverage License Tax

Fairfax County's Mixed Beverage License Tax is a local tax the Department of Tax Administration layers on top of a Virginia ABC mixed-beverage license, read directly from the county's own other-county-licenses fee page: a business with seating capacity of 50 to 100 owes $200 a year, 101 to 150 owes $350, and over 150 owes $500; a private non-profit club operating an on-site restaurant, as determined by the ABC Board, owes $350 a year. This tax applies to any Fairfax County business holding a state mixed-beverage license, including a restaurant inside a hotel or motel. Filing and payment are due annually by March 1, with a 10% late penalty; first-time filers must file within 75 days of starting business or of ABC license issuance, and proration applies only when a business moves in during the year, not when it moves out. Effective January 1, 2026, this due date changed from January 31 to March 1 for this tax and the county's other specialty DTA license taxes, and the Department of Tax Administration mails notices by January 30 each year. Fairfax County Code §4-9-1 is the citation for this tax, confirmed directly on the source page with its own Municode citation node.

BPOL Classification — Restaurant / Coffee Shop / Food Truck (Retail Merchants)

Fairfax County's own BPOL rate page lists a Retail Merchants classification at $0.17 per $100 of gross receipts but does not name which business types fall under each classification label, and Fairfax County Code §4-7.2's own classification-definitions text lives exclusively inside Municode's JavaScript-rendered code library interface, which serves no readable server-rendered text for that section. The restaurant, coffee-shop and food-truck classification published here instead rests on the mandatory statewide BPOL framework Fairfax is legally required to follow: Va. Code §58.1-3701 requires every Virginia locality's BPOL ordinance to classify businesses according to the state BPOL Guidelines; 23VAC10-500-10 defines a 'retail sale' as a sale of goods, wares and merchandise for use or consumption by the purchaser; and Virginia Tax Commissioner Ruling P.D. 09-93 applies that definition directly to food service, holding that meals charged directly to individual patrons meet the definition of a retail sale. Fairfax County's own classification labels — Retail Merchants, Personal Service Occupations, Repair Service Occupations, Professional Occupations — are themselves the exact statutory labels from this state framework, which is why this record states a Retail Merchants classification and rate rather than quoting county ordinance text directly.

Contact

Jurisdiction
Fairfax 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. 23VAC10-500-10 — definition of "retail sale" under the BPOL GuidelinesVirginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  2. 23VAC10-500-450 — statutory list of Professional Occupations under the BPOL Guidelines, including veterinariansVirginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  3. Code of Virginia §58.1-3701 — localities must classify businesses per the state BPOL GuidelinesVirginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  4. Code of Virginia §58.1-3711 — a county BPOL tax does not apply within a town that imposes its own town license tax on the same privilegeCode of Virginia, Division of Legislative Services · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  5. Fairfax County — BPOL License RatesFairfax County Department of Tax Administration · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  6. Fairfax County — Other County Licenses (Mixed Beverage and specialty taxes)Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  7. Fairfax County — Understanding the BPOL TaxFairfax County Department of Tax Administration · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  8. Town of Clifton — Frequently Asked Questions (BPOL tax paid to the town, not the County)Town of Clifton, Virginia · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02
  9. Virginia Tax Commissioner Ruling P.D. 09-93 — retail classification of direct-to-patron food salesVirginia Department of Taxation · primary source · retrieved 2026-10-02

Other offices serving Fairfax County

The full permit list for this jurisdiction

Industry permit lists that include this agency

Virginia jurisdictions

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