Licenses and permits in Kansas

The Secretary of State filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and on the city and county. Start with the trade, then the local building office, then any state board that regulates that work.

What’s different in Kansas

• No single statewide business license. Sole proprietors do not register with the Secretary of State¹. An LLC or corporation filing is the company record, not an operating permit.
• Roofing is a state registration, with a lower fee early in the year. Some general contractors are exempt. Other construction permits are local.
• Some homemade food can be sold at farmers’ markets and similar locations, and online, without a food establishment license. Home-canned food is mostly outside that exemption.
• Alcohol prices are a table. The license fee, a modernization fee, and a new-application fee are separate columns.

Do this

1. Ask the city and the county where you will work. Kansas does not issue one state license that covers every business. A home office, a storefront, a sign, and a food operation can each have a local rule. The roofing consumer page says to contact the local building inspection department, for permits and inspections⁷. Start there for construction, and with the city clerk for a general occupation permit.
2. If the work is a licensed trade, go to that board before you open. A professional license is separate from the company filing. Register your business has the name rules. This guide does not list every board’s fee.* Use the board that regulates your work.
3. Get a roofing registration if you will roof for a fee. The Attorney General requires a roofing contractor registration certificate from the Attorney General before doing commercial or residential roofing for a fee². The fee schedule lists $250 for the initial certificate and $125 for early applications. However, the Attorney General’s application instructions say the initial application must be both submitted and approved between January 1 and April 30¹². The shorter fee schedule says only “submitted.”* Do not assume submitting before April 30 guarantees the discounted price; confirm with the Roofing Registration Unit. Renewal is $250, due by June 30 under the statute. A certificate not renewed by then is not in good standing. The statute allows 30 days after June 30 to renew without a late fee, and a certificate not renewed before July 31⁵ is revoked. The fee schedule lists a late renewal fee of $250³, but neither source says when it would be charged, given that grace period and the revocation date.* Confirm the amount directly with the Attorney General before paying. The Attorney General’s consumer page says to renew on or before July 1⁷. Some general contractors who meet the 2015 criteria do not have to register⁴. The Attorney General can ask a general contractor for proof of that exemption. A violation can be a civil penalty of up to $10,000⁶. The fee schedule also lists higher amounts for a suspended or revoked certificate. Read the row that matches your status.
4. Selling homemade food? Read the farmers’ market and similar locations page. The exemption is food that does not need temperature control or specialized processing, sold directly to the consumer at farmers' markets and similar locations, without a food establishment license. The page names craft fairs, bazaars, and fairs as similar locations. It does not say whether a sale from your home counts.* Ask the Department of Agriculture before you sell from home. Examples of foods on the page include baked goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, and honey. Internet sales and shipping are allowed under that exemption, subject to the other state's rules. Except for exempt food sold directly to the consumer, food made for the public or for wholesale has to come from a licensed facility separate from your personal kitchen⁹. That rule is on the department’s food safety questions page. Home-canned food needs a license, except traditional jams and jellies. You have to keep physical control of the food until the consumer takes it⁸. The page’s example of a prohibited handoff is leaving product at a booth for someone else to sell. A restaurant that serves meals on site is not this exemption. Foods that need refrigeration, and meat, poultry, and fish, are outside it. Ask the Department of Agriculture before you sell those.
5. Selling alcohol? Use the ABC price table. The drinking establishment license fee is $2,000. The retailer license fee is $500, and the table says one retailer license per person. A new application also shows $20 in the modernization column and $30 in the new-application column. At renewal, the application fee is $10¹⁰. Read the row for the license you want, and add the columns that apply. The table has many other rows, including manufacturers and temporary permits.
6. Coming from outside Kansas to do construction? A contractor from outside Kansas registers each Kansas contract over $10,000 with the Director of Taxation, unless it is a foreign corporation authorized to do business in Kansas¹¹. The sales tax publication has the section on the act. Read it before you start the job.
7. Selling taxable goods or taxable services? Register with the Department of Revenue: Get your tax IDs. That account is not a city business license.

What you get back

A city or county permit where one is required, a roofing certificate if you roof for a fee, a food-establishment license if your food is outside the farmers’ market exemption, and an ABC license if you sell alcohol. Each one renews on its own date. The roofing renewal date is not the city permit’s or the alcohol license’s.