Licenses and permits in Connecticut

The Secretary of the State filing creates the company record. It does not license the work. What you need depends on the activity and the town. Start with the license for the work, then the town clerk and zoning, then sales tax if you sell taxable goods.

What’s different in Connecticut

• A trade name is filed with the town clerk, not the Secretary, for $20³, and it expires.
• Home-improvement work on a residence is a Department of Consumer Protection registration, with a list of work that does not need it.
• Cottage food is a home kitchen, sold in person in Connecticut. The products may not be shipped.
• An on-premises liquor application has two charges. $100¹² to submit it, then a permit fee DCP invoices later.
• Building contractors need a sales tax permit even when the service itself is not taxable.

Do this

1. Ask the town where you will work. The state pages linked here do not describe one municipal license that covers every business.* The town clerk and the zoning office are the places that say what that town requires. A business that keeps equipment in town may also have a personal property filing with the assessor. Its deadline is not on the pages linked here.* Ask the assessor.
2. File a trade name if you operate under another name. The state now uses the October 1, 2026 forms. An individual or unregistered group uses Trade Name Application (Persons)²; an active registered company uses the business-organization form. Both cost $20 payable to the town clerk. The application must be hand-signed and notarized by the town clerk or another notary. Individuals file in the town of the trade-name address. For a domestic company, the current state guide says either the town of its trade-name address or the town of its principal place of business¹, but the form says to file in the town of its business address on file with the Secretary³.* Foreign companies should confirm the filing town with the town clerk. A trade name lasts five years from issuance; trade names filed on or after October 1, 2026 may not contain LLC, Inc., Corp., PLLC, or other listed entity designators⁴. Register your business explains those rules.
3. Register as a home improvement contractor if you contract with a consumer for work on a home. The Department of Consumer Protection requires it for anyone contracting with a consumer to do work on residential property. The work includes a permanent change to a home, including driveways, pools, porches, garages, roofs, siding, insulation, flooring, patios, landscaping, painting, fences, doors and windows, waterproofing, and alarm systems that do not need electrical work. It does not include the homeowner's own work, subcontracted work, work a trade license already covers, commercial property, property maintenance, tree and shrub cutting, and building a new home. A contract under $200⁵ is on the excluded list. New home construction is a separate registration. The application page lists a non-refundable fee of $220. Every applicant needs general liability insurance of at least $20,000⁶. A trade that already has its own license is outside this registration. The license for that trade still comes from its own board.
4. Selling food from a home kitchen? Read the cottage foods page. A cottage food operator makes food at home to sell directly to consumers, and the sale has to happen in Connecticut. The food has to be low-risk and made in a home kitchen⁷. The application fee is $50⁸. Gross sales are capped at $50,000⁹ a year. It cannot be sold wholesale or on consignment, or at a grocery store, restaurant, school or care facility¹⁰. You can take orders online, but you deliver the food to the customer yourself, within Connecticut, not by mail or a delivery service¹¹.
5. Selling alcohol? An on-premises permit starts on the Department of Consumer Protection’s application page. You need signatures from the town clerk, the zoning officer, the fire marshal, and the health department. The application fee is $100 and is not refunded. DCP reviews the application, then emails an invoice for a separate permit fee. A provisional permit is optional. DCP takes about 3 weeks for a provisional permit and about 3 months for a final permit, when the application is complete¹². An incomplete application takes longer. Other permit types, such as a grocery beer permit, are separate applications. Use the one that matches what you will sell.
6. Selling taxable goods or taxable services, or doing building work? Register with the Department of Revenue Services: Get your tax IDs. Building contractors, including subcontractors, need a permit before they provide any services, even when the service is not taxable or the customer is tax-exempt¹³.
7. A licensed profession is separate from the company filing. An LLC that renders professional services has membership and name rules on Register your business. The license comes from the board for that profession. The pages linked here do not include a directory of every licensing board.* Start with the Department of Consumer Protection license list, then the board that regulates your work.

What you get back

A trade name on file with the town if you needed one, a home-improvement registration if the work needs it, a cottage food registration or a liquor permit if you sell those, and a sales tax permit if you sell taxable goods. Each one expires or renews on its own. The trade name lasts five years from issuance⁴. Write the other dates down from the approval, because the pages above do not print one renewal day for every license.