Business Licenses & Permits by State

California

California has no statewide general business license — that comes from your city, or your county if you are outside one. What the state does charge is the Franchise Tax Board's $800 a year, due whether or not the business trades.

Texas

Texas issues few licenses at state level and pushes most permitting down to the city and county. What you need in Austin is not what you need in Houston, even for the same business.

Florida

Florida replaces a general business license with the local Business Tax Receipt, and a business inside city limits can owe two of them — one to the city and one to the county. Every receipt expires on 30 September.

New York

New York is the only state that makes a new LLC advertise itself in two newspapers for six weeks, in papers the county clerk chooses. It licenses no general contractors and registers no veterinary premises; food permitting is a county matter.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania replaced its decennial report with an annual one in 2025, licenses no general contractors, and hands retail food licensing to eleven delegated health jurisdictions and around ninety-nine further municipalities.

Illinois

Illinois licenses no general contractors and no veterinary premises, and issues no statewide business license — but most municipalities issue one of their own, and Chicago’s reaches almost every business.

Ohio

Ohio charges $99 to form a company and then asks for nothing further — no annual report, no annual fee. It licenses no general contractors, and a restaurant license is priced by the local board of health on top of a fixed $28 state share.

Georgia

Georgia’s business license is a local occupation tax certificate a city or county is authorised but not required to levy, so some jurisdictions charge nothing at all. Restaurant permits are priced entirely by county boards of health.

North Carolina

North Carolina fixes the restaurant permit at $120 a year statewide and forbids counties to set their own, and it abolished the general local privilege license outright in 2015. Its general contractor license is tiered by project value.

Michigan

Michigan’s agriculture department licenses shops, not restaurants — those go to the local health department, which sets its own fee. It licenses residential builders but not commercial ones, and it does register auto repair shops.

New Jersey

New Jersey’s free Business Registration Certificate is not permission to trade; it exists for public contracting. Retail food is licensed by more than a hundred local boards of health, and the state licenses trades rather than general contractors.

Virginia

Virginia has no statewide business license — that is the local BPOL tax, whose gross-receipts threshold exempts you from the tax but not from the fee. It does set one flat $40 restaurant permit that applies almost everywhere.

Washington

Washington runs a genuine statewide business license that can carry a city license on the same form — for 223 partner cities, but not Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, Kent or Renton, which license separately.

Arizona

Arizona has no general business license — what looks like one is the transaction privilege tax license, which is a tax account. Its LLCs file no annual report at all, and food permits are priced entirely by the county.

Tennessee

Tennessee charges LLC fees per member, at formation and again every year, so an LLC pays at least $300 annually where a corporation pays $20. The business license is a $15 county clerk license with two gross-sales thresholds.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts charges an LLC $500 to form and $500 every year after, four times what a corporation pays. It was the first state to mandate allergen awareness in restaurants, and it registers auto body repair shops.

Indiana

Indiana files its entity report every two years rather than every year, charges $25 once for a retail merchant certificate and then renews it free, and licenses exactly one construction trade — plumbing.

Maryland

Maryland prices its general business license on the value of your inventory, through the Clerk of the Circuit Court, and charges a $300 annual report to LLCs and corporations alike. Child care licenses are free.

Missouri

Missouri issues no state food permit, no state plumbing license and no general business license — all three are purely local, run by whichever of the state's 115 health agencies or cities covers the address. Its LLCs file no annual report at all, unlike its corporations.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin lets local health departments become licensing agents for retail food, so the restaurant fee depends on the address rather than the state. It charges for a seller’s permit and licenses no general contractor.

Colorado

Colorado prorates its sales tax license fee across a two‑year cycle, so the same license costs $16 or $4 depending on when you buy it — and the state license does not cover the home‑rule cities that collect their own tax. Restaurant fees are set in statute and rise every January.

Minnesota

Minnesota’s annual renewal is free but compulsory — miss it and the entity is dissolved. Filing by post costs less than filing online, and food licensing splits three ways between two state agencies and delegated counties.

South Carolina

South Carolina issues no state business license but standardised every local one onto a single May-to-April year with a common class schedule. An LLC files no annual report; a corporation's is a tax return, not a filing with the Secretary of State.

Alabama

Alabama prices its state business license by trade — by town population and seats for a restaurant, by headcount for a garage, by chairs for a barber shop — through the county probate judge, who adds fifty percent on top.

Louisiana

Louisiana's entire Secretary of State fee schedule rises on 1 October 2026, and its plumbing licensing is mid-transition from a dedicated board into the general contractors board, fully consolidating on 1 January 2027.

Kentucky

Kentucky has no statewide business license — what functions like one is a local occupational tax on payroll and net profits, run by hundreds of separate cities and counties. Its veterinary facility registration only became mandatory in 2025.

Oregon

Oregon has no sales tax, so it has no seller's permit at all. Its annual report costs the same $100 as forming the company, and missing it dissolves the entity rather than fining it.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma repealed its corporate franchise tax outright, so a domestic corporation now owes no recurring state filing at all — only an LLC still files a $25 annual certificate. Its sales tax permit runs on a hard three-year clock rather than forever.

Connecticut

Connecticut charges $100 for a sales tax permit that then expires every two years — unusual on both counts. It is also one of the few states that licenses auto repair shops directly, through the DMV, for $480 across two years.

Utah

Utah licenses the cosmetologist, never the salon — there is no salon establishment fee at all. Its motor vehicle division licenses auto body shops but not ordinary mechanical repair shops, which need no state license whatsoever.

Nevada

Nevada is one of the few states with a genuine statewide business license — $500 for a corporation, $200 for everything else. Its veterinary facility permit price depends on who owns the practice, from $150 to $700.

Iowa

Iowa prices its restaurant license by gross sales rather than seating capacity, so the same kitchen can pay $150, $300 or $400 depending on revenue alone. It merged cosmetology and barbering into one board and one $80 fee in 2023.

Arkansas

Arkansas prices franchise tax three different ways by entity type — a flat $150 for an LLC, a percentage of stock value for a corporation, a flat $300 for one with no stock. Cosmetology and barbering are licensed by two entirely different agencies.

Kansas

Kansas licenses no general contractor, electrician or plumber at state level — only whichever city or county chooses to, though a certificate earned in one carries statewide. Its one real state trade credential, roofing, is issued by the Attorney General.

Mississippi

Mississippi's LLC annual report is free; a corporation's costs $25 for the same deadline. Its veterinary board charges a $100 inspection fee every three years instead of issuing a facility license at all.

New Mexico

New Mexico's LLCs file no annual report of any kind — the whole statute was read and contains no such requirement — while its corporations file one every two years. Its food handler card is a genuine mandate, not an option.

Nebraska

Nebraska still requires a new LLC or corporation to publish notice of its own formation in a local newspaper for three weeks. Plumbing and HVAC are licensed only locally here; electrical is a genuine state trade.

Idaho

Idaho requires no child care license at all below seven children, but mandates one at seven. Its food safety exam is free and is only one of three ways to satisfy the person-in-charge knowledge requirement.

West Virginia

West Virginia's Business Registration Certificate is a genuine, permanent state business license for a flat $30 — it never needs renewing and doubles as the state's sales tax registration.

Hawaii

Hawaii has no sales tax — its General Excise Tax license costs $20 once and never expires. It genuinely licenses auto repair shops, priced per facility, unlike most states covered here.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire has neither a sales tax nor a general business license, and a new business need not register with the revenue department at all unless it crosses a real income threshold.

Maine

Maine splits food licensing between two departments by the legal distinction between an eating establishment and a food establishment. It licenses no general contractor, only a mandatory written contract above $3,000.

Montana

Montana waives its $20 annual report fee on time through 2027 — miss the deadline and the full $35 late fee still applies. Its restaurant fee schedule was completely rebuilt by a 2025 law after sixteen years unchanged.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island eliminated its $10 sales tax permit fee in 2022 but still requires the permit renewed every year for free. It licenses auto body and collision shops by statute, but leaves purely mechanical repair shops unaddressed.

Delaware

Delaware charges no sales tax at all — sellers instead pay a gross receipts tax through the same $75 business license that famously has nothing to do with its incorporation industry. An LLC's yearly tax is a flat $300; a corporation instead files a report and computes a franchise tax two different ways.

South Dakota

South Dakota's sales tax license is free but still mandatory — operating without one is a criminal offense. Its own Board of Barber Examiners bills a $150 inspection fee on a form that quotes a statute saying it may not charge one.

North Dakota

North Dakota's sales tax permit costs nothing and never expires — no renewal cycle at all. Its food establishment fees were rebuilt effective January 1, 2026, and its general contractor license is tiered by project size, from $100 up to $450.

Alaska

Alaska genuinely charges $50 a year for a general business license, unusual among small states. It has no statewide sales tax at all, and a $10 food worker card isn't needed if the worker already holds a Certified Food Protection Manager credential.

District of Columbia

The District is one government doing both jobs. Since the BEST Act took effect in October 2025 every business license category costs the same and endorsements are free — but the biennial report is the steepest entity filing anywhere covered here.

Vermont

Vermont measures its annual report deadline from each business's own fiscal year end rather than a fixed date. Its food code treats a certified food protection manager as one of three optional ways to prove food safety knowledge, not a flat mandate.

Wyoming

Wyoming charges a real $60 for its sales tax permit, but only once — it never needs renewing. Its annual report tax scales with a business's own in-state assets above a $60 floor, and only electrical work is licensed statewide among the trades.