What permits do you need to open a food truck in Des Moines?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 10 records listed for a food truck in Des Moines, IA, 3 apply to every business of this type and 7 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.

Of the 3 that always apply, 1 carry a flat fee, coming to $150.00. That is a floor, not a total. 2 of the 10 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 4 have no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

Mobile Food Vendor License: Annual Application Fee $570 (only $50 is retained if the application is denied); Des Moines Fire Department Inspection $100 (refundable if no inspection occurs; free on subsequent renewals of the same vehicle); Cash Bond $200 (refundable on request 120 days after the licence expires); Meter Hood $1,180 each, two required if the vehicle needs two parking spaces; Meter Hood Deposit $35 (refundable on return). First-year total is $2,085 for a single-space vehicle rising to roughly $3,265 for a two-hood vehicle; subsequent-year renewals total $1,750 (single hood) with no new bond or deposit.

Biennial Report: $30 filed electronically or $45 on paper for an LLC, every two years; $60 flat for a corporation regardless of filing method

Permits for a food truck in Des Moines, IA come from 5 separate offices: City of Des Moines, City Clerk's Office, Iowa Economic Development Authority, Business License Information Center, Iowa Secretary of State, Business Services Division, Iowa Department of Revenue, Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Des Moines, City Clerk's OfficeIssues 3 permits on this page: General Business Licence (not required by Des Moines), Mobile Food Vendor License, Premise Permit1200 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309 · (515) 283-4209www.dsm.city/departments/city_clerk/business_licenses_permits.php
• Iowa Economic Development Authority, Business License Information CenterIssues 1 permit on this page: General Business Licence (not required by Iowa)1963 Bell Avenue, Suite 200, Des Moines, IA 50315 · (515) 348-6200opportunityiowa.gov/business/small-business-entrepreneurs/small-business-resources/business-license-information-center
• Iowa Secretary of State, Business Services DivisionIssues 3 permits on this page: Certificate of Organization (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Biennial Report321 East 12th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319 · (515) 281-5204sos.iowa.gov/business
• Iowa Department of RevenueIssues 1 permit on this page: Sales Tax Permit1305 East Walnut Street, Des Moines, IA 50319 · (515) 281-3114revenue.iowa.gov/permits-licensing/business-permit-registration
• Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and LicensingIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Establishment Licence, Certified Food Protection Manager6200 Park Avenue, Suite 100, Des Moines, IA 50321 · (515) 281-3425dial.iowa.gov

No fee, because there is no blanket licence to hold one for — the City Clerk's own page states that licensing applies only 'when it comes to running a food, merchandise, entertainment, or specific service industry business' within a named list of categories (alcohol, tobacco, transient merchant, mobile food vendor, peddler, pawnshop and similar), not to every business. A restaurant, retail store, salon, fitness studio, veterinary clinic, auto-repair shop or contractor's office that does not fall into one of those named categories needs no City of Des Moines business licence at all.

Requires $1,000,000 automobile liability and $1,000,000 commercial general liability insurance, a copy of the state-issued Mobile Food Unit License and, if applicable, the food establishment licence covering any commissary kitchen (both issued directly by Iowa DIAL, recorded at the state layer), a Certified Food Protection Manager on staff, and a copy of the applicant's driver's licence. This is the city's vehicle-as-a-business licence for operating at one of the four designated on-street Mobile Vendor Zones downtown; a vendor operating instead from private commercial or industrial property needs the separate Premise Permit recorded below rather than the meter-hood fees. Fire inspections run walk-in on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, 8–11 a.m., at Fire Department Administration (2715 Dean Avenue).

Only needed when a mobile food vendor or transient merchant sets up on private property rather than at one of the four downtown on-street Mobile Vendor Zones — the permit is issued to the property owner, who must be in a commercial or industrial zone (never residential), and only one licensed vendor may operate on the premises at a time. Applied for through the same City Clerk's Office that issues the Mobile Food Vendor License recorded above.

No fee, and the state's own economic development authority puts it about as plainly as an agency can: Iowa does not have a general business licence, and what a specific business needs instead depends on its nature or profession. What follows is entity registration with the Secretary of State, a tax permit if it sells taxable goods, and whatever industry-specific licence actually applies.

Fifty dollars, reduced from a higher figure by the Secretary of State's own fee cut effective 1 July 2022 — anything quoting an older, higher number predates that change. A corporation costs the identical $50 to form.

The same $50 as an LLC, following the identical 2022 fee reduction.

Iowa splits its filers onto two different calendars rather than one shared date — an LLC reports in odd-numbered years, a corporation in even-numbered ones, both within the same narrow window of 1 January to 1 April. Filing electronically genuinely saves an LLC money, $30 against $45 on paper; a corporation pays the same $60 whichever way it files. Missing the deadline gives sixty days to cure before the Secretary of State can begin administratively dissolving the entity, though the further steps to an actual dissolution date were not independently confirmed beyond that sixty-day trigger.

No fee at any stage — the revenue department says these permits are free of charge, full stop, and once issued a permit simply remains in effect until the holder cancels it or the department revokes it. There is no periodic renewal to track at all.

Iowa bands this fee by gross food and beverage sales rather than by seating capacity, which is the opposite of what many states do: under $100,000 a year in sales costs $150, $100,000 to under $500,000 costs $300, and $500,000 or more costs $400. A brand-new establishment with no prior-year figures to report is charged the top band by default until it has a full year on file. A mobile food unit is a flat $250 regardless of sales; a single temporary event is $50, and a licence covering multiple non-concurrent events statewide in one year is $200; vending machines are $50 for the first and $10 for each additional one. Ten local health departments, covering roughly a third of Iowa's counties between Black Hawk, Cerro Gordo, Dubuque, Johnson, Lee, Linn, Scott, Siouxland and Washington County, run their own delegated inspection programmes and keep the fees they collect rather than remitting them to the state — but the fee schedule itself is set statewide by statute, so the amount does not change by moving between a state-run and a delegated county.

No state fee, because Iowa runs no certification programme of its own — the credential comes from an accredited private provider at that provider's price, and the state rule addresses only who must hold one, not what it costs. A single certified food protection manager covers an establishment, and a newly licensed facility has six months from licensure to comply. Several categories are exempt outright: an establishment selling only prepackaged food, a temporary or farmers market establishment, one that prepares no food at all, and one selling only commercially prepared items that need no temperature control for safety. This is a manager-level requirement rather than a card required of every employee — Iowa's rule addresses only the person in charge.