Business licenses and permits in California

What applies everywhere in California

13 requirements are set by California itself and apply whichever city you open in. Local permits sit on top of them.

Sources

Every statewide figure above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.

1. California Franchise Tax Board — Limited liability company: annual tax and LLC feeCalifornia Franchise Tax Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
2. California Franchise Tax Board — Corporations: minimum franchise taxCalifornia Franchise Tax Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
3. California Secretary of State Business Entities Fee Schedule (BE FEES, Rev. 06/2018)California Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
4. California Health and Safety Code section 1596.803 — child day care facility application and annual fees by licensed capacityCalifornia Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
5. Contractors State License Board — schedule of feesContractors State License Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
6. California Business and Professions Code section 7071.6 — $25,000 contractor's bond, raised by Senate Bill 607 with effect from 1 January 2023California Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
7. California Code of Regulations title 16 section 998, Schedule of Fees, as published by the Board of Barbering and CosmetologyCalifornia Board of Barbering and Cosmetology · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
8. California Business and Professions Code section 7415 — two-year license term for barbering and cosmetology licensesCalifornia Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
9. California Health and Safety Code section 114381 — food facility permit required, fee determined by the local governing bodyCalifornia Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
10. California Health and Safety Code section 113948 — food handler card, three-year term and $15 price ceiling (amended by Senate Bill 476, effective 1 January 2024)California Legislative Information · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
11. California Office of the Small Business Advocate — setting up your business in CaliforniaGovernor's Office of Business and Economic Development · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
12. CDTFA — Obtaining a Seller's Permit, frequently asked questionsCalifornia Department of Tax and Fee Administration · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
13. California Veterinary Medicine Practice Act and Regulations, title 16 section 2070, registration and renewal feesCalifornia Veterinary Medical Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
14. California Veterinary Medical Board — license renewal feesCalifornia Veterinary Medical Board · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03

Which California city are you opening in?

• Los Angeles County, CALos Angeles County has 88 incorporated cities, and each county agency that touches these ten industries reaches a different subset of them, so a business's obligations depend entirely on where it sits and which agency is asked. The Treasurer and Tax Collector's Title 7 business license applies only in the unincorporated area and the three contract cities of Malibu, Santa Clarita and Westlake Village. The Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Division is nearly countywide, reaching every city except Long Beach, Pasadena and Vernon, which run their own environmental health departments. LA County Fire, acting as the county's Certified Unified Program Agency for hazardous materials, covers the unincorporated area plus 59 property-tax-funded cities and the city of La Habra (in Orange County) by contract, 60 cities total, but not the City of Los Angeles or the other cities that run their own fire departments. The Department of Public Works' Building and Safety Division covers the unincorporated area plus 13 named contract cities. The Department of Regional Planning has zoning and conditional-use-permit authority in the unincorporated area only — zero authority inside any incorporated city. The Department of Animal Care and Control covers the unincorporated area plus roughly 34 contract cities, not the City of Los Angeles, which runs its own animal-control department. The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Fictitious Business Name filing function and the county's Fire hazardous-materials program each have their own separate scope again. A business in the City of Los Angeles — the county's largest city — sits outside almost every one of these county programs except DPH-Environmental Health and the countywide Registrar-Recorder function; a business in one of the smaller contract cities may be inside several of them at once. Each requirement listed here states its own exact scope.29 published records
• Sacramento County, CASacramento County has 7 incorporated cities (Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova, and the City of Sacramento) plus a large unincorporated area, and its county-level programs split that geography in two exactly opposite ways. The Department of Finance's General Business License, Special Business License and Tobacco Retailer License; the Building Permits & Inspection Division's building and tenant-improvement permits; and Planning & Environmental Review's zoning, Use Permit/Variance/Rezone and Alcohol Sales Conditional Use Permit/PCN programs all reach the UNINCORPORATED AREA ONLY — a business inside any of the 7 cities licenses and permits with that city instead. The Environmental Management Department runs the opposite pattern on every one of its programs: the Retail Food Facility, Mobile Food Facility, Temporary Food Facility and Body Art Facility permits, the Medical Waste Small Quantity Generator registration, and the CUPA/Hazardous Materials Business Plan program are all COUNTYWIDE, reaching every incorporated city as well as the unincorporated area, because the department is the sole environmental-health authority and the sole Certified Unified Program Agency for the entire county. The Commercial/Industrial Stormwater Compliance Program is also countywide, except it does not reach the City of Isleton. The Fictitious Business Name Statement is countywide by state mandate regardless of either pattern. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District (Metro Fire) follows a third, fragmented pattern: it serves only Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, and most — not all — of the unincorporated area; the City of Sacramento, Folsom, Elk Grove, Galt, Wilton and Isleton each run an independent fire department, and several unincorporated Delta communities have their own small fire districts, so a business's fire-permit path depends on its specific address. Childcare facility licensing, veterinary practice licensing, general contractor licensing, and salon/cosmetology licensing are state functions; Sacramento County Code Title 4 (Business Regulation), the County's codified business-licensing ordinance, has no chapter for any of them, though each still has county-level touchpoints (fire, medical waste, kennel, building, zoning) listed as separate Sacramento County requirements.28 published records
• Orange County, CAOrange County has 34 incorporated cities and a small unincorporated area, and its county-level regulators split that geography four different ways rather than one. OC Sheriff's Department's general business license and OC Development Services' zoning, sign, occupancy and building permits reach the unincorporated area only — every incorporated city runs its own version instead. Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) serves 23 named member and contract cities plus the unincorporated area, not the other 11 cities, each of which runs its own fire department. OC Health Care Agency (HCA) Environmental Health is the CalEPA-designated Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA) for hazardous materials countywide, EXCEPT the City of Anaheim, which has run its own independent CUPA since 2001 — Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Orange do not have independent CUPAs despite sometimes being described that way; the Underground Storage Tank sub-program additionally excludes the City of Orange. OC HCA's food-facility and mobile-food permits are simply countywide. OC Animal Care's business-licensing and field service reach only 14 named cities plus the unincorporated area. A Fictitious Business Name (DBA) filing with the OC Clerk-Recorder is the one function here that is genuinely countywide with no carve-out, because it is a state-mandated county recorder function under Business & Professions Code §17900. General contractor licensing (CSLB), cosmetology and salon licensing, veterinary practice licensing, and childcare facility licensing are all state functions, not county ones, and are carried at the state layer.27 published records
• Riverside County, CARiverside County's own 'Business Licenses and Permits' page names no general county business license: it frames county licensing as a set of activity-specific permits from separate departments rather than one license, and directs general licensing questions to the state Dept. of Tax and Fee Administration. A business's actual county-level obligations depend on which of four agencies reaches it, and each reaches different geography. The Dept. of Environmental Health (RUHS-DEH) is countywide — its food, mobile food, tobacco, pool/spa, hazardous-waste/CUPA and medical-waste permits apply in all 28 incorporated cities and the unincorporated area alike, because Riverside County Code Ch. 4.52's 'Area of Application' language reaches incorporated territory too; Ch. 4.52 §4 carves out an exception for any city running its own duplicate ordinance, so a business inside an incorporated city should check that city's code for one. Planning, Building & Safety and the Sheriff's Department, by contrast, reach the unincorporated area only; each incorporated city runs its own zoning, building and specialty-licensing programs instead. Riverside County Fire Department serves the unincorporated area plus roughly 20 incorporated cities under contract, but not the City of Riverside (its own department) or Calimesa and Canyon Lake (both left RVCFD in 2018 and 2022 respectively to form their own departments). Business (Stormwater) Registration, the closest thing to a general registration, is also unincorporated-area-only. Trade licenses (contractor, cosmetology) and the state business registration are state functions carried at the state layer, not county ones.27 published records
• San Joaquin County, CASan Joaquin County has eight incorporated cities — Escalon, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Mountain House, Ripon, Stockton (the county seat) and Tracy — and a large unincorporated area. Mountain House incorporated as the county's eighth city effective July 1, 2024 (San Joaquin County Recorder Document 2024-027759, LAFCO Certificate of Completion LAFC 16-21), and each of the eight cities, Mountain House included, runs its own business-license, building and zoning regime that stacks on top of the county's rather than routing through any county department. The Treasurer-Tax Collector's business-license family (General, Home Occupation, Secondary, Massage-Bodywork, Cottage Food, Peddler, Solicitor and Service licenses) and the Community Development Department's building-permit and zoning-compliance programs reach the unincorporated area only. The Environmental Health Department's food-facility, mobile-food, pool, body-art and CUPA hazardous-materials programs follow the opposite pattern and reach every incorporated city as well as the unincorporated area, since California environmental health is run countywide regardless of city/county land-use lines.24 published records
• San Bernardino County, CAThe Clerk of the Board of Supervisors' own guidance states plainly that the Clerk 'does not issue licenses for businesses operating in the unincorporated area of the County,' that the County 'does not issue a business license that covers the entire County,' and that a business inside an incorporated city must look to that city instead. What reaches unincorporated-area businesses instead is a set of narrow, agency-specific permits: Environmental Health Services (Public Health) licenses food facilities, mobile food units, temporary food events, medical waste generators and on-site sewage/well construction; Land Use Services (LUS) runs three separate functions — its Code Enforcement Division licenses peddlers/secondhand dealers and home occupations (unincorporated area only), its Planning Division prices zoning entitlements including a Conditional Use Permit at $16,468 (Initial Deposit, actual-cost basis) and a Minor Use Permit at $8,420 under the fee ordinance effective July 1, 2026, plus sign-location and ABC-review fees, and its Building & Safety Division prices building permits on a valuation table by occupancy class and construction type, plus sign-construction and day-care-inspection fees; and the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District (SBCoFD) charges hazmat/CUPA and annual fire-inspection fees across unincorporated county plus nine named partner cities (Adelanto, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Hesperia, Needles, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Upland and the Town of Yucca Valley). The County's Business Information sheet directs alcohol licensing to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and family-care (including childcare) licensing to the state Community Care Licensing Division; the County still charges its own ancillary fire- and building-inspection fees layered on top of each.23 published records
• San Mateo County, CASan Mateo County (county seat Redwood City; population 742,893, U.S. Census Bureau 2024 estimate) regulates businesses on two different maps. San Mateo County Health's Environmental Health Services acts countywide: it is the enforcement agency that issues the state retail food permit, mobile food and temporary event permits, pool, body art and medical waste permits, and its CUPA page says it was designated the Certified Unified Program Agency for San Mateo County in 1996, so hazardous materials business plans, hazardous waste generator and storage tank permits also come from the county wherever the business is. The county's own Title 5 licenses, approved by the County Business License Board and issued by the Treasurer-Tax Collector, apply in the unincorporated area only — the Tax Collector's page says business licenses are issued 'for certain businesses in Unincorporated San Mateo County Only' — as do the Chapter 5.68 restaurant permit, the Chapter 5.44 massage registration, and Planning and Building permits. The tobacco retailer permit covers the unincorporated area and the cities that adopt Ordinance Code Chapter 4.98 and authorize the county to enforce it (§4.98.310). San Mateo County Fire serves most unincorporated areas not covered by a municipal fire department or local fire district. The Agricultural Commissioner/Sealer of Weights and Measures registers commercial weighing devices and point-of-sale systems. The county's LAFCo lists 20 incorporated cities and towns: Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco and Woodside. Each runs its own business license or tax, building and zoning, which stack on the countywide Environmental Health and CUPA permits. Alcohol licenses are issued by the State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.23 published records
• Alameda County, CAAlameda County's business obligations split four ways by geography and program. The county's own Business License Tax reaches only the unincorporated area — the county's own page states plainly that its license requirement does 'NOT APPLY TO ALAMEDA COUNTY IF YOU OPERATE A BUSINESS WITHIN CITY LIMITS' — so a business inside any of the county's 14 incorporated cities deals with that city's own business licensing instead, out of scope here. The Department of Environmental Health (ACDEH) is the food-facility regulator countywide except the City of Berkeley, which runs its own independent local health jurisdiction. Hazardous-materials/CUPA registration (Hazardous Materials Business Plans, hazardous-waste-generator registration, UST/APSA permits) is split seven ways: ACDEH covers Alameda, Albany, Dublin, Emeryville, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont and the unincorporated area, while Fremont Fire, Hayward Fire, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire, San Leandro, Union City and Berkeley each run their own CUPA for their own city — these records cover only ACDEH's program and name the other six so a business elsewhere in the county knows where to look instead. Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) serves only the unincorporated area (excluding Fairview) plus five contract cities — Dublin, Emeryville, Newark, San Leandro and Union City — the other nine cities run their own fire departments. Planning, Building and the Sheriff's Office Animal Services program (outside three confirmed contract cities) reach the unincorporated area only. The Clerk-Recorder's Fictitious Business Name Statement and the Treasurer-Tax Collector's business-license exemptions are the only two functions recorded here that are countywide regardless of a business's city. Contractor, veterinary, cosmetology, child care and alcohol licensing are State of California functions, carried here only as brief cross-references.21 published records
• San Diego County, CAThe County's own Business Licenses page states plainly, 'You do not need a business license in unincorporated areas of San Diego County. However, you may need to follow other rules and permit requirements.' Each of the county's 18 incorporated cities (Carlsbad, Chula Vista, the City of San Diego, El Cajon, Escondido and the rest) runs its own separate business-license system, entirely outside county jurisdiction and out of scope here. What actually reaches a business instead is a set of county departments with very different geography. The Department of Environmental Health and Quality (DEHQ) is countywide: its food, mobile food, temporary food, cottage food/MEHKO, body art, medical-waste and hazardous-materials permits apply the same way inside every incorporated city and the unincorporated area alike, and its massage-establishment permit applies in every incorporated city except Carlsbad, Chula Vista and the City of San Diego (each of which now runs its own massage program) and except the unincorporated area (which defers to state CAMTC certification). Planning & Development Services (PDS), by contrast, governs the unincorporated area only — building, zoning, discretionary use permits, home occupation and the Animal Schedule that reaches kennels — because every incorporated city runs its own planning and building department. San Diego County Fire's Fire Marshal Program is narrower still: by its own governing ordinance it applies in the unincorporated territory where the County Fire Code Official provides service, described on the Fire Marshal's own page as 'properties in the San Diego County Fire Protection District and Deer Springs Fire Protection District,' plus any other fire or water district that has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the County — not automatically the whole unincorporated area, and never inside an incorporated city. Animal Services serves the unincorporated area only; PDS's kennel handout (PDS-359) states that a kennel must also obtain licensing from Animal Services. Weights and Measures (AWM) and the Tobacco Retail License (Ordinance No. 10699, unincorporated-area-only) round out the county's programs. California's state licensing boards — the Contractors State License Board, the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, the Veterinary Medical Board, the Department of Social Services for child care, and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for alcohol — remain the trade-credential layer behind nearly every industry here and are carried at the state layer, not repeated here.20 published records
• San Jose, CAThe City of San José licenses businesses through its Business Tax Certificate and issues its own vending, peddler, ice cream truck, tobacco retail, auto body repair, sidewalk seating and sign permits. Food permits for restaurants, cafés and mobile food facilities are issued by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health, which prices a food-preparation operation on both employee count and risk category.15 published records
• Santa Clara County, CASanta Clara County has 15 incorporated cities and a small unincorporated area (including San Martin), and its county-level regulators split that geography in several different, non-overlapping ways. The County issues no general business license at all — a business inside any incorporated city is licensed only by that city, and a business in the unincorporated area needs no county business license either. Zoning, use-permit and the County Fire Marshal's Office's childcare fire-clearance function, all under the Department of Planning & Development, reach the unincorporated area only. The Santa Clara County Fire Department (SCCFD), a joint-powers district, serves seven cities — Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga — plus the unincorporated area; the other eight cities (San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Milpitas, Gilroy, Morgan Hill) run independent fire departments outside SCCFD's footprint. The County Department of Environmental Health (DEH) runs food-facility, mobile-food, temporary-food, body-art and medical-waste programs countywide, reaching all 15 cities and the unincorporated area alike. Hazardous-materials CUPA registration and the Underground Storage Tank program are fragmented differently again: DEH is the default Certified Unified Program Agency for most of the county, but the cities of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Gilroy each run an independent CUPA, and Palo Alto, Mountain View and (on weaker sourcing) San Jose operate as Participating Agencies under DEH while DEH remains the CUPA of record — Milpitas is not independent, having reverted to County DEH on July 1, 2018. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, a nine-county regional agency rather than a county office, reaches every part of Santa Clara County with no city/county split. Animal-control field service is fragmented by city among County Animal Services, the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority and San José Animal Care Services, but the county ordinance exempting state-licensed veterinary hospitals from the commercial-kennel license applies regardless of which of those three provides day-to-day animal control locally. The Sheriff's Office issues a $25 One-Day Liquor Permit in the unincorporated area plus the contract cities of Saratoga, Cupertino and Los Altos Hills and on Stanford University lands — a different, wider footprint than the county's own zoning/CUP alcohol layer, which is unincorporated-area-only. State-level credentials — the CSLB contractor license, Bureau of Automotive Repair registration, Board of Barbering and Cosmetology licenses, the Veterinary Medical Board's practice and premises licenses, CDSS Community Care Licensing for childcare, and the ABC liquor license itself — are all carried at the state layer, not here.15 published records
• Kern County, CAKern County (county seat: Bakersfield) has 11 incorporated cities — Arvin, Bakersfield, California City, Delano, Maricopa, McFarland, Ridgecrest, Shafter, Taft, Tehachapi and Wasco — each running its own business-license, building and zoning regime that stacks on top of the county's, per the Kern Council of Governments' own member-agency list. The Sheriff's Office Licensing Unit's Title 5 business license, and the Planning and Natural Resources Department's zoning, Conditional Use Permit, home-occupation, large-family-day-care and liquor-determination programs, reach the unincorporated area only; each incorporated city runs its own equivalent instead. Kern County Public Health Services Department's Environmental Health Services Division runs the opposite pattern: its food, mobile-food, temporary-food, tobacco and hazardous-materials/CUPA permits apply to a business 'within or without an incorporated city' under Kern County Code §8.04.020, reaching every incorporated city as well as the unincorporated area. A business should check which pattern applies to the specific county function in question.14 published records

These are the 12 California jurisdictions where we publish the most. All 24 jurisdictions we cover lists the other 12.

Is there a single California business license?

Who issues permits in California?

• California Secretary of State, Business Programs DivisionArticles of Organization and Articles of Incorporation · Statements of Information · Foreign entity registration5 permits
• California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug BranchCalifornia Retail Food Code standards · Oversight of local enforcement agencies · Food handler card framework2 permits
• California Board of Barbering and CosmetologyEstablishment licenses for salons and barbershops · Mobile unit licenses1 permit
• California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing DivisionChild care centre licensing · Family child care home licensing1 permit
• California Department of Tax and Fee AdministrationSeller's permits · Sales and use tax registration1 permit
• California Franchise Tax BoardAnnual LLC tax · Minimum franchise tax · LLC gross receipts fee1 permit
• California Veterinary Medical BoardVeterinary premises registration · Veterinarian licensing1 permit
• Contractors State License BoardContractor licensing · Contractor bonds · Classification examinations1 permit

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