What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Baltimore?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 13 records listed for a restaurant in Baltimore, MD, 9 apply to every business of this type and 4 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 9 that always apply, 3 carry a flat fee, coming to $245.00. That is a floor, not a total. 5 of the 13 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 2 have no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

Sign Permit: $1 per square foot, minimum $13 for each consolidated area of signage.

Trader's Licence: Graded by stock-in-trade value: $20 (up to $1,000); $40 (over $1,000 to $5,000); $80 (over $5,000 to $10,000); $160 (over $10,000 to $50,000); $375 (over $50,000 to $100,000); $1,000 (over $100,000 to $300,000); $1,500 (over $300,000 to $750,000); $2,125 (over $750,000).

Commercial Building Permit: New commercial construction/addition: $20 per 1,000 cubic feet (or fraction) of adjusted gross volume, minimum $250 (new building) or $150 (addition). Commercial alteration/repair: $0.35 per sq ft (or fraction) of affected gross floor area, minimum $150. A tenant fit-out (new demising wall or new-tenant shell space) is billed differently — $12 per $1,000 (or fraction) of estimated cost, minimum $150. A citywide permit tax of 5% of the final cost applies to every permit issued.

Trader's Licence: $15–$2,125 a year, banded by the value of your stock-in-trade, plus a $2 issuing fee

Food Service Facility Licence: $100–$525 a year, set by the county health department — there is no state fee

Permits for a restaurant in Baltimore, MD come from 7 separate offices: Baltimore City Health Department, Bureau of Environmental Health, Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development, Permits Office, Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Land Records & Licenses Division, Comptroller of Maryland, State License Bureau, Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, Corporate Charter Division, Comptroller of Maryland, Revenue Administration Division, Maryland Department of Health, Office of Food Protection. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• Baltimore City Health Department, Bureau of Environmental HealthIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Service Facility Plan Review, Temporary Food Service Facility Licence1001 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202 · (410) 396-4424www.baltimorecity.gov/health/environmental-health/plan-review
• Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development, Permits OfficeIssues 3 permits on this page: Use and Occupancy Permit, Sign Permit, Commercial Building Permit(443) 984-1809permits.baltimorecity.gov
• Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Land Records & Licenses DivisionIssues 1 permit on this page: Trader's LicenceClarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse, 100 North Calvert Street, Room 627, Baltimore, MD 21202 · (410) 333-3790www.baltimorecitycourt.org/clerks-office/land-records-licenses-division
• Comptroller of Maryland, State License BureauIssues 1 permit on this page: Trader's LicenceState License Bureau, 80 Calvert Street, Room 314, Annapolis, MD 21404-1751 · (410) 260-6240jportal.mdcourts.gov/license
• Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, Corporate Charter DivisionIssues 3 permits on this page: Articles of Organization (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Annual Report700 East Pratt Street, Suite 2700, Baltimore, MD 21202-6377 · (410) 767-1340egov.maryland.gov/businessexpress
• Comptroller of Maryland, Revenue Administration DivisionIssues 1 permit on this page: Sales and Use Tax LicencePO Box 549, Annapolis, MD 21411-0001 · (410) 260-7980www.marylandtaxes.gov
• Maryland Department of Health, Office of Food ProtectionIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Service Facility Licence, Certified Food Service Manager6 St Paul Street, Suite 1301, Baltimore, MD 21202 · (410) 767-8400health.maryland.gov/phpa/OEHFP/OFPCHS/pages/home.aspx

Baltimore City Health Code delegates the base annual food-facility licence fee to the Health Commissioner, 'as set from time to time... with the approval of the City Council' — no published dollar figure for that base annual fee could be located. A widely-repeated claim that Code section 9-11 sets a $460 annual fee is false; that section is Article 15's Late-Night Commercial Operations subtitle, unrelated to food licensing.

Payable to the Director of Finance, per BCHD Form T-78.

A general minimum fee of $25 applies where no other fee is specified elsewhere in section 109.

A general minimum fee of $25 applies where no other fee is specified elsewhere in section 109.

Issued through the Circuit Court, not city hall. Exempt: growers/manufacturers selling their own goods; restaurants where non-food items are 10% or less of annual sales; small exhibitors under 3 shows/year. These are Baltimore-specific tiers, distinct from the flat statewide-minimum trader's licence structure other Maryland counties use.

A secondary source (a non-official blog) states the tenant-demising-wall fee is area-based ('$10 per 100 sq ft') — the current official code shows it is actually cost-based ($12/$1,000, min $150); the code figure is used here.

Maryland prices its general business licence on your inventory, which almost nowhere else does. Most counties run twenty-one bands from $15 at a thousand dollars of stock-in-trade to $800 above three quarters of a million; Baltimore City and Baltimore County have their own steeper schedules topping out at $2,125 and $1,600. A county may instead elect a flat $15, or $20 in the two Baltimores, and that election is irrevocable — so confirm which regime your county is in before budgeting. The value comes off your business personal property return. One licence per fixed place of business, and you cannot get one until your sales and use tax account is open, your registration is current and your local personal property taxes are paid. The year runs to 30 April however late you buy, though it prorates quarterly. Late costs ten per cent for the first month and two per cent a month after, capped at thirty. A chain store licence is charged on top, and separate clerk licences exist for restaurants, commercial construction, vending machines and storage warehouses.

$100 flat, domestic or foreign, with none of the capital-stock component that applies to a corporation. Ordinary processing costs nothing extra but takes six to eight weeks online; $50 buys seven to ten business days, $325 buys same-day review online and $425 the paper equivalent, and online filings carry a three per cent technology fee. Dissolving or cancelling is free. The real cost of an LLC in Maryland is the annual report at $300 a year, which is the same for a corporation.

$120 is a floor, not a price. The $20 organization and capitalization fee covers an aggregate par value up to $100,000 and then climbs on a ladder — a dollar per five thousand up to a million, then ten dollars per hundred thousand, then fifteen per half million, then twenty per million — so a heavily capitalised corporation pays materially more. Shares with no par value count at twenty dollars each for this purpose, which catches people who authorise a large no-par block. A nonstock corporation organised as a charity pays $170, of which fifty dollars goes to a nonprofit development fund.

$300 a year, and Maryland charges it to an LLC, a corporation, a limited partnership, an LLP and a business trust alike — there is no cheaper structure. A nonstock corporation and a sole proprietor pay nothing, and a certified family farm pays $100. The personal property return that accompanies it is free, and is not required at all if your personal property statewide cost under twenty thousand dollars to buy — but the annual report is still due. The penalty is unusual in being proportional to your county assessment rather than to the fee: up to a tenth of one per cent of it, plus two per cent of that penalty every thirty days, with a floor of $30 rising to $50 and a ceiling of $500. An extension to 15 June is free if requested electronically by the due date.

No fee, and the evidence is positive rather than absent: the entire subtitle governing these licences contains no fee provision at all, and a fee cannot be charged without one. The licence never expires — it runs until you surrender it or the Comptroller revokes it. A separate licence is needed for each place of business, or for each vehicle if you sell from vehicles. Get this first: the Clerk of the Circuit Court cannot issue a trader's licence until you hold the sales and use tax account number.

The state health department writes the regulations and licenses only processing, warehousing and dairy; retail food service belongs to the twenty-four local health departments, and the statute says the county governing body sets the fee schedule and the money is paid to the county. Both examples band by risk rather than size. Montgomery charges $200 for a low-priority facility, $375 for moderate and $525 for high, with a $100 non-profit rate and a $100 late fee, and its licences expire on 31 January. Howard charges $415, $325 and $100 on the same three tiers, adds a ten per cent technology surcharge to everything, and prices plan review separately at up to $485. Statutory caps exist only in odd corners — a mobile reciprocity licence cannot exceed $300, and seasonal on-farm processing $70 outside four jurisdictions.

No state fee and, unusually, no statewide requirement either — the retail food regulations contain no manager certification provision at all, only a duty that employees be trained for their assigned work. Certification is a county matter where it exists: Montgomery charges $50 for a card valid five years, Howard $37 for one it accepts for three, and the exam itself comes from an accredited provider at that provider's price. This is a watch item rather than a settled position. The health department's own October 2025 fact sheet lists a certified food protection manager on site during all hours of operation among the new requirements it proposes to adopt with the federal food code, which would replace the county patchwork with a statewide mandate. No adoption date has been set.