Licenses and permits in New Mexico

The Secretary of State filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and the city or county. The Taxation and Revenue Department’s checklist for a new business tells you to ask the city treasurer's office, for a city business license, and the county clerk, for a county business license, and the county assessor for business personal property tax¹.

What’s different in New Mexico

• No single license covers every business. The checklist separates city licenses, county licenses, and the state offices that regulate a trade.
• Food permits stop at Bernalillo County and Albuquerque. The Environment Department says those jurisdictions run their own programs.
• Some food made at home is outside the department’s permit. The Homemade Food Act FAQ describes that line, and it is narrower than “any food from a home kitchen.”
• A contractor license is a state license, and it requires workers’ compensation coverage. The classification fee is not printed on the application page.

Do this

1. Ask the city and the county where you will actually work. The new-business publication lists the city treasurer's office, for a city business license and the county clerk, for a county business license, and the county assessor for business personal property tax¹. It tells you to use the phone directory for the local office. It does not print a fee for those licenses.* Ask the clerk of the city or county where the business sits, and keep that office’s fee with the permit.
2. Selling food? Start at the Environment Department food program. It does not cover Bernalillo County and Albuquerque, which run their own food safety programs². The amended food rule sets a permit at $200 for a food establishment, a mobile food establishment, a servicing area, or a food processing plant. A temporary establishment is $25 for each event. Apply at least 30 calendar days before the planned opening. The permit expires on the last day of the anniversary month of the original issue, for a food establishment. A temporary permit ends on the last day of the event. A fee is waived when the food is free to the consumer, and for a temporary stand that serves only non-time-and-temperature-control food or operates no more than two days in a calendar month⁴.
3. Check the late and re-inspection fees before you pay one. The Environmental Improvement Board adopted the amendment to the food rule on June 8, 2026, effective October 1, 2026³. The late renewal fee is $175. The re-inspection fee is $500⁴. The same amendment adds plan-review fees that depend on the size of the kitchen. Those amounts are in the rule. This page does not add them into the permit fee.
4. Inside Albuquerque or Bernalillo County, do not stop at the state application. The department says it has no jurisdiction there. Use the city or county food program for that address.
5. Selling homemade food directly to the person who will eat it? Read the department’s Homemade Food Act FAQ. It allows certain low-risk foods made in a private farm, ranch, or residence and sold directly to the consumer, without an Environment Department permit. You need a food handler card from an approved program, before production starts. The FAQ does not print the price of that card.* The course provider sets it. Sales are not to a restaurant, a wholesaler, a distributor, or outside New Mexico. Those sales need a commercial manufactured-food permit⁵. Time-and-temperature-control foods are outside this exemption. The FAQ says those have to be made in a permitted commercial kitchen.
6. Building or remodeling? Start at the Construction Industries Division. A license goes to a business that employs or is owned by a qualifying party certified for that scope of work. The qualifying-party application is $36, and the signature has to be notarized. After the exams, the company application is a $36 application fee plus the license fees that apply. The page does not list the license fee for each classification.* The page also requires a license bond, a tax registration certificate, and proof of the entity. Workers’ compensation coverage is required for every licensed contractor⁶.
7. A professional license is separate from the company. The Regulation and Licensing Department’s Boards and Commissions Division licenses professions and trades from accountants to funeral directors, each board with its own rules. The board that regulates the work issues the credential. A professional corporation’s name rule is on Register your business.
8. Selling goods or services? Gross receipts registration is not a license to operate, and a license is not a substitute for it. Get your tax IDs.

What you get back

A local license where the city or county requires one, a food permit or a homemade-food answer from the office that actually has jurisdiction, and a contractor license if the work needs one. Each one expires on its own date. The state food permit ends on the last day of the anniversary month of the original issue, for a food establishment. A temporary permit ends on the last day of the event⁴.