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

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 15 records listed for a restaurant in Tacoma, WA, 10 apply to every business of this type and 5 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 10 that always apply, 3 carry a flat fee, coming to $70.00. That is a floor, not a total. 8 of the 15 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 1 has no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

City Business & Occupation (B&O) Tax: No tax owed if companywide gross income is under $250,000/year (a separate $20,000 in-Tacoma-activity threshold applies to outside businesses). A partial credit applies from $250,001 to $300,000, sliding from 90% down to 25%. Rates by classification: Manufacturing 0.11%, Wholesale 0.102%, Retailing (including construction contractors) 0.153%, Service & Other 0.40%.

Certificate of Occupancy: $450 for a new Certificate of Occupancy not associated with a current building permit. A Temporary Certificate of Occupancy is $450; extending one is $230; re-issuing an expired one is $450.

Sign Permit: Billed on the same valuation-based table as a building permit (Table 8-1) — $55 for $1–$500, scaling up per that schedule. Plan review is 65% of the permit fee, matching commercial buildings.

City Business Licence: Tiered by companywide gross income: $37 under $12,000; $190 for $12,000–$250,000; $435 for $250,001–$1,000,000; $1,500 for $1,000,000–$5,000,000; $2,000 above $5,000,000.

Food Establishment Permit: Annual, effective January 1, 2026: 0–25 seats $1,080; 26–74 seats $1,200; 75+ seats $1,500; buffet with 125+ seats $2,400; bakery $540; low-risk (incl. tasting room, tavern without food) $660; grocery 1–2 checkstands $480, 3+ checkstands $660; mobile food unit $240 (low risk) or $900 (high risk); vending $120.

Commercial Building Permit: Valuation-based (Table 8-1): $55 for $1–$500; $170 + $32 per $1,000 over $2,000, to $25,000; $2,240 + $13 per $1,000 over $100,000, to $500,000; $7,420 + $11 per $1,000 over $500,000, to $1,000,000; $12,600 + $8.50 per $1,000 above $1,000,000. Plan review is 65% of the permit fee ($56 minimum). A tenant improvement inside a shell building is billed at 50% of the ICC Building Valuation per square foot. A commercial demolition permit is a flat $310.

Fire Protection System Permits: Fire alarm installation, up to 50 devices: $310 (scaling to $1,820 for 400–600 devices, plus $3.50/device beyond that). Range hood: $470. Fire sprinkler system (riser): $940 plus $47 per riser over 2, or (heads) $940 plus $5.50 per head over 20. Standpipe: $470. Fire pump: $760.

Food Establishment Permit: $240–$1,386 a year, set by the local health jurisdiction — there is no state fee

Permits for a restaurant in Tacoma, WA come from 7 separate offices: City of Tacoma Finance Department, Tax & License Division, City of Tacoma Planning and Development Services, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Tacoma Fire Department, Fire Prevention Division, Washington State Department of Revenue, Business Licensing Service, Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division, Washington State Department of Health, Food Safety Program. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Tacoma Finance Department, Tax & License DivisionIssues 2 permits on this page: City Business & Occupation (B&O) Tax, City Business Licence747 Market Street, Room 212, Tacoma, WA 98402 · (253) 591-5252tacoma.gov/government/departments/finance/taxes-and-licenses
• City of Tacoma Planning and Development ServicesIssues 3 permits on this page: Certificate of Occupancy, Sign Permit, Commercial Building Permit(253) 591-5030www.tacomapermits.org
• Tacoma-Pierce County Health DepartmentIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Establishment Permit, Food Worker Card3629 South D Street, MS 1059, Tacoma, WA 98418 · (253) 649-1703tpchd.org
• Tacoma Fire Department, Fire Prevention DivisionIssues 1 permit on this page: Fire Protection System Permits3471 South 35th Street, Tacoma, WA 98409 · (253) 591-5740tacoma.gov/government/departments/fire/code-inspections-permits
• 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 Health, Food Safety ProgramIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Establishment Permit, Food Worker Card(360) 236-4700doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/food

A Jobs Tax Credit of up to $1,500/year per new full-time position is available for up to 5 years per hire.

The fee schedule has no separate line item for a Certificate of Occupancy tied to a current building permit, suggesting — though this was not explicitly confirmed — that it may be bundled into the permit fee in that case.

A sign requiring SEPA environmental review adds a $2,590 fee; one inside shoreline jurisdiction requiring a waiver adds $3,290.

A separate, older undated PDF shows lower, likely-superseded figures ($25/$110/$250); the current dated tacoma.gov page is used here instead. Separate from the Washington state Business License Service fee already covered at the state layer.

Tacoma itself runs no food permitting program — TPCHD, a joint city-county department, is the sole authority. Plan review is billed separately: $1,140 for a new establishment, $960 for a change in menu/equipment/process/remodel, $600 for a commissary kitchen.

A statewide Washington requirement, not Tacoma-specific, confirmed directly against TPCHD's own current page. Separately, TPCHD requires most food establishments to have at least one employee holding a Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) certificate (effective March 1, 2023) — TPCHD's own in-person course costs $180 and the certificate is valid 5 years; other accredited providers may price it differently.

Valuation for new construction comes from ICC's Building Valuation Data; for remodels/tenant improvements it is total actual construction cost, including finish, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and fire-system work.

A blanket recurring/annual commercial fire-inspection fee also appears to exist (the department's live fee page references an 'Annual Fire & Safety Inspection' program with a noncompliance fee around $122), but two sources gave inconsistent current dollar figures with signs of a PDF-extraction artifact, so no single figure is asserted for that recurring line item here — confirm directly with Fire Prevention at (253) 591-5740.

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.

The state writes the retail food code and prices nothing — the whole chapter contains no dollar figure anywhere. The local board of health, acting through the local health officer, is the regulatory authority, and each of the thirty-five local health jurisdictions sets its own schedule capped at actual cost. They do not even band the same way: King County crosses establishment type with seat count and a three-level risk category, from $441 to $1,386; Spokane bands by complexity, $290 basic, $380 limited and $850 complex; Pierce County bands by seats from $1,080 up to $2,400 for a large buffet. King County's permit year runs from 1 April and prorates by quarter. Plan review is separately and substantially charged — a thousand dollars and upward in King County. A single Washington restaurant permit fee does not exist and any figure offered as one is invented.

Ten dollars, and unusually the card is issued locally but valid across the whole state — the exam is uniform and any legally issued card works everywhere in Washington. The term rewards staying current: two years for a first card, three on renewal, and five if you document additional food safety training within the previous two years. One warning worth repeating because the state itself repeats it: there is exactly one authorised online provider, foodworkercard.wa.gov, and other sites offering a similar card are not valid in Washington. You may renew up to sixty days early. This is a separate thing from the certified food protection manager requirement in the food code.