Business licenses and permits in Georgia

What applies everywhere in Georgia

14 requirements are set by Georgia 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. Georgia Secretary of State — how to file an annual registrationGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
2. Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division — filing fees, effective 6 September 2025Georgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
3. Georgia Secretary of State — Professional Licensing Boards Division, the complete list of licensing boardsGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
4. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 391-3-20 — enhanced vehicle inspection and maintenance, including the certificate of authorizationGeorgia Environmental Protection Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
5. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 511-6-1 — food service, including the permit requirement and the certified food safety manager ruleGeorgia Department of Public Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
6. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. rule 591-1-1-.16 — child care learning centre license fees by capacityBright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
7. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 290-2-3 — family child care learning home license feeBright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
8. Georgia Secretary of State — how-to guide for electrical contractorsGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
9. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 295-2 — expiration and renewal dates for every license administered by the Professional Licensing Boards DivisionGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
10. Fulton County Board of Health environmental health fee schedule, exhibit A to resolution 26-0451, adopted 5 August 2026Fulton County Board of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
11. GNR Public Health — Gwinnett County environmental health fee scheduleGwinnett, Newton and Rockdale County Health Departments · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
12. Georgia Secretary of State — First Stop Business Guide, August 2026Georgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
13. Georgia State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors — fee scheduleGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
14. Georgia State Licensing Board — traditional specialty contractors policy statement, listing the trades that need no state licenseGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
15. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. rule 560-12-1-.09 — certificate of registration for sales and use taxGeorgia Department of Revenue · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
16. Georgia Department of Revenue — tax registrationGeorgia Department of Revenue · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
17. Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers — fee scheduleGeorgia Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
18. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 700-10 — the complete Board of Veterinary Medicine fee schedule, which contains no facility or premises feeGeorgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
19. Georgia Comp. R. & Regs. chapter 700-12 — veterinary facility standards, imposed on the licensed veterinarian rather than on the premisesGeorgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03

Which Georgia city are you opening in?

• Atlanta, GAAtlanta spans both Fulton and DeKalb counties, each running its own separate food establishment permitting program with its own fee table. The City's building and permitting fee pages were reorganized and do not publish current dollar figures.16 published records
• DeKalb County, GADeKalb County, Georgia, seat Decatur, runs its general business licensing, alcohol licensing, building-permit, Certificate-of-Occupancy and zoning functions through three separate divisions of its Department of Planning & Sustainability, each reaching unincorporated DeKalb County only — every incorporated city within the county runs its own version of each instead. Thirteen incorporated cities sit inside DeKalb County — Decatur, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Stonecrest, Doraville, Avondale Estates, Clarkston, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Stone Mountain, Tucker, and a small portion of the City of Atlanta — and each stacks its own business-license/occupation-tax, zoning and Certificate-of-Occupancy regime on top of (and, inside its own limits, in place of) the county's, independently confirmed for Decatur, Dunwoody and Brookhaven. DeKalb Public Health (DKPH), renamed from 'DeKalb County Board of Health' effective February 5, 2024, is a genuine county-based, one-county Georgia public health district with its own fee-setting ordinance, and its food-service, mobile-food, pool, septic and body-art permits reach the whole county, not only the unincorporated area. The Department of Public Works' Sanitation Division separately requires a commercial sanitation account and dumpster prepayment before any business license issues. A state retail alcohol license from the Georgia Department of Revenue, Alcohol & Tobacco Division is required in addition to, and applied for jointly with, the county alcohol license.14 published records
• Fulton County, GAFulton County, Georgia, seat Atlanta, has lost nearly all of its unincorporated territory to two decades of annexation and new incorporation — Sandy Springs incorporated in 2005, Milton in 2006, and the City of South Fulton absorbed the county's last unincorporated South Fulton neighborhoods on July 3, 2017, with House Bill 445 (signed May 10, 2021) authorizing a further annexation of the Fulton Industrial Boulevard corridor since then. What remains unincorporated today is, in practice, the Fulton Industrial District (FID) and the Fulton County Executive Airport land, and every Finance Department, alcohol-licensing and Public Works record below reaches only that FID/unincorporated area — not the 15 incorporated cities inside the county (Alpharetta, Atlanta, Chattahoochee Hills, College Park, East Point, Fairburn, Hapeville, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park, Palmetto, Roswell, Sandy Springs, South Fulton, and Union City), each of which runs its own business-license, zoning and building-permit regime in place of the county's. Atlanta, the largest city and county seat, sits mostly within Fulton County with a small portion in DeKalb County; its own business-license, zoning and building-permit figures are covered by this site's separate Atlanta city spec and are not restated here. The Fulton County Board of Health and Fulton County Animal Control are the exceptions to the FID-only pattern: the Board's food-service, pool, tourist-accommodation, body-art and septic permits reach every incorporated city and the unincorporated area alike under Code §34-4(b), and Animal Control's kennel and pet-shop rules reach the unincorporated area plus any incorporated city holding an interlocal animal-control-services agreement with the county. Code Chapter 18's own article table of contents lists only five articles — General, Business and Occupation Taxes, Adult Entertainment, Massage Therapy, and Escort/Dating Service — with no contractor, veterinary or cosmetology article among them, so those professions are licensed solely by the State of Georgia. Population is the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2024 county estimate.14 published records
• Gwinnett County, GAGwinnett County, Georgia, seat Lawrenceville, is this site's first Georgia county. Georgia's statutory scheme centers on a county occupation tax rather than a general 'business license': O.C.G.A. §48-13-6 authorizes a county to levy and classify an occupation tax only on business locations in the unincorporated part of the county, which is exactly the scope of Gwinnett's own Business/Occupation Tax Certificate listed here. Gwinnett has 17 incorporated municipalities — Auburn, Berkeley Lake, Braselton, Buford, Dacula, Duluth, Grayson, Lawrenceville, Lilburn, Loganville, Mulberry, Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Rest Haven, Snellville, Sugar Hill, and Suwanee — and the county's own business-license page directs a business located inside any of their city limits to that city's own government instead of the county's unincorporated-only certificate. Three of those cities publish their own separate stacking process: Buford charges prior-year gross receipts by class rate plus $25.00 (capped at $20,000.00); Norcross charges a $75.00 Business License Fee plus a $12.50 ePlan fee; Peachtree Corners charges a $75.00 Zoning Use Approval plus a $100.00 City Inspection fee in addition to its own Occupational Tax Certificate. No fee figure is listed here for the remaining 14 municipalities; contact each city for its own requirements. Regardless of city limits, the Gwinnett County Fire Marshal's Certificate of Occupancy, listed separately here, reaches every commercial business in the county except those in the City of Loganville, under Gwinnett County Fire Protection and Life Safety Ordinance §46-44b. Health permits (food service, swimming pool, body art) are issued by the Gwinnett County Health Department as a county office of the Gwinnett, Newton & Rockdale (GNR) Public Health district under the Georgia Department of Public Health, rather than by a freestanding county health department. The population figure used here, 1,003,869, is the U.S. Census Bureau's own vintage-2024 county estimate; the county's own Fast Facts page separately publishes a newer, higher figure sourced to a private vendor's 2026-vintage projection, a different estimate basis and vintage rather than a conflicting count of the same thing.11 published records
• Chatham County, GAChatham County, Georgia, seat Savannah (2024 county population 307,336), runs its general business licensing — the Occupational Tax Certificate — its county alcohol license, its zoning administration (including the Home Occupation permit allowance) and its building/electrical/plumbing/mechanical permitting all through one department, the Department of Building Safety & Regulatory Services, reaching unincorporated Chatham County. The county publishes its full codified Code of Ordinances itself at chathamcountyga.gov/OurCounty/CodeBook, with the Occupational Tax (Chapter 16), Alcoholic Beverages (Chapter 17) and Building (Construction) Regulations (Chapter 20) chapters served as PDFs. Eight incorporated municipalities sit inside the county — Savannah, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Garden City, Tybee Island, Bloomingdale, Thunderbolt and Vernonburg, independently cross-checked against the Coastal Regional Commission's 2023 City/County Directory — and each stacks its own business-license and zoning regime on top of (and, inside its own limits, in place of) the county's. The Georgia Department of Public Health's Coastal Health District, an eight-county state public health district, operates the Chatham County Health Department's environmental-health program (food service, mobile food, pools, body art) rather than the county running its own fee ordinance for that function.10 published records
• Augusta-Richmond County, GAAugusta and Richmond County consolidated into one government in 1996, but a business still deals separately with the city's licensing division and the Richmond County Health Department for food permitting.9 published records
• Cobb County, GACobb County, Georgia, seat Marietta, runs its general business licensing, alcohol licensing, Health Spa licensing, and building-permit functions through its Business License Division and its Development & Inspections Division, each reaching unincorporated Cobb County only. Seven incorporated cities sit inside Cobb County — Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Mableton, Marietta, Powder Springs, and Smyrna — and a business located inside any of their city limits licenses with that city instead of the county; Mableton is the newest of the seven, having incorporated in November 2022 and begun operating its own Business License Division on December 13, 2023. Cobb & Douglas Public Health, a joint two-county health district separate from the county's own Business License Division, issues food-service, mobile-food, temporary-event, pop-up-vendor, swimming-pool, septic, and body-art/tattoo permits under its own Environmental Health fee schedule. Alcohol is dual-licensed: a state license from the Georgia Dept. of Revenue, Alcohol & Tobacco Division, plus a separate Cobb County license for an establishment in unincorporated Cobb. Contractor licensing is a state function under O.C.G.A. §43-41-17, which bars the county from imposing any additional contractor-specific license. Every new business or change of business address must first clear the Zoning Division's siting review before its Occupation Tax Certificate issues — a mandatory pre-application mechanism rather than a separate permit, confirmed from the county's own FAQ and repeated in both the alcohol and Health Spa application packets. The 2024 county population figure used here, 787,538, is the U.S. Census Bureau's own vintage-2024 county estimate.9 published records
• Columbus, GAColumbus and Muscogee County consolidated into one government. Georgia state law itself bars the city from licensing contractors already state-licensed, and food permitting runs through the West Central Health District's Columbus office rather than the city directly.8 published records

Is there a single Georgia business license?

Who issues permits in Georgia?

• Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations DivisionEntity registration · Annual registration · Name reservation5 permits
• Georgia Department of Public Health, Environmental Health SectionFood service rules · Supervision of county boards of health as permit issuers · Certified food safety manager requirements2 permits
• Georgia State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General ContractorsResidential contractor licensing · General contractor licensing2 permits
• Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and LearningChild care learning centre licensing · Family child care home licensing1 permit
• Georgia Department of Revenue, Taxpayer Services DivisionSales and use tax registration · Withholding registration1 permit
• Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and BarbersSalon and shop licensing · Cosmetology and barber licensing1 permit
• Georgia State Board of Veterinary MedicineVeterinarian licensing · Veterinary facility inspection1 permit
• Georgia State Construction Industry Licensing BoardElectrical, plumbing, conditioned air, low voltage and utility contractor licensing1 permit

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