Licenses and permits in Tennessee

The Secretary of State filing is not a license to do the work. Tennessee’s ordinary business license is tied to business tax and comes from the county clerk, and from the city when the city has adopted the tax. Regulated work has its own board.

What’s different in Tennessee

• The business license is local, and the tax return is state. The Department of Revenue registers you. The clerk issues the paper you post.
• The license you need depends on gross sales at the location. At $3,000 or less, the manual says you do not have to get one. Between that and $100,000, it is a minimal activity license. At $100,000² or more, it is a standard license, and you file a return.
• Contractors are licensed before they bid, at $25,000⁴ or more. A separate home-improvement license covers residential remodeling from $3,000 to $24,999⁶ in the counties that adopted it.
• A home kitchen can be outside the permit system if the food fits the Food Freedom Act. The agriculture department will not tell you whether your product fits.

Do this

1. Register for business tax if the sales line applies, then pay the clerk. Start with the registration page. The June 2026 manual is the page that prints the dollar lines. Gross sales of $3,000 or less: you do not have to obtain a license. You may still get a minimal activity license. More than $3,000 and less than $100,000: a minimal activity license is required, and each application is $15 to the county and again to the city if the city taxes. $100,000 or more: a standard license, $15². You may not operate until the required license is obtained and posted. Registration with the department can take up to 10 business days¹. The department does not issue the license.
2. Ask both the county and the city if you are inside a city. Business tax is two separate taxes: the state business tax and the city business tax³. A city that has enacted the tax issues its own license too. The overview says a location missing from the department’s map can still be inside a city’s tax. Confirm with the clerk before you treat a map gap as an exemption.
3. Renew a standard license by filing the return. A standard license lasts one year, and it expires 30 days after the return due date. A standard license renews at no additional cost when you file the return and pay the business tax². The manual’s “no additional cost” sentence is about that standard license. It does not say the next year’s minimal activity license is free.* Ask the clerk what the next minimal activity license costs. If you close, file a final business-tax return within 15³ days. A minimal activity business that does not file returns tells the clerk or the department that it closed.
4. Get a contractor license before you price a job at the dollar line. The contractor page says a license is required before contracting, bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price, at $25,000 or more, for a prime contractor, a construction manager, or a consultant. Subcontractors who contract with a contractor need one for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, HVAC, or roofing work when their portion of the project is at that line, counting materials, equipment, and labor. Masonry is $100,000⁴ or more. The fee table lists the contractor application at $250 and renewal at $200. A late renewal adds 20 dollars a month, for up to 12 months⁵. Fees on that table are not refundable.
5. A smaller repair or remodel may be the home-improvement license instead. The home-improvement page says that license is required for residential remodeling projects from $3,000 to $24,999, only in the counties that adopted the law: Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford, and Shelby⁶. The same fee table lists it at $250 to start and $200⁵ to renew.
6. Selling food from home? Read the Food Freedom Act page. Homemade food that follows the act is exempt from state licensing, permitting, inspection, packaging, and labeling laws, except when the Department of Health is investigating a reported illness. As of July 1, 2025, the act also allows some time- and temperature-controlled foods. The Department of Agriculture does not issue a permit or inspect a kitchen under this law. The department will not say whether your product qualifies, and it tells you to read the statute or ask a legal professional⁷. A restaurant that serves meals on site is not this exemption.
7. Selling taxable goods? Register with the Department of Revenue: Get your tax IDs. Sales tax is not this license. A regulated profession is also separate from the company filing. Register your business has the extra approval a banking or insurance name needs.

What you get back

A county license, and a city license if the city taxes, when the sales at that location require one. A contractor or home-improvement license if the job requires it. A homemade-food business that fits the act does not get a state kitchen permit. Each license renews on its own rule. The standard business license follows the business-tax return. The contractor license follows the board’s renewal date.