Business licenses and permits in Maryland

What applies everywhere in Maryland

13 requirements are set by Maryland 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. Maryland Tax-Property section 11-101 — who must file an annual report and by whenMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
2. Maryland Tax-Property section 14-704 — annual report penaltiesMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
3. Maryland Business Express — filing fee scheduleMaryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
4. Maryland Corporations and Associations section 1-204 — the organization and capitalization fee ladderMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
5. COMAR 11.11.05.05 — the complete schedule of Motor Vehicle Administration regulatory business license fees, which contains no automotive repair facilityMaryland Motor Vehicle Administration · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
6. Maryland Commercial Law section 14-1001 — the Automotive Repair Facilities Act, which defines the term and creates no licenceMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
7. Maryland State Board of Barbers — forms and feesMaryland Department of Labor · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
8. COMAR 09.22.01.14 — State Board of Cosmetologists feesMaryland Department of Labor · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
9. Maryland State Board of Cosmetologists — forms and feesMaryland Department of Labor · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
10. Maryland Department of Health — food code fact sheet listing the certified food protection manager as a proposed new requirementMaryland Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
11. Montgomery County Licensure and Regulatory Services — fee scheduleMontgomery County, Maryland · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
12. Howard County Health Department — environmental health fee scheduleHoward County, Maryland · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
13. Maryland OneStop — child care licensing and registration, stating the application costState of Maryland · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
14. Maryland Education section 9.5-409 — an initial child care license expires after two years and may become continuingMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
15. Maryland Health-General section 21-308 — county governing bodies set the food establishment license fee scheduleMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
16. COMAR 10.15.03.28 — a food service facility license must be obtained from the approving authorityMaryland Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
17. Maryland Home Improvement Commission — forms and feesMaryland Department of Labor · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
18. Maryland Business Regulation section 8-404 — the home improvement guaranty fund assessmentMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
19. Maryland Tax-General section 11-706 — a sales and use tax license runs until surrendered or revokedMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
20. Maryland Business Regulation section 17-1807 — trader's license fees banded by the value of stock-in-tradeMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
21. Maryland Business Regulation section 17-305 — clerk-issued licenses run from 1 May to 30 AprilMaryland General Assembly · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
22. Comptroller of Maryland — types of business licenses and the issuing feeComptroller of Maryland · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
23. COMAR 15.14.12.02 — Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners feesMaryland Department of Agriculture · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03

Which Maryland city are you opening in?

• Howard County, MDHoward County has no incorporated towns or cities — the Maryland Manual On-Line states this directly on its Howard County Municipalities page. Ellicott City, the county seat, and Columbia, the county's largest community, are both Census-Designated Places under direct county government, not municipal corporations. Columbia is privately governed for community-association purposes by Columbia Association, Inc., a nonprofit community-services corporation under its own 1965/2015 Charter, with no business-licensing, building or zoning authority of its own; the County's Zoning Regulations govern land use everywhere in the county, including Columbia, with no carve-out for the Association. Because no municipal layer exists, every Howard County requirement listed here applies countywide with nothing stacked on top of it. General business licensing in Maryland runs across three layers: a 'trader's license,' issued by the Clerk of the Circuit Court (a state judicial officer) rather than county government, under the statewide schedule at Md. Code, Bus. Reg. §17-1807; county-specific permits (health, building, zoning, towing, peddling) issued directly by Howard County departments under the Howard County Code; and alcohol, licensed under the Alcoholic Beverages Article and administered locally by Howard County's Board of License Commissioners, on which the five County Council members sit ex officio. A kennel, pet day care or commercial animal-boarding use is licensed through none of the above: it is a conditional use under the Howard County Zoning Regulations' numbered list of conditional uses (§131.0.N), requiring Hearing Examiner or Board of Appeals approval rather than a license-and-fee transaction, as documented in a 2017 Board of Appeals case approving a pet day care facility beside a veterinary clinic. Maryland Business Occupations & Professions Article §5-605 vests beauty-salon and barbershop permitting exclusively in the state Board of Cosmetologists; Howard County's own code has no separate salon or barbershop permit beyond the general county licenses listed for Howard County.15 published records
• Anne Arundel County, MDAnne Arundel County, Maryland, seat Annapolis, splits business licensing across several distinct sources of authority. The general 'trader's license' is a state license (Md. Code, Business Regulation Article, Title 17, Subtitle 18), merely administered locally by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County rather than created by any county ordinance. Food service facility licensing runs through the county's own Department of Health, Food Protection Services. Alcohol retail licensing runs through the county's Board of License Commissioners under Title 11 (Anne Arundel County's own title) of the Maryland Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article. Building, electrical, gas, grading, mechanical, plumbing, septic and zoning matters run through the county's own Department of Inspections and Permits, including Zoning Certificates of Use for home occupations under Article 18 of the County Code. Commercial kennel and pet-care-business licensing runs through Anne Arundel County Animal Services. The county contains exactly two incorporated municipalities, per the Maryland Manual: Annapolis (the county seat and Maryland's state capital) and Highland Beach. Annapolis runs its own Licenses & Permits Division, which stacks its own business-license and permitting regime on top of every county-level requirement listed here for a business located within Annapolis city limits; Highland Beach runs its own town government, and its business-licensing requirements are not part of this county listing. Every other named place in the county (Glen Burnie, Severna Park, Pasadena, Odenton, Arnold, Lake Shore and others) is an unincorporated community or census-designated place governed directly by the county regime recorded here.13 published records
• Montgomery County, MDMontgomery County, Maryland, seat Rockville, splits business licensing across three distinct sources of authority. The general 'trader's license' is a state license (Md. Bus. Reg. Art. Title 17, Subtitle 18), merely administered locally by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County rather than created by any county ordinance. Food service facility licensing runs through the county's own DHHS Licensure & Regulatory Services under Montgomery County Code Chapter 15. Alcohol licensing runs through Alcohol Beverage Services (ABS, renamed from the Department of Liquor Control effective July 1, 2019) and the Board of License Commissioners for Montgomery County, both created by a Montgomery-County-only subtitle of the Maryland Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article rather than by the county's own Code. Motor-vehicle-repair and towing businesses register under Montgomery County Code Chapter 31A at employee-count-based fees. The county contains 19 incorporated municipalities — Barnesville, Brookeville, Chevy Chase (Town), Chevy Chase View, Chevy Chase Village, Village of Chevy Chase Section 3, Village of Chevy Chase Section 5, Gaithersburg, Garrett Park, Glen Echo, Kensington, Laytonsville, Martin's Additions, North Chevy Chase, Poolesville, Rockville (the county seat), Somerset, Takoma Park, and Washington Grove — each of which runs its own separate business-license, building and zoning regime that stacks on top of everything recorded for Montgomery County; Gaithersburg's own figures are recorded separately in its own site spec. Bethesda, Silver Spring, Wheaton and Germantown are unincorporated census-designated places governed directly by the county regime below, with no separate municipal government of their own.11 published records
• Frederick, MDThe City of Frederick runs its own building/permits department, distinct from Frederick County's Division of Planning & Permitting, which explicitly excludes the city. Trader's licensing and food-service permitting are county-level functions applying regardless of city or county location. Frederick County does not currently require a Certified Food Protection Manager, confirmed directly in the health department's own FAQ.10 published records
• Gaithersburg, MDUnlike most Montgomery County municipalities, Gaithersburg runs its own building/zoning/sign permitting and enforces its own adopted Fire Code through its own Fire Marshal, rather than routing through county DPS. The trader's license and food-service permit still come from the county/state layer. gaithersburgmd.gov blocks direct automated fetch on every page; every figure here was recovered through a read-proxy with its exact source URL.10 published records
• Baltimore, MDAn independent city, not part of any county, since separating from Baltimore County in 1851. The trader's license is issued through the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. The food-facility annual license fee is delegated to the Health Commissioner with no published schedule found; only plan-review, reinspection, and temporary-event fees are published.9 published records
• Prince George's County, MDPrince George's County, Maryland, seat Upper Marlboro, runs its county-level business licensing through the Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement (DPIE) Licensing Center, which issues a specific list of county-only business license categories — including Building Contractor, Electrical Contractor (Limited), Motor Vehicle Repair Facility, Mobile Vendor, and Peddlers & Itinerant Vendors — and jointly collects Food Service Facility permit fees for the separate Prince George's County Health Department, which performs the inspections. The county also has its own local liquor-licensing authority, the Board of License Commissioners, created under a subtitle of the Maryland Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article, Title 26, that applies only in Prince George's County. A retail business's Trader's License, by contrast, is issued not by the county government but by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, a state office, under a statewide fee schedule. The county has 27 incorporated municipalities — more than any other Maryland county — Berwyn Heights, Bladensburg, Bowie, Brentwood, Capitol Heights, Cheverly, College Park, Colmar Manor, Cottage City, District Heights, Eagle Harbor, Edmonston, Fairmount Heights, Forest Heights, Glenarden, Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Landover Hills, Laurel, Morningside, Mount Rainier, New Carrollton, North Brentwood, Riverdale Park, Seat Pleasant, University Park, and the county seat of Upper Marlboro itself, each operating its own separate local government under Maryland's Municipal Home Rule framework (Md. Const. Art. XI-E) that stacks its own business-license, building, and zoning regime on top of every county-level requirement recorded here.9 published records
• Baltimore County, MDBaltimore County is a charter county, legally separate from Baltimore City, which became an independent city outside any county in 1851; this page cites only Baltimore County's own agencies, statutes and fee schedules. The Maryland Manual On-Line states directly that Baltimore County has no incorporated towns or cities, so Towson, the county seat, and every other community, including Dundalk, Essex, Catonsville and Parkville, is governed directly by the county, with every requirement on this page applying countywide and nothing stacked on top of it by a separate municipal government. General business licensing runs across three layers: a trader's license issued by the Clerk of the Circuit Court, a state judicial officer, under a Baltimore-County-specific fee tier; county-issued permits for food service, building, electrical, plumbing and zoning under the Baltimore County Code; and alcohol, licensed by the county's own Board of License Commissioners under Title 13 of the Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article, which by its own definition at §13-101(c) applies only to Baltimore County. The county's Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections directs contractor-licensing questions to the Maryland Home Improvement Commission, the state agency that licenses contractors, on its own published contact page, rather than handling contractor licensing itself.8 published records

Is there a single Maryland business license?

Who issues permits in Maryland?

• Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, Corporate Charter DivisionEntity formation · Annual reports · Personal property returns3 permits
• Maryland Department of Health, Office of Food ProtectionRetail food regulations · Food processing and dairy licensing · Oversight of local health departments2 permits
• Comptroller of Maryland, Revenue Administration DivisionSales and use tax licenses1 permit
• Comptroller of Maryland, State License BureauTrader's licenses · Chain store and other clerk-issued licenses1 permit
• Maryland Home Improvement Commission, Department of LaborHome improvement contractor licensing · Guaranty fund1 permit
• Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection DivisionAutomotive Repair Facilities Act enforcement · Home builder registration1 permit
• Maryland State Board of Barbers, Department of LaborBarbershop permits · Barber licensing1 permit
• Maryland State Board of Cosmetologists, Department of LaborBeauty salon permits · Cosmetologist licensing1 permit
• Maryland State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, Department of AgricultureVeterinary hospital licensing · Animal control facility licensing1 permit
• Maryland State Department of Education, Office of Child CareChild care centre licensing · Family child care registration1 permit

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