Licenses and permits in New Hampshire

The Corporation Division filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and on the city or town. Food, alcohol, and a licensed trade are the state pieces most new businesses hit. None of the state pages linked here lists a general license for every business.

What’s different in New Hampshire

• There is no general sales tax license, because there is no general sales tax. Meals, rooms, and vehicle rentals are the exception, on Get your tax IDs.
• General contractors are not required to hold a state license, though certain specialty trades such as electricians and plumbers are regulated⁶.
• Home food can be sold without a license, in narrow places. The moment the sales leave those places, the license is $150¹ a year.
• A restaurant license is a class based on seats, not one statewide price.
• New Hampshire has 15 self-inspecting cities and towns³. If you will make or sell food in one of them, the town can add its own rule.

Do this

1. Separate the company registration from the license. Register your business gets the legal name on file. It does not authorize a restaurant, a bar, or a plumbing business.
2. Ask the city or town where you will work. No state page linked here lists a municipal business-license fee.* The clerk, or the town’s own site, is the list for that place.
3. Selling or serving food? Apply for the relevant food license through the Department of Health and Human Services, which links its online portal from that page, and read the class list in the food section. A food service establishment or retail food store needs a food service license unless an exemption applies³. If the place operates more than one type of business, the higher class sets the license, and Class A is the highest¹.
4. Selling food from home? Read the Department’s homestead guidance before you assume the kitchen is either free or forbidden. Non-exempt operations can apply for a Class H license from the same Department page.
5. Selling alcohol? The fee is a row in RSA 178:29. Apply through the Division of Enforcement and Licensing. The statute’s restaurant row is below. Other licenses are other rows.
6. Doing work that is a licensed trade? General contractors are not required to hold a state license, though certain specialty trades such as electricians and plumbers are regulated⁶. Plumbers and fuel gas fitters are under the mechanical board. The board page is the application. This guide does not print each trade’s fee.*

Food

Annual fees in He-P 2300:

• $875 for Class A: a food service establishment with 200 or more indoor seats, a retail food store with 4 or more food preparation areas, or a plant that processes 100,000 packages or more a year¹.
• $450 for Class B: a food service establishment with 100 to 199 indoor seats, or a retail food store with 2 or 3 food preparation areas¹.
• $350 for Class C: a food service establishment with 25 to 99 indoor seats, among other categories in that class¹. The class also includes off-site caterers and bars with a food preparation area.
• $225 for Class D: a food service establishment with 0 to 24 indoor seats, among other categories in that class¹.

If the place operates more than one type of business, the higher class sets the license, and Class A is the highest. A plan review is $75. Fees are not refundable and do not transfer. The establishment stops operating the day after the license expires if the renewal is not in, and a license expired more than 90 days¹ requires a new application. New Hampshire has 15 self-inspecting cities and towns³, with the list linked from the homestead food page. If you will manufacture or sell in one of them, check that city or town for anything it adds.

Food from home

No homestead license when the only sales of non-potentially-hazardous food are from the home, the owner's farm stand, farmers' markets, or retail food stores¹. The rules also limit what that kitchen may make. Baked items, double-crusted fruit pies, and candy and fudge are on the allowed list. Potentially hazardous food is not. The Department’s homestead page says an exempt operator cannot make potentially hazardous food, and it gives cheesecake, pumpkin pie, custard, soup, and sandwiches as examples.

Leaving those sale locations is a different license. Class H is the non-exempt homestead food operation, at $150¹ a year. That is the license for sales to restaurants, over the internet, by mail, or to a wholesaler, still limited to food that is not potentially hazardous.

Alcohol

On-premises restaurant fees in the statute are $480, $840, and $1,200⁴. The table’s columns for those three amounts are beverages and wine, beverages and liquor, and a cocktail lounge. A bed and breakfast row does not include the third amount. An airport row is only the lounge amount. Read the row for the license you want. The apply page is where the Division sends the worksheet for that license.

What you get back

A food license in the class that matches the seats and the kind of operation, a homestead exemption or a Class H license if you sell from home, a liquor license if you sell alcohol, and a trade license if the work is regulated. Each one renews on its own date. The company registration at the Corporation Division is not one of them.