Business licenses and permits in Utah

What applies everywhere in Utah

17 requirements are set by Utah 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. Utah Division of Corporations — fiscal year 2026 fee schedule, effective 1 July 2025Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
2. Utah Code section 48-3a-708 — administrative dissolution of an LLC after a 60-day cure periodUtah State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
3. Utah Code section 16-10a-1421 — administrative dissolution of a corporationUtah State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
4. Utah Code section 16-10a-201 — incorporators deliver the articles of incorporation to the division for filingUtah State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
5. Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division — business license fees, including the body shop licenseUtah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
6. Utah Division of Licensing and Background Checks — child care licensing fee schedule, effective 1 July 2025Utah Division of Licensing and Background Checks · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
7. Utah Division of Professional Licensing — fiscal year 2026 fee schedule, covering cosmetology, contracting and veterinary licensingUtah Division of Professional Licensing · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
8. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food — list of approved food handler training providers under rule R392-103Utah Department of Agriculture and Food · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
9. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food — retail food regulatory program, splitting jurisdiction between the state and local health departmentsUtah Department of Agriculture and Food · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
10. Utah Division of Corporations — do I need to register, describing entity registration rather than a general business licenseUtah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
11. Utah Division of Professional Licensing — contractor classification listUtah Division of Professional Licensing · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
12. Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division — body shop licensing requirements and the $20,000 bondUtah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
13. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food — fee schedule, retail food establishment registration by size tierUtah Department of Agriculture and Food · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
14. Utah State Tax Commission form TC-69 — business and tax registration, with no fee listed for the sales and use tax licenceUtah State Tax Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04
15. Utah Division of Professional Licensing — veterinary licensing frequently asked questionsUtah Division of Professional Licensing · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-04

Which Utah city are you opening in?

• Salt Lake County, UTSalt Lake County, seat Salt Lake City, stacks three different jurisdictional footprints under one county name. The Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD) runs business licensing, building permits, plan check, zoning/land-use permitting, and alcohol-consent-fee collection 'on behalf of and under the direction of Salt Lake County,' but only for unincorporated Salt Lake County plus six contracting municipalities: Brighton, Copperton, Emigration Canyon, Kearns, Magna, and White City. The county's other 17 incorporated municipalities — Alta, Bluffdale, Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Herriman, Holladay, Midvale, Millcreek, Murray, Riverton, Sandy, Salt Lake City, South Jordan, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville, West Jordan, and West Valley City — each run their own business-license, building, and zoning regime that stands in place of MSD's within that city's own limits. The Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD), by contrast, is genuinely county-wide, reaching all 23 municipalities and the unincorporated area alike under Utah Code §26A-1-103. Salt Lake County Animal Services runs a third, different footprint again: the same six MSD municipalities plus Bluffdale, Holladay, Midvale, Millcreek, Murray, and Salt Lake City — Sandy, West Jordan, Draper, Taylorsville, West Valley City, Riverton, Herriman, Cottonwood Heights, South Jordan, South Salt Lake, and Alta are outside its coverage and rely on their own city's animal control instead.24 published records
• Weber County, UTWeber County, seat Ogden, runs a general business license, Land Use Permit and building-permit program that reaches unincorporated Weber County only (Weber County Code Title 14 and Title 16-4; Utah Code § 17-53-216). Ogden Valley City incorporated on January 2, 2026, and, per the county's own September 2026 consolidated general plan text, took most of the former unincorporated 'valley floor' with it — the Nordic Valley resort area, the area around Pineview Reservoir (Eden), Liberty to the north, and the area south of the reservoir. What remains unincorporated today, and therefore within the scope of every county-issued requirement listed for Weber County, is Powder Mountain Resort, Snowbasin Resort, the Avon area, and the Causey and Monte Cristo areas. The Weber-Morgan Health Department, jointly serving Weber and Morgan Counties, runs food, mobile-food, temporary-event, day-care, tobacco-retailer, septic, pool, body-art and tanning permitting county-wide, reaching Ogden Valley City, every other incorporated city, and the remaining unincorporated area alike. Weber County's incorporated municipalities — Ogden (the county seat), Roy, North Ogden, South Ogden, Washington Terrace, Riverdale, Uintah, Farr West, Harrisville, Marriott-Slaterville, Hooper, Plain City, Pleasant View, West Haven, Huntsville, and now Ogden Valley City — each run their own business-license, building and zoning process that stacks on top of, or for Ogden Valley City and every other city, replaces the county's business-license and land-use role entirely within that city's own limits.24 published records
• Davis County, UTDavis County, seat Farmington, runs a general business license, retail beer license, building-permit program, and zoning/land-use fee schedule through its Community & Economic Development (CED) department, reaching unincorporated Davis County only. The Davis County Health Department (DCHD), by contrast, is a single-county health department under Utah Code §26A-1-103 and reaches every one of the county's 15 incorporated cities as well as the unincorporated area alike for food service, mobile food, temporary and seasonal food, microenterprise home kitchens, food handler cards, body art, tanning, pools/spas, septic systems, vehicle-emissions stations, and tobacco retailer permitting. Davis County's 15 incorporated municipalities — Bountiful, Centerville, Clearfield, Clinton, Farmington, Fruit Heights, Kaysville, Layton, North Salt Lake, South Weber, Sunset, Syracuse, West Bountiful, West Point, and Woods Cross — each run their own business-license, building, and zoning regime that stacks on top of the county-wide DCHD health permits but stands outside, not on top of, the county's own CED business-license, beer-license, building-permit, and zoning fees, which apply only in unincorporated Davis County. The 378,470 population figure is the U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program figure for July 1, 2024; the county's own 'Cities' page separately states an older, different-vintage estimate of 342,281, not used here.20 published records
• Salt Lake City, UTSalt Lake City's own general Business License is mandatory and reviews zoning, fire and building-code compliance in one process; it charges a base fee plus an employee fee plus, for several specific trades, a further named-category fee on the Consolidated Fee Schedule. Food service, mobile-food, and salon/cosmetology premises licensing is delegated to the Salt Lake County Health Department (confirmed as the department's current name via its own history page — the city's own Mobile Food Business page still uses 'Salt Lake Valley Health Department,' a name retired in 2013). No fee for a Certificate of Occupancy is published; the Consolidated Fee Schedule's fire section prices no day-care-specific operational permit, and its Business Licensing list names no separate category for veterinary or fitness-studio use beyond the base business license.19 published records
• Washington County, UTWashington County, seat St. George, runs a general business license, home-occupation license, county alcohol business license, building-permit, and zoning/land-use program through its Community Development Department, reaching unincorporated Washington County only. The Southwest Utah Public Health Department (SWUPHD), by contrast, is a five-county health district — serving Washington, Iron, Kane, Beaver, and Garfield Counties jointly — and reaches every part of Washington County, incorporated or not. Fifteen incorporated cities and towns sit inside Washington County, each running its own business-license, building, and zoning regime that stands outside the county's own: Apple Valley Town, Enterprise City, Hildale, Hurricane, Ivins, La Verkin, Leeds, New Harmony, Rockville, Santa Clara, Springdale, St. George City, Toquerville, Virgin, and Washington City. The county's own jurisdiction list names a 'New Harmony Area' and a 'Leeds Area' to mean the unincorporated valley around each town, not the incorporated town itself; New Harmony is confirmed incorporated and self-regulating by its own adopted Land Use Ordinance (Ordinance #18, January 2020), which requires a home business to register with the town directly rather than with the county.18 published records
• West Jordan, UTWest Jordan's own general Business License is mandatory (Municipal Code § 4-1B-1) and is priced on a single flat schedule — a $163/year base fee plus $8/year per employee, capped at $2,000, plus a one-time $55 application fee — with no per-industry schedule touching nine of the ten industries covered here (only a Food Truck vendor category is named). Food service, mobile-food, and salon/cosmetology premises licensing is delegated to the Salt Lake County Health Department, though West Jordan's own code (unlike West Valley City's) never names that department, and the city's own business-license checklist still uses the 'Salt Lake Valley Health Department' name retired in 2013. West Jordan runs its own independent Fire Department, confirmed absent from the Unified Fire Authority's own list of member cities. Unlike Salt Lake City and West Valley City, West Jordan's own fee schedule DOES publish a Certificate of Occupancy fee ($290). The Fire Department's own Commercial Bi-Annual Business Inspection fee table contains an internal date contradiction; confirm the current amount and frequency with the Fire Department.16 published records
• Utah County, UTUtah County runs its own single-county health department, the Utah County Health Department (UCHD) — one of seven single-county local health departments among Utah's thirteen local health districts, distinct from the multi-county districts that serve several neighboring counties. Under Utah Code §17-53-216, Utah has no state-wide general business license; a business based in unincorporated Utah County licenses instead with the county, through Utah County Community Development's Business Licensing Division. Utah County's own municipal code has been recodified onto a new decimal-numbered code platform: the former dash-numbered Chapter 11 business-license ordinance is now Title 4.01, and the former Chapter 3 alcohol ordinance is now Title 4.09. Twenty-seven incorporated cities and towns sit inside Utah County — Alpine, American Fork, Bluffdale (partial, shared with Salt Lake County), Cedar Fort, Cedar Hills, Draper (partial, shared with Salt Lake County), Eagle Mountain, Elk Ridge, Fairfield, Genola, Goshen, Highland, Lehi, Lindon, Mapleton, Orem, Payson, Pleasant Grove, Provo, Salem, Santaquin (partial, shared with Juab County), Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork, Spring Lake, Springville, Vineyard and Woodland Hills. The county's own Business Licensing page states that Utah County can only license businesses whose base location sits outside every city's boundaries, so each of these twenty-seven runs its own business-license, building and zoning regime that stacks on top of the county's. Spring Lake is the newest: it incorporated as a town on or about December 18, 2025, following a November 5, 2024 ballot measure, Utah County's own Proposition 9.13 published records
• West Valley City, UTWest Valley City's own general Business License is mandatory (Municipal Code § 17-1-102) and charges a single flat base fee of $110/year plus $10/year per employee for essentially every business — unlike Salt Lake City or Birmingham, it has no per-industry schedule touching any of the ten industries this site tracks. Food service, mobile-food, and salon/cosmetology premises licensing is delegated to the Salt Lake County Health Department, which the city's own code defines by name in its definitions section. West Valley City runs its own Fire Department (not the Unified Fire Authority). Food trucks face a citywide cap of fifteen Food Vending Unit licenses with a fixed April 1–May 1 application window. The city's Consolidated Fee Schedule publishes no fee for a Certificate of Occupancy.13 published records

Is there a single Utah business license?

Who issues permits in Utah?

• Utah Division of Professional LicensingCosmetology and barbering · Contractor licensing · Veterinary licensing6 permits
• Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial CodeEntity formation · Annual renewals4 permits
• Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Regulatory Services DivisionRetail food, grocery and food processing registration3 permits
• Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement DivisionAuto body shop licensing · Motor vehicle dealer licensing2 permits
• Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Licensing and Background ChecksChild care licensing1 permit
• Utah State Tax CommissionSales and use tax licensing1 permit

By industry

• All 10 industries we cover