What permits do you need to open a contractor or trade in Evansville?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 11 records listed for a contractor or trade in Evansville, IN, 4 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.

3 of the 11 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:

Improvement Location Permit (zoning): New structure, addition, or change of use: $200 plus $0.05 per building sq ft. Change of business, remodeling, temporary use, or home occupation: $100 flat each.

Commercial Building Permit: By IBC occupancy classification, minimum $50: Assembly ('A') $0.08/gross sq ft; Business ('B') $0.06/gross sq ft; Educational/Institutional ('E'/'I') $0.08/gross sq ft; High Hazard ('H') $0.08/gross cubic ft; Mercantile ('M') $0.06/gross cubic ft. No separate 'alteration' rate exists — a tenant buildout is billed at the same per-sq-ft rate as new construction for its occupancy class, plus any trade permits needed (e.g., a commercial electrical remodel is $50).

Contractor Certificate of Registration: Building Contractor $360 new / $210 renewal; Unlimited Roofing Contractor $360 new / $210 renewal; Residential Contractor $210 new / $150 renewal; specialty contractor categories (fire sprinkler, pool, framing, concrete, masonry, drywall, siding/gutters, etc.) $180 new / $90 renewal; Tradesman Master Licence $300 new / $125 renewal; Tradesman Journeyman $35 new / $25 renewal; Apprentice $25/year (years 1–5), $35 (year 6+); registering an out-of-jurisdiction state licence $25–$60; Special Sub-Contractor $300 one-time. A late fee of $25 applies after January 31.

Permits for a contractor or trade in Evansville, IN come from 5 separate offices: Evansville-Vanderburgh Area Plan Commission, Evansville-Vanderburgh Building Commission, Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division, Indiana Plumbing Commission, Professional Licensing Agency. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• Evansville-Vanderburgh Area Plan CommissionIssues 2 permits on this page: No General Business Licence, Improvement Location Permit (zoning)1 N.W. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Room 312, Evansville, IN 47708 · (812) 435-5226www.evansvillegov.org
• Evansville-Vanderburgh Building CommissionIssues 3 permits on this page: Commercial Building Permit, Contractor Certificate of Registration, Certificate of Occupancy(812) 436-7867www.evansvillegov.org
• Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, State Board of Cosmetology and Barber ExaminersIssues 1 permit on this page: General Contractor, Electrical and HVAC Licences (local, not state)402 West Washington Street, Room W072, Indianapolis, IN 46204 · (317) 232-2960www.in.gov/pla/professions/cosmetology-and-barber-home
• Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services DivisionIssues 4 permits on this page: Articles of Organization (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Business Entity Report, General Business Licence (local, not state)302 West Washington Street, Room E018, Indianapolis, IN 46204 · (317) 234-9768inbiz.in.gov
• Indiana Plumbing Commission, Professional Licensing AgencyIssues 1 permit on this page: Plumbing Contractor Licence402 West Washington Street, Room W072, Indianapolis, IN 46204 · (317) 234-8800www.in.gov/pla/professions

No licence fee applies to a business not on the enumerated list. Title 5 licenses only enumerated activities (festivals, pawnbrokers, peddlers, tattoo/body-piercing, contractors, and similar) — there is no blanket business licence requirement otherwise.

This zoning approval is separate from, and stacks with, the Building Commission's own construction permit fee. These figures matched exactly between the APC's live-linked current schedule and a separately-found copy watermarked 'DRAFT' on a Granicus-hosted page — the agreement is reassuring, but no ordinance/resolution number formally adopting the schedule could be located; confirm with the APC at (812) 435-5226 before treating as final.

This is the city's own fee chapter, established by Ordinance G-2017-29 — Vanderburgh County's separate, textually similar chapter 15.08 governs only unincorporated county projects, not addresses inside Evansville city limits.

Requires a $25,000 surety bond payable to the City of Evansville, plus general liability insurance ($1,000,000 for most master licences, $500,000 for residential contractors, $300,000 for specialty contractors) and proof of workers' compensation or an exemption affidavit.

No separate fee is itemized anywhere in the section 15.05.470 fee schedule — the cost is effectively bundled into the building permit fee. Quoted directly: 'Upon completion of any building, structure, or alteration, and if no violation of this chapter exists, the Building Commissioner shall issue to the owner a certificate of occupancy.'

No fee, because Indiana licenses none of them — and the state says so in terms: the only construction contractors licensed by the State of Indiana are plumbers, and contractor licensing for everyone else is a local option. No state electrician licence at all is genuinely rare, and the professional licensing agency's complete roster of about forty regulated professions bears it out, with no general contractor, builder, remodeler, roofer, electrician or HVAC entry, and the professions title of the code containing only plumbers, water well drillers and manufactured home installers among construction trades. The state adopts an electrical code but adopting a code is not licensing anyone. Everything therefore turns on the city or county, and a contractor crossing municipal lines can need several licences.

The statute sets $75 for an electronic filing and $100 on paper, so filing online genuinely saves $25 — but $75 is not the checkout total. The Secretary of State adds a $20 enhanced-access charge on online filings under a separate statutory power, and the portal adds a processing charge disclosed only as at least a dollar and no more than 2.15 per cent. No official page publishes the sum, so it is not recorded here; expect around $96. Indiana charges no expedite fee at all, which the Secretary of State points out is unusual. A corporation costs exactly the same, and a nonprofit $20 electronically.

Identical to an LLC at $75 electronically or $100 on paper, with no share-based component — Indiana gives no filing-cost reason to prefer one structure over the other, at formation or afterwards, since both file the same biennial report at the same price. A nonprofit is cheaper at $20 electronically and $50 on paper. The same $20 enhanced-access charge and portal processing fee apply on top of an online filing.

Every two years, not every year, and the first one falls two years after formation — guidance describing an annual Indiana report is wrong, including the state's own business owner's guide, which still quotes a superseded $30. Nonprofits are on the same biennial cycle now too. One counterintuitive detail: a for-profit saves $18 by filing online while a nonprofit pays $2 more, because the enhanced-access charge is larger than the statutory electronic discount. There is no monetary late fee at all — the sanction is administrative dissolution sixty days after the due date, and recovering from that costs a reinstatement fee plus every delinquent report at the paper rate plus a revenue department clearance that can take four to six weeks. Name protection lapses a hundred and twenty days after dissolution. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships file nothing.

No fee, because Indiana issues no general business licence — the state's own guide says it does not have any one single comprehensive business licence, and its official start-up portal presents formation as exactly two steps, filing with the Secretary of State and registering with the revenue and workforce departments, with no licence step between them. What fills the gap is industry-specific state licences, local zoning and permits, and an annual personal property filing with the county assessor. One caution on that guide: it is authoritative for the licensing architecture and stale on every figure it quotes.

Plumbing is the only construction trade Indiana licenses, so this record carries more weight than its size suggests. The initial issuance fee is halved in an odd-numbered year because every licence expires on 31 December of an odd year, so a licence bought in an even year buys only about one year of validity. A journeyman pays $30 to renew and an apprentice $10 a year. Indiana offers no plumbing reciprocity with any other state for either journeyman or contractor. The trades Indiana does not license are the notable part — see the separate record.