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

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 14 records listed for a food truck in Eugene, OR, 4 apply to every business of this type and 10 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 4 that always apply, 1 carry a flat fee, coming to $10.00. That is a floor, not a total. 5 of the 14 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:

Community Safety Payroll Tax (Employer, Employee & Self-Employment): Employer Payroll Tax: 0.21% of total wages paid, reduced to 0.15% on the first $100,000 of payroll for an employer averaging two or fewer employees. Self-Employment Tax: the same 0.21% (0.15% on the first $100,000) applied to net self-employment earnings of a sole proprietor, partner, or non-S-corp LLC member with a physical Eugene address — S-corp owner/officers are treated as employees instead. Employee Payroll Tax: withheld from an employee's wages at 0.44% once annualized wages reach $32,344 (July 2026-June 2027 threshold, adjusted yearly with the state minimum wage); wages below that floor are exempt. There is no small-business registration exemption — any employer or self-employed person with a physical Eugene location must register even if wages/earnings fall in an exempt band.

Mobile Food Unit (Food Truck/Cart) Licence (Lane County): Lane County Environmental Health 2026 fee schedule: Mobile Unit $471/year (Lane County does not tier mobile units into classes the way Marion or Multnomah County do). A one-time mobile-unit plan review (shared with restaurants) is $578. A commissary agreement is $665/year (a stand-alone food warehouse is $455/year). An out-of-county mobile unit visiting Lane County is $25. A $27.00 non-refundable processing fee applies to new applications.

Downtown Activity Zone (DAZ) Food Cart Permit: $100.00 non-refundable application fee; $25.00 renewal fee; $7.50/month for electricity where used; a $25.00 late-payment fee per 30-day period. Seasonal rent is charged monthly on top: $100.00 or 6% of sales, whichever is greater, June through September; $50.00 or 6% of sales, whichever is greater, October through May.

Food Truck/Cart Vending Agreement (City Parks): $15–$200 monthly, scaling with days-per-week vended and season (peak April-October vs. non-peak November-March); plus a one-time $200 refundable safety/damage deposit

Food Service Facility Licence: $602–$1,545 a year, banded by seating in statewide brackets but priced by each county

Permits for a food truck in Eugene, OR come from 8 separate offices: City of Eugene Central Services, Finance Division (Community Safety Payroll Tax and Business License Programs), Lane County Health & Human Services, Public Health, Environmental Health, Eugene-Springfield Fire, Office of the Fire Marshal, City of Eugene Community Development Department (Downtown Activity Zone Permits), City of Eugene Parks and Open Space Division, Oregon Secretary of State, Corporation Division, Oregon Department of Revenue, Oregon Health Authority, Foodborne Illness Prevention Program. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Eugene Central Services, Finance Division (Community Safety Payroll Tax and Business License Programs)Issues 1 permit on this page: Community Safety Payroll Tax (Employer, Employee & Self-Employment)99 W. 10th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97401 · (541) 682-5053www.eugene-or.gov/4281/Community-Safety-Payroll-Tax
• Lane County Health & Human Services, Public Health, Environmental HealthIssues 1 permit on this page: Mobile Food Unit (Food Truck/Cart) Licence (Lane County)151 W. 7th Avenue, Room 430, Eugene, OR 97401 · (541) 682-4051www.lanecountyor.gov/government/county_departments/health_and_human_services/public_health/environmental_health
• Eugene-Springfield Fire, Office of the Fire MarshalIssues 1 permit on this page: Mobile Food Unit & Food Cart Pod Fire Permit1320 Willamette Street, Eugene, OR 97401 · (541) 682-5411www.eugene-or.gov/125/Fire-Marshal
• City of Eugene Community Development Department (Downtown Activity Zone Permits)Issues 1 permit on this page: Downtown Activity Zone (DAZ) Food Cart Permit500 East 4th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97401www.eugene-or.gov/4547/Downtown-Activity-Permits
• City of Eugene Parks and Open Space DivisionIssues 1 permit on this page: Food Truck/Cart Vending Agreement (City Parks)1820 Roosevelt Blvd, Eugene, OR 97402 · (541) 682-4800www.eugene-or.gov/185/Parks-and-Open-Space
• Oregon Secretary of State, Corporation DivisionIssues 4 permits on this page: Articles of Incorporation, General Business Licence (local, not state), Articles of Organization (LLC), Annual Report255 Capitol Street NE, Suite 151, Salem, OR 97310 · (503) 986-2200sos.oregon.gov/business
• Oregon Department of RevenueIssues 3 permits on this page: Seller's Permit (not required by Oregon), Business Identification Number (payroll), Corporate Activity Tax Registration955 Center Street NE, Salem, OR 97301 · (503) 945-8005www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/Pages/corporate-activity-tax.aspx
• Oregon Health Authority, Foodborne Illness Prevention ProgramIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Service Facility Licence, Food Handler Card800 NE Oregon Street, Suite 640, Portland, OR 97232 · (971) 673-0440www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/HEALTHYENVIRONMENTS/FOODSAFETY

This is Eugene's real general business-tax obligation even though the City issues no general business licence (see the separate no-licence record below) — a restaurant, salon, contractor or any other business with a physical Eugene address owes this regardless of trade. Administered by Central Services Finance through the MUNIRevs online system, separately from the State of Oregon and separately from the Lane Transit District's own payroll tax (both must be paid if a business is subject to them). Local news reporting describes a seven-year sunset requiring City Council referral to voters by the end of 2028 for the tax to continue, but that specific sunset language could not be located in the text of the City's own payroll-tax pages during this research.

This is the county food-safety licence every food truck/cart needs to operate anywhere in Eugene, regardless of where it sits. It is separate from, and additional to, whatever site-specific City permit applies depending on location — see the Food Cart Fire Permit, Downtown Activity Zone Permit and Park Vending Agreement records below. A cart on private property needs no additional City permit at all, per the City's own guidance — only an arrangement directly with the property owner.

Applies specifically to a mobile food unit with appliances that produce smoke or grease-laden vapors, or to a food cart pod as a whole — a cart selling only prepackaged, non-cooked items would not trigger this permit. Unlike Multnomah County's food-cart-pod system (Portland's file), Lane County Environmental Health does not price a pod as its own separate food-safety licence tier; this fire permit is the one place Eugene's own fee schedule names 'food cart pods' directly.

Applies only to a food cart operating at one of the City's two Downtown Activity Zone sites — Kesey Square or the Park Blocks — administered by the Community Development Department. Not required for a cart on private property or in a City park, which fall under the separate arrangements recorded elsewhere in this file.

Applies only to a food truck/cart vending inside a City park (e.g., Alton Baker Park, Downtown Riverfront Park Plaza). Also requires a Certificate of Insurance showing at least $2,000,000 in general liability, current Food Handler's Cards for all operators, valid Lane County Environmental Health licensing, and a signed Hold Harmless Agreement and Food Cart Contract. Vending hours are limited to 6 a.m.-11 p.m., and equipment must be removed daily.

The same $100 as an LLC — Oregon prices by domestic against foreign rather than by entity type, so the choice between an LLC and a corporation costs nothing either way at formation or at renewal. A foreign corporation is $275, a nonprofit $50.

No fee, because Oregon has no general sales tax and therefore no seller's permit, resale certificate or vendor licence at any level of government. This is the step that opens almost every other state's checklist, and here it simply is not there. What stands in its place is a stack of three obligations, none of which is a sales tax: registering the entity with the Secretary of State, obtaining a payroll number before paying anyone, and registering for the Corporate Activity Tax once commercial activity reaches $750,000. A retailer selling only into Oregon collects nothing from customers at the till.

There is no fee, and one number covers everything: state withholding, unemployment insurance, the statewide transit tax, Paid Leave Oregon, the workers' benefit fund assessment and the TriMet or Lane Transit district payroll taxes where they apply. You must have it before paying anyone, and a corporation with no other staff still needs one to report what it pays its own officers. Register online rather than on paper — the revenue department warns that paper takes substantially longer, which matters when the deadline is your first payroll.

The structure is statewide and the price is not. Every county uses the same four seating brackets — up to fifteen seats, sixteen to fifty, fifty-one to a hundred and fifty, and above that — but the statute obliges the health authority to delegate licensing to the local public health authority, and that authority adopts its own fees. The spread is material: for 2026 Multnomah County charges $970, $1,150, $1,290 and $1,545 across the four bands, while Clackamas charges $876, $970, $1,065 and $1,256, so the top band differs by nearly a quarter. Limited service is $890 in Multnomah and $602 in Clackamas. Multnomah also charges $1,265 for plan review of new construction, $760 to $920 for a mobile unit, $720 for a commissary and $210 for a temporary event. Two signs confirm there is no statewide number: the state's own licence directory lists no fee and tells you to contact your county, and the statewide application form leaves the amount blank for the county to fill in. Ask your county, and expect the figure to rise in January — Multnomah has already published higher 2027 bands.

No fee, because Oregon issues no general business licence, and unusually the registering agency says so outright rather than leaving it to be inferred: the state does not issue a general business licence, and your business registration serves that purpose. Cities and counties are another matter — Portland and Multnomah County, Salem, Eugene and Beaverton all impose their own, and for most Oregon businesses that local licence is the only thing resembling a general business licence they will encounter.

A hundred dollars, and a corporation costs the same. The number that catches people out is the foreign one: registering an out-of-state company to do business in Oregon costs $275, nearly three times the domestic fee, and the same premium applies every year at renewal. A nonprofit is $50. An assumed business name is $50 and renews every two years. Because Oregon has no sales tax there is no seller's permit to obtain after this — the registration is the whole of the entry step for a business with no employees and modest revenue.

Oregon charges as much to keep a company alive each year as it charged to create it, which puts it among the more expensive states to maintain an entity in. The due date is the anniversary of your own filing, not a fixed date shared by everyone, and the notice goes out about forty-five days ahead. The penalty structure is the unusual part: there is no late fee. Miss the report and the entity is administratively dissolved, and the way back is reinstatement plus every missed year's fee. That can be done online if the dissolution is less than five years old; beyond five years it needs special forms and documentation. The reinstatement fee itself is not published on the fee schedule, so budget for it as an unknown rather than a figure — and file on time, which is cheaper by definition.

There is no fee to register, and the two thresholds are constantly confused. Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of Oregon commercial activity triggers a duty to register, within thirty days of hitting it. One million triggers the duty to file a return and pay. A business between the two must register and owes nothing — and failing to register anyway costs $100 a month up to $1,000 a year. Above a million the tax is $250 plus 0.57 per cent of taxable commercial activity over that first million. It is a gross receipts tax, not an income tax, which means it is owed on turnover regardless of whether the year was profitable.

Ten dollars for three years, and unlike most states this is a genuine legal duty on the worker rather than something an employer may choose to require: every food service worker must obtain one within thirty days of starting work. Two details matter for anyone hiring. A card issued by any Oregon county is valid across the whole state, so a worker moving between counties need not re-test. But a card from another state carries no reciprocity at all — an experienced food worker arriving from Washington or California must sit the Oregon test like anyone else. Testing runs through the county environmental health office or an approved provider, and a replacement card costs $5.