Licenses and permits in Virginia

The State Corporation Commission filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and the city or county. Start with Business One Stop, then the local commissioner of the revenue, then the agency that regulates your kind of work.

What’s different in Virginia

• No single statewide business license. BPOL is a local option tax on the privilege of doing business in a locality.
• Contractors are licensed as businesses, by the Board for Contractors at the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, and the locality can add its own license.
• Some home food needs no inspection. The exemption is narrow. It does not cover sales to stores, restaurants, or over the internet.
• Alcohol licenses come from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. The license type depends on what you sell and where.

Do this

1. Start at Business One Stop. The state small-business department says to begin there for registration, licensing and permits. Then ask the city or county.
2. Ask about BPOL where you will actually work. It applies only where the locality has adopted an ordinance that requires a license, and only if you have a definite place of business there. A definite place of business is an office or location with a regular and continuous course of dealing for 30 consecutive days or more. Apply before you begin business, if you were not licensed there before. A renewal date is set by the locality: a date the locality sets, on or after March 1 and on or before May 1, under a 2020 Tax Commissioner ruling. The 2000 guidelines still say before March 1 for a business licensed the year before.* The ordinance is the date that applies. The tax, when there is one, is on gross receipts. This page does not estimate it.
3. Get a contractor license if the job size requires one. The Board for Contractors issues it to the business, not the individual. Class A: a single contract of $150,000 or more, or 1 million dollars or more in any twelve-month period. Class B: 30,000 dollars or more, and under 150,000 dollars, on a single contract, or 250,000 dollars or more, and under 1 million dollars, in any twelve-month period. Class C: over 1,000 dollars and under 30,000 dollars on a single contract, or no more than $250,000 in twelve months. Landscape irrigation and water-well work need a license at any dollar amount. The city, town or county can require its own license on top of the state license. The introduction booklet does not print the application fee.* Check it on the application.
4. Selling food from home? Read the VDACS home kitchen fact sheet. Certain low-risk foods, acidified vegetables and honey may be made in a private home without a VDACS inspection. You may sell from that home, at a farmers market, or at a temporary event of no more than 14 consecutive days, to a person for their own use. You may not sell to other businesses, for resale, on the internet, or across state lines. On the internet, you may advertise online, and you may not take orders or payment for shipping on the internet. On the fee, the annual inspection fee does not apply to the exemption. A food business that is inspected pays $40 a year. The fact sheet does not name a separate license for a restaurant that serves meals on site.* Check with your local health department before you open one.
5. Selling alcohol? The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority grants a license to manufacture, distribute, sell or serve alcoholic beverages. The licenses page sorts them into banquet, retail, industry, alcohol permits and tobacco permits. It does not print one fee that covers every license.* Use the license that matches what you will sell, and check that fee before you pay.
6. A licensed profession is a separate step from the company filing. The State Corporation Commission lists the services that can use a professional LLC. That list is not the license. Register your business has the services. The license comes from the board for that profession. We did not read a single directory of every board.* Start with Business One Stop, then the board that regulates your work.
7. Selling taxable goods? Register with Virginia Tax: Get your tax IDs.

What you get back

A local license where the ordinance requires one, a state contractor or professional license if the work needs it, a food exemption or an inspection, and an alcohol license if you sell alcohol. Each one has its own renewal. Write the date down. For BPOL, confirm it with the commissioner of the revenue, because the state guidelines and a later ruling do not name the same renewal day.