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

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 12 records listed for a contractor or trade in Spokane, WA, 6 apply to every business of this type and 6 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 6 that always apply, 2 carry a flat fee, coming to $200.20. That is a floor, not a total. 3 of the 12 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:

Business Registration: $131 base to originate (or renew at the standard rate), plus a per-employee fee: $10 each for employees 1–5, $15 each for 6–10, $20 each for 11+. A reduced $65.50 renewal rate applies if gross income is $18,000/year or less. Nonprofits, social purpose corporations and B-corps pay $65.50. A temporary registration is $65.50 for the first 90 days, $55.50 to renew for another 90. An additional branch location is $131 each.

Commercial Building Permit: Valuation-based, effective January 1, 2026: $73 up to $2,000; $73 + $13/$1,000 over $2,000 to $25,000; $372 + $10/$1,000 over $25,000 to $50,000; $622 + $7/$1,000 over $50,000 to $100,000; $972 + $5/$1,000 over $100,000 to $500,000; $2,972 + $4/$1,000 over $500,000 to $1,000,000; $4,972 + $3/$1,000 above $1,000,000. Plan review is 65% of the building permit fee for commercial work (125% for Fast Track). A $65 processing fee, a 2.5% technology fee, a small state-set Building Code Fee, and a $119 Development Services Review Fee also apply.

Certificate of Occupancy: Change of Occupancy with no work required: $93.20. Temporary Certificate issuance: $518.00 (capped at 100% of the building permit fee); extending one: $259.00 (same cap). A standard Certificate of Occupancy for newly-completed permitted work is issued at final inspection with no separate line-item fee beyond the building permit already paid.

Permits for a contractor or trade in Spokane, WA come from 5 separate offices: City of Spokane, Taxes and Licenses, City of Spokane Development Services Center, Washington State Department of Revenue, Business Licensing Service, Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division, Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Spokane, Taxes and LicensesIssues 1 permit on this page: Business Registration(509) 625-6070my.spokanecity.org/business/doing-business/licenses
• City of Spokane Development Services CenterIssues 3 permits on this page: Commercial Building Permit, Contractor Registration (State — no Spokane-specific layer confirmed), Certificate of Occupancy(509) 625-6300my.spokanecity.org/business/commercial
• Washington State Department of Revenue, Business Licensing ServiceIssues 2 permits on this page: Washington State Business Licence, Reseller PermitPO Box 9034, Olympia, WA 98507-9034 · (360) 705-6705dor.wa.gov/open-business/apply-business-license
• Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities DivisionIssues 3 permits on this page: Certificate of Formation (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Annual ReportPO Box 40234, Olympia, WA 98504-0234 · (360) 725-0377www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/business-entities
• Washington State Department of Labor and IndustriesIssues 3 permits on this page: Contractor Registration, Electrical Contractor Licence, Plumbing Contractor LicencePO Box 44450, Olympia, WA 98504-4450 · (800) 647-0982lni.wa.gov/licensing-permits/contractors

Processed as a city endorsement through Washington's statewide Business Licensing Service, but this is a genuine city fee, not the separate state Business License Service fee already covered at the state layer. Unlike Seattle and Tacoma, Spokane does not levy a gross-receipts business-and-occupation tax — its fee is flat-plus-headcount. Several SEO sites mislabel this a 'B&O tax'; that terminology is not used here.

Permits can only be issued to a sufficiently licensed contractor (or, in some cases, the property owner) under RCW 18.27.090(12).

The city's own commercial permit application packet cites only the state contractor law (RCW 18.27.090(12)) as the licensing basis for issuing a permit — there is no separate fee, since no dedicated city contractor registration or bond exists beyond the state L&I registration and the standard city business registration.

The city's own Temporary Certificate of Occupancy application form still states a flat $250 fee — that form appears stale relative to this codified, effective-dated 2026 schedule, which is used here as the current figure. Requires sign-off from the Fire Prevention Bureau, Water, Wastewater, SRHD (where applicable), Solid Waste, and Urban Forestry.

This is a real statewide business licence, which almost no other state has, and the $50 is only the handling fee — each endorsement carries its own charge on top, though state tax registration itself is free and a trade name is $5. Adding a location or a partner city's non-resident endorsement costs nothing; anything else is $10; renewal is $5 a year with a late penalty of half the endorsement fee up to $150. The statute allows up to $90 to open, so do not publish the cap as the price. The important limit is geographic: 223 cities have partnered with the department so their licence can be bought on the same form, but Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, Kent and Renton have not, and a business in those cities files separately — Seattle's own certificate runs from $73 to $3,210 by revenue band. Spokane and Vancouver are partners. Registration is required if you use a trading name, hire within ninety days, collect sales tax, need any endorsement, or gross $12,000 a year or more. Form the entity with the Secretary of State first.

$180 by post and $200 online, because Washington charges a $20 surcharge for filing online rather than a discount — the reverse of most states, and easy to miss since the fee tables print only the $180. Annual reports are expressly exempt from that surcharge. A corporation costs exactly the same $180; a nonprofit is $80, or $40 if it grosses under half a million. Expediting adds $100 for three days or $150 for same day. Name reservation is $30 for a hundred and eighty days and cannot be done online at all.

The rule treats an LLC's certificate of formation and a corporation's articles as the same thing — the public organic record — and prices both at $180, with no share-based component. So Washington gives no filing-cost reason to prefer one structure over the other, at formation or afterwards, since the annual report is $70 either way. There is also an initial report due within a hundred and twenty days of formation, free if filed with the formation document and $10 if left until later.

$70 for an LLC and $70 for a corporation, with no online surcharge — annual reports are one of the few filings the $20 charge does not touch. The due date is the last day of the entity's own formation month rather than a common calendar date, and filing up to a hundred and eighty days early does not move it. Late costs $25, taking it to $95, and reinstatement after administrative dissolution is $140 plus every missed year. The Secretary of State sends a courtesy notice sixty days out but the statute is explicit that failing to send it does not excuse the filing. A nonprofit pays $10.

No fee — the department answers the question in one word. The permit is generally good for four years but only two if you are a contractor, have been open under twelve months, have reported no gross income in the last twelve months, were on non-reporting status when you applied, or have missed a return in the last year. Many renew automatically; where they will not you get about ninety days' notice. It does not transfer when a business is sold, and a seller must keep a copy or an electronic verification for five years. Separately, Washington's main business tax is the business and occupation tax on gross receipts, which has no registration fee of its own and is banded for services — 1.5 per cent under a million dollars of prior-year revenue, 1.75 to five million and 2.1 above, against 0.471 per cent retailing and 0.484 per cent manufacturing and wholesaling.

Washington registers contractors rather than licensing them, and there is no competency exam for either a general or a specialty registration — the gate is money. A $30,000 bond for a general contractor or $15,000 for a specialty one, both doubled on 1 July 2024 from $12,000 and $6,000, so older figures are wrong; plus $200,000 of public liability and $50,000 property damage cover, or $250,000 combined. Judgments involving single-family dwellings in the past five years push the bond up to $90,000. A general contractor may hire subcontractors across trades while a specialty contractor may work only in its own registered specialty and may not subcontract at all. Working unregistered is a gross misdemeanour. Registration is not one of the endorsements the statewide business licence carries.

One price covers a general electrical contractor and every specialty — the rule does not distinguish them, and holding several specialties needs only one fee and one bond. Completing the renewal fully online saves $47.70. A $4,000 bond is required, along with $20,000 property, $50,000 single-injury and $100,000 multiple-injury cover, and the business must designate a certified master electrician or administrator whose own credential is separately priced. The current schedule took effect on 1 July 2026 and these fees are revised on an annual July cycle, so check the date on anything you read.

This is the single most out-of-date thing in circulation about Washington contracting. Since 1 July 2021 plumbing contractors have held a standalone licence and are expressly exempt from the general contractor registration chapter — so material describing Washington plumbers as specialty contractors is publishing pre-2021 law. The bond is $6,000 and the insurance limits are $50,000 property, $100,000 for one person and $200,000 for more, all higher than the electrical contractor's. Individual journey level, residential specialty and residential service certificates are $242.70 for three years, and a trainee certificate is $60 a year. As with electrical, the current schedule dates from 1 July 2026.